Large LED Fresnel lights seem to be the next big thing in lighting. We’ve seen the likes of Lupo and Rayzr producing less expensive LED fresnels that compete with established players like Litepanels and ARRI. Overall the colour quality of these lights continues to improve. But traditional HMI based lights are still considered the best option for many productions and Dedolight were showing their HMI lineup at Photokina recently.
Dedolight have been making larger HMIs for quite a few years now and have continually refined the technology over time. The advantage their HMI fixtures have is a unique zoom focus system with double aspheric elements. This allows the light to focussed much more tightly than a regular fresnel. This in turn means the light can project further. The degree to which you can shape the light is great. You can also add a range of modifiers that include a gobo projector and a wide angle modifier that still maintains the hard nature of the light.
At Photokina I was lucky enough to catch up with Dedolight founder Dedo Weigert who explained the principles behind these lights to me. Of course the advantages these lights bring do not come cheaply and you could buy several LED HMI replacement light for the price of the 1200D Dedo. In addition the running costs can be high too when you factor in power and replacement lamps. Still, it is evident that even though LED Fresnels are convenient, economical and cool running, there are still some things that a more conventional fixture can do better for now.
For more details visit the Dedolight website.
