Camcorder led Light

Hello everyone! New on the Forum! nice forum with lot's of information.
Maybe you can help me.
I recently started into short film making and one of the most useful accessories must be a light.

I came across this expensive new technology video light, made with tons of leds and pros say it's fantastic.
What I am talking about is this:

They don't specify the lummen of it or anything, I thik I read that there are 150 leds. They say it gives a very good light.
So, this will be a complete project, no torch mod.
The light should be quite dense, but if needed I should add a diffuser on the front.
That little thing you see in the picture behind the actual light is the battery..is quite smal, I know is 12v, this also makes part of the project: getting a battery.

Well, I want to build something similar, maybe not so big, so I can have it allways with me.
I need help choosing the leds, wich ones will do the trick?

A couple more photos of what I am talking about:




Thank you!:twothumbs

I think 3-4 Cree Q5s driven between 800-1000 mA on a heatsink would be similar in brightness(depending on what LEDs they use and how hard they are driven, one LED might be enough).

How much runtime do you need?

:welcome:

hhhmmm, a video light would be a good project and really useful

I think that consistancy of light is going to be important, you don't want it dimming on you. Its not going to need that much run time but will need to be easy to turn on and off to save battery.

My initial thoughts are as for gunner12, 3 or 4 cree's mounted on a heat sink with the battery behind that. A cheap and easy to replace battery option would be an RC 7.2 volt NiMH

A suitable driver would be the maxflex, not sure if there is a cheaper option though, I doubt you'd need the funtionallity of it. A simple on off switch would be all thats needed.

Colour and evenness of light are going to be chief concerns. What colour led would be most suitable? Would you need optics/reflectors/diffusers over the LED's or would bare emmiters actually be best?

Hello and thankyou for the fast replies!
Well, I think that 3 crees will make the job of lightning it up, but I need a constant light beam. I mean, won't 3 Crees produce a very narrow beam each one? Maybe I can use a diffuser to make it better no?
Well..runtime should be 30 minutes, I don't know..But I am up for using those 7.2V NiMh 1500mA bats, because I've got some at home

Any experiencies using more than one Crees? I don't think I should use reflectors, just because I want a very WIDE light beam.

thank you

I had a good response then my computer decided to crash.

The Cree XR-E LED by itself has a 90 degree to 50% intensity beam pattern. Much wider then most 5mm LEDs. This review(Zebralight H50 Q5 headlamp) would give you a pretty good idea of what the beam pattern would look like if you don;t use reflectors.


These LED can produce quite a bit f heat. The Q5 produces around 2.7 watts of heat when driven at 1 amp(Vf around 3.7v). So keep the LED on a heatsink.

I'm thinking:

3 Cree Q5 Stars(Or the bare emitters if you want a smaller size, they are a bit harder to solder) on a heatsink
Three of these drivers.
A switch
And the batteries you have.

(Shipping from DX and KD usually takes a month, they are one of the cheapest place to get parts though)

Runtime should be around 40 minutes.

well! very impressed with the power of these little babies...I think this is the light to choose although it maybe is too cold light, but no prob, if that's so, I should use some coloured filter for the right shoot mood

:thumbsup:

Guilhas said:

I mean, won't 3 Crees produce a very narrow beam each one? ... because I want a very WIDE light beam.

Click to expand...

Then why not use them without any optics? They have a 70° wide beam (to half maximum intensity) - very wide, very smooth.

i'd say that camcorders leds are still new and they arent as bright as the incandescent leds

laserblue said:

i'd say that camcorders leds are still new and they arent as bright as the incandescent leds

Click to expand...

:huh2: Sounds like an oxymoron.

i would use more like 8 crees mounted on a heatsink and a option to drive them at different levels, at 350mA they would give 700+ lumen, quite a lot, and at 1000mA they give the enormus 1800 lumens, more than enough for most situations.

All driven by a CCHIPO from Taskled.com
http://taskled.com/cchipo.html

Use a battery pack made of 4 or 5 Li-Ion or Li-Poly Cells and you have a lot of power for quite a time depending on wich capacity (size) you choose.

3 Bare CREE Q5's or Star on a heatsink, this regulator and four RCR123's..mebby?