Lee Filter - new gel for LED sources

[paulears]

Link to the Lee site

Very useful range of LED gels to give the common colours from LED sources - it's very obvious when you see them compared in the same light - 126 for example, the LED 126 is what 'looks' like a red gel, that produces the expected mauve!

[boac]

Very interesting, and a smart move from Lee. Thanks for posting.

[alistermorton]

Link to the Lee site

Very useful range of LED gels to give the common colours from LED sources - it's very obvious when you see them compared in the same light - 126 for example, the LED 126 is what 'looks' like a red gel, that produces the expected mauve!

 

Makes a lot of sense - cheers for the heads up.

[gyro_gearloose]

Notice how they've called the new colours 'Cool LED' rather than just LED. I wonder if they'll do the same thing for neutral and warm white LEDs?

[timsabre]

Notice how they've called the new colours 'Cool LED' rather than just LED. I wonder if they'll do the same thing for neutral and warm white LEDs?

 

Don't all current theatrical-type LED fixtures use cool white LEDs because of the higher output?

 

I can see trouble ahead here, all tungsten lamps produce a consistently coloured light, the same is not true of all cool white LEDs which vary considerably between manufacturers and also as the phosphor ages in the LED. Lee must be aiming the filters at a particular fixture?

[Ashley R]

Looks like the ETC LED S4 to me.

[adam2]

I cant agree that tungsten lamps are consistent as regards colour.

They are often dimmed to produce the required lighting effect, and that alters the colour substantialy.

They also vary a bit according to mains voltage, much yellower and dimmer at 210 volts than at 250 volts.

 

Photographic or film studio lamps are fairly consistant if not dimmed and worked at nominal voltage, but theatre lamps vary rather more.

 

LEDs stay almost the same colour when dimmed.

[paulears]

I think those characteristics of tungsten are taken as correct - we're talking about the undimmed colour temp - as in the lamp CT. Totally separate issue - what happens when they're dimmed down.

 

I guess we're looking for the solution to what will be happening all over the place soon, when the green people insist all new lighting purchases must be LED. So maybe you have a pile of Source 4s, and then have new LED versions. The new LED Lee gel will let you mix and match - and this is a great product. We've never really liked mixing HMI with tungsten, but for most of us, we never had to. However, who knows how long tungsten will still be viable?

[musht]

"who knows how long tungsten will still be viable"

 

Copyright some marketing department about 1988 with the introduction of CFLs...

 

Lee, Rosco, Apollo , Gam etc are probably selling a good few less metres of gel than they used to, but having looked hard still cant find the photometrics for the LED S4, its also available in a colour changing version and a warm white 3200K LED, if Lee`s gels are aimed a the LED S4, why quote 6000K when ETC say 5600K?

[timsabre]

The thing about white LED is that the spectrum is really weird (as shown at the end of their video). Although people are using colour temperature terms like "3200K" to refer to LED colour, it isn't really true because the LED spectrum has enormous gaps in it. Your eye fools you into thinking that it's the same colour as a 3200K tungsten lamp, but it actually isn't, and when you start gelling white LEDs the missing bits of the spectrum suddenly become very obvious.

 

So what I was trying to say is that their LED 126 gel will only match the tungsten 126 gel on a specific LED fixture at a specific point in its life.

[lite_lad]

But isnt one of the big advantages of LED that it DOESNT need recolouring all the time?

 

is this not just LEE trying to keep hold of their market? because if everyone moves over to LED then they dont really have a market left....

[adam2]

But isnt one of the big advantages of LED that it DOESNT need recolouring all the time?

 

is this not just LEE trying to keep hold of their market? because if everyone moves over to LED then they dont really have a market left....

 

Depends on the type of LED light.

Those with RGB LEDs, or better with RGBW/RGBA LEDs can produce almost any colour by manipulation of the relative outputs of the different coloured LEDs, no colour filter gel required.

Other LED theatre lanterns contain only white LEDs and the required colour requires the use of a filter. Most such fixtures produce a cool white or daylight output and therefore filters produce very different effects.

 

Lanterns with diffrent coloured LEDs are often fixed beam angle PAR style or flood lights.

The white ones often have an adjustable beam angle as with similar incandecents.

 

LEDs are still improving, but halogen lamps are a mature technology and unlikely to improve much.

[musht]

 

LEDs are still improving, but halogen lamps are a mature technology and unlikely to improve much.

 

Still a bit to be squeezed out of halogens yet:

 

http://www.osram.com/osram_com/trends-and-knowledge/halogen-lamps/professional-knowledge/halogen-eco-technology/index.jsp

 

Nice as the Lee demo is, they still admit some colours simply don`t exist and things like deep red are not going to be bright.

 

White LED is still based on fluorescent phosphor technology, in development since the 1930`s, still not matched the quality of light from a hot wire ;-)

[lite_lad]

But isnt one of the big advantages of LED that it DOESNT need recolouring all the time?

 

is this not just LEE trying to keep hold of their market? because if everyone moves over to LED then they dont really have a market left....

 

Depends on the type of LED light.

Those with RGB LEDs, or better with RGBW/RGBA LEDs can produce almost any colour by manipulation of the relative outputs of the different coloured LEDs, no colour filter gel required.

Other LED theatre lanterns contain only white LEDs and the required colour requires the use of a filter. Most such fixtures produce a cool white or daylight output and therefore filters produce very different effects.

 

Lanterns with diffrent coloured LEDs are often fixed beam angle PAR style or flood lights.

The white ones often have an adjustable beam angle as with similar incandecents.

 

LEDs are still improving, but halogen lamps are a mature technology and unlikely to improve much.

 

I realise that there ARE fixtures which produce cool white (otherwise I doubt lee would have produced gel for it http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

 

But maybe im missing the point? surely if your going to make the extra expense to go LED it would be worth your while getting a fixture that could do both? but is that just me?

[timsabre]

I realise that there ARE fixtures which produce cool white (otherwise I doubt lee would have produced gel for it http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

But maybe im missing the point? surely if your going to make the extra expense to go LED it would be worth your while getting a fixture that could do both? but is that just me?

 

Most theatrical-type LED fixtures (profiles and fresnels) just replace the lamp with a white LED. You can dim the LED but there is no option for changing colour.

There are theatrical LED fixtures which can produce different colours, but they are even more horrendously expensive than the white ones.