Manfrotto LED lighting

[calsan]

Manfrotto LED Lighting

Manfrotto delivers a complete range of continuous and hybrid solutions fitting the photo and HD video features that are now available in one single camera, capitalizing on LED technology. A pure revolution for Manfrotto lighting: after 40 years of providing supports, for the first time Manfrotto delivers LED Lights, designed and built for ease of operation and portability.

[Ron Kruger]

Tell me more, Cal.

[calsan]

Straight from manfrotto's website:

Hybrid LED Lights have been designed for both video and still photography. They are available in three LED units: Midi Hybrid, Midi Plus and Maxima. Hybrid LED Lights are a really great lighting option for either the videographer or photographer on the move. The fl ash function delivers an extra burst of light at 4x the continuous output at 1/1000 of a second. The effect is a high quality beautiful light, perfect for portraits, close-up shots and more general photography in low lit conditions.

So, they're intended for both video and still work.  It seems it's like having a white balanced torch attached to your camera - the advantage over a flash being that as the light is on when composing the shot, you can see how the photo will look through the viewfinder.
They can be dimmed via a dial on the side and come with 2 gels & 1 diffuser.

There's a video showing examples of their use here:
http://vimeo.com/manfrottomedia/ledlighting

[cnh]

May I know what is the price and can I order online?

[calsan]

http://www.adorama.com/Se...?searchinfo=manfrotto+led
http://www.bhphotovideo.c...N=0&InitialSearch=yes

Adorama and BH have them listed.

[Ron Kruger]

I would love to see some reviews of people actually using these lights. I've used a strong LED flashlight to fill in night scenes and had some serious WB problems. Intended to do more tests, but haven't gotten around to it. I don't mean to imply they won't work; more that I haven't figured out the best settings to use with them yet.

[Ron Kruger]

Before investing in LED, check this out: http://therefractedlight....-lighting-technology.html

[Pacerr]

There's quite a bit of information about LED and CFL technology associated with room and reading lamp lighting also. I've seen articles covering the ongoing development of materials to fill those spectral gaps and advances are being made although slowly. The economic benefits are such that progress will undoubtedly be made in time.

I've found that LED panel lights at low-intensity are useable for fill and modeling lights for close-ups in bright daylight where the LEDs are intended to help pull up shadow detail; more so with images planned for B&W. Even colors are generally OK if there's no flesh tones or other esthetic color markers to compare with.

LEDs are also wonderfully convenient when pictures are used as visual recordings for technical material and color purity is of little or no importance.
There was once a time when I'd have given my left chlorosphoric prognostication for four of those palm-sized, 5-ounce, 27-LED lamps you can buy for $3 each at Harbor Freight today. Well, that an' Tri-X pushed to ASA 1600 anyway.