Sunday, June 3, 2012

Cinegear 2012.




Cinegear was this weekend, and for those of you who don't know, the expo is the place to be if you want to check out what's new in the grip, electric and camera departments. A crap load of companies are there showing off their latest toys, plus it's a good place to run into old friends and score a free t-shirt or two.

While I don't really know what's new in the grip and camera world, the big thing in lighting is officially LEDs. They were everywhere. Practically every lighting company had them. And while I can sit here all day bitching/praising about each individual company and their product line, one running theme among all the companies is that LEDs consume less power and run cooler to the touch.*

That said, my favorite part of the expo was when my friends and I were checking out the new LED Source 4s from ETC. One of their reps came over and chatted with us for a few minutes about them, and gave us the rundown on the specs of their new light. At one point, he demonstrated how much "cooler" the new model ran versus their more traditional one by putting his hand on it. "With our new light, I can grab it anywhere and easily make adjustments to it. I can't do that with our old model without a pair of thick gloves on. That means we no longer have to burn ourselves every time we use one."

That was the moment when we all looked down at our own arms in unison, and realized each and every one of us had scar from a Source 4 burn in one form or another.

Ah... The marks of camaraderie among strangers.




* Although, I do have to say that part is somewhat debatable. Most of the lights I saw heavily rely on a heat sink and/or a fan to keep cool.

4 comments :

Anonymous said...

I think it will be hard to trust a technician with out a half logo brand on their forearm.

http://www.ac-et.com/images/manufacturer/mole_richardson.jpg

Michael Taylor said...

That LED Source Four was the only reason I wanted to go to Cinegear -- but wasn't quite enough to actually get me there. I'm wondering how it stacked up against the normal 750 wattSource 4 in terms of brightness? The rumors I've heard say it's equal to a 575 watt, but not a 750.

Having seen the thing, what did you think?

A.J. said...

Anonymous - :)

Michael - According to ETC's own spec sheets, you're right. At their booth at Cinegear, they had their new models burning as well as a "traditional" one for comparison, and they looked practically identical in terms of color temperature and intensity, but they had used a 575 bulb instead of a 750. Plus, I think the new LED version may have been a tad heavier. However, I thought it was kind of cool that with the LED version, you could insert a picture slide instead of a gobo and project that onto a wall.
Despite it lacking in the brightness department, I have no doubt that it will catch up to it's predecessor sometime in the near future.

Michael Taylor said...

AJ --

Sounds good. Most of the time we end up dimming those 750's down thirty to forty percent on my shows, so a 575 will probably work just fine.

Thanks.

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