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[Tom Bourke]

OK so I bought 10 the the Weidamark p64 for use at my school.
First impretion is they rock and I am very happy.  The comparable weapon of choice here is 500 watt med P64 cans by Chauvet.  At no color the 500 wipes the floor with the LED.  Also the no color on the LED can is sort of a blue LAV next to the other par.  However when comparing Stock Chauvet RBG gell shipped with the cans the tide turns.  Granted this is not the best gel but I figure it is a fair  comparison of out of the box usage.  The NC on the LED is a usable color as is.  The following Pic is taken with a finepix s5200 in man mode, 500(not sure what this is) Fstop of 5.6 and ISO200, color balanced to the 500 watt par can.  All shots are with the cans pointed up at a white block wall over my head.

This shot is NC at 100% on both.

[Tom Bourke]

When adding a blue gell to the other par the output evens up and both make a good but different cool wash.  This is NC on the LED and blue on the 500.

[Tom Bourke]

The blu on blue photo did not do the difference any justice but I like the full Blue of the LED over the 500.  At red the LED had a better color but the 500 was a little brighter.  Here is a photo comparing cyan on the led to the green on the par again the cyan and green were both better on the LED for usable color.  None of the rest of the photos I took do any Justice to the comparison.  However here are my thoughts in no real order.

The LED wins on color.  Yes I could match the great color of the LED with better gel but I still only get one color per 500W par can unless I can swing a scroler.  The LED unit has 7 very usable colors not counting mixing between them.

The LED looks better and better as you start to look at higher instrument counts.  The Weidamark can has a narrow but nice beam.  so you can add more lights to cover a larger area, and then split that area if needed.

I can run dozens of the LED cans on 1 standard outlet with near infinite color combinations.  4 500 watt units on 1 20A outlet, up to 4 colors.

NO HEAT!  Finally an instrument I can put near an audience and not burn them!

Dimmer? We don't need no dimmer!

Cost I figure by the time you add dimmers and heavy AC cables and gel and lamps your at the cost of an LED unit.

All in all I Would say the time of the LED has come.  Yes they will get better fast but they are usable now!.  In my space I will continue to use both kinds but the LEDs will be added as funding permit's.  I would love to see what one of the BIG led units can do!

[Bill Gruber]

Hey Tom thanks for the great pics and info.  I'm very interested in purchasing some LED units in the near future.  Could you post a pic of the the same fixtures with both White?  I find it interesting also, that the LED fixture always has the same light dispersal.  Not so with the Par, the led was very constant. What is the distance from the fixtures to the wall?

[John Davies]

Hey guys. I got a quick question.  
I am in the middle of purchasing a small complete lighting system. I have 10 Wiedamark Par 64\s on the way. I am guessing they are 3 pin but I have not been able to confirm it through any specs.
Since I see a couple of ya have bought em, are they 3 or 5 pin? Are they coming with any cabling?

Thanks

John Davies

[Andrew Billits]

3 pin from what i've been told. Not sure about cabling though (other than the power cord).

[Tim Tyler]

They are 3 pin and do not come with any cabling.

Tim Tyler
Detonator Sound

[Tom Bourke]

Sorry to say the first pic IS both on white.  They are that different.  They start to even up once you add gel to the 500.  The "white" of the LED is useful but not really white.  Here is a pic of the set up I used. The wall is about 12 to 15 feet from the cans.  Keep in mind I set the camera to white balance on the 500 watt par can.

[kevinnemrava]

Tom Bourke wrote on Fri, 23 March 2007 16:37

Sorry to say the first pic IS both on white.  They are that different.  They start to even up once you add gel to the 500.  The "white" of the LED is useful but not really white.  Here is a pic of the set up I used. The wall is about 12 to 15 feet from the cans.  Keep in mind I set the camera to white balance on the 500 watt par can.

that detail.. "white set to balance the 500 watt..." is I htink very importand.

IF you where to set teh cammera to white = a white sheet of paper, we would see the "real" colors.

in this case, as we have set one to be "white" and looked at the result- what we are seeing is the differantial.

The led looks blue, but is it??? or si teh 500 watt just kinda red, so that was removed from the picture as a whole? we have no way of knowing from the picture. We could for example have set teh white ballance to teh LED fixture , then the 500 watt would be really red.


thanks for the photos though they tell alot about what is going on . I am just waiting for soemone here (craig???) to get a really cool working design that is LEDS with source 4 lense and powerfull LEDS bulbs, like the 1 watt lexons then I am off to the races.


On that note, I remember craig mentioning that the wide and extra wide ones work the best for color mixing, and hiding the leds. however they spread teh beam to wide. - consider useing a narrow beam LED with teh really wide lense?

Kev.

[Tom Bourke]

kevinnemrava wrote on Fri, 23 March 2007 18:50

Tom Bourke wrote on Fri, 23 March 2007 16:37 Sorry to say the first pic IS both on white.  They are that different.  They start to even up once you add gel to the 500.  The "white" of the LED is useful but not really white.  Here is a pic of the set up I used. The wall is about 12 to 15 feet from the cans.  Keep in mind I set the camera to white balance on the 500 watt par can. that detail.. "white set to balance the 500 watt..." is I htink very importand. IF you where to set teh cammera to white = a white sheet of paper, we would see the "real" colors. in this case, as we have set one to be "white" and looked at the result- what we are seeing is the differantial. The led looks blue, but is it??? or si teh 500 watt just kinda red, so that was removed from the picture as a whole? we have no way of knowing from the picture. We could for example have set teh white ballance to teh LED fixture , then the 500 watt would be really red. thanks for the photos though they tell alot about what is going on . I am just waiting for soemone here (craig???) to get a really cool working design that is LEDS with source 4 lense and powerfull LEDS bulbs, like the 1 watt lexons then I am off to the races. On that note, I remember craig mentioning that the wide and extra wide ones work the best for color mixing, and hiding the leds. however they spread teh beam to wide. - consider useing a narrow beam LED with teh really wide lense? Kev.

What you said is correct.  However the wall is white and a sheet of paper is white.  what remains is what light is used to light the paper.  I chose to use the 500 par as a reference.  When I get a chance I will do the white balance to the LED can and post the photo.  I do have one photo that is Pre white balance but I dont know to what it references.  I will post it next time I am at work.  The 500 watt par looks much more amber to me in the photo (as it should) than the LED in the photo I have.  Maybe I should white balance to my van (chev white) in the sun and then snap some photoes of it at nght with the two lights.

I will do what I can to give you all a reference to compare.  I think the lights are different but the LEDs have lots of strong points going for them.  In my case I can now use the conventional par cans to do what they are good at and I also have some LED pars to do whayt they are good at.  The LED is not a full replacement but it is close if you look at the larger picture.