Which LEDs are the brightest?…LED Comparison Test!

Today on The Slanted Lens, we are going to be testing some great big LED lights! I’m curious about the intensity of different LEDs. I’ve had people ask me all the time what how powerful a light, how bright is it, so we are just going to look straight at a 1k and an HMI 1200, and then we’ll compare all the other lights with this standard.

I’m going to use the meter setting of ISO 800 and 1/60 sec because it’s an old meter so it doesn’t have 1/50 second on it. The distance of the meter is going to be 8ft, 12ft, and 16ft and we’ll see how the light falls off.

I went to Wooden Nickel Lighting to shoot this test and it’s a great place to check out all sorts of lighting equipment you might need for a shoot.

The reason I chose a Tungsten 1k as my first measurement is because it’s a light I’m used to working with and it’s a great base to start from. I’m starting first with a 1K flooded because once you turn it into a spotlight it just turns into a whole another animal. We aren’t putting any type of focusing devices on any of these lights, so they are just open.

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So we have the results of the test below, the 1k flood at 8ft is f8.7, but when I go to the HMI 1200 it ends up being 4 stops brighter than that at f64.2. A Joker 800 is 5 stops brighter than a 1k flood.

When we check out the SkyPanel S60-C, it shines at .2 stops brighter than the 1k and with the SkyPanel S30-C, it’s a stop darker than the 1k.

If I go to a Lightpanels Astra 6x Bicolor, those are very powerful lights and they shine at .1 stop brighter than our 1k standard. They aren’t diffused at all and shine about the same as a 1k.

The Kino Flo Freestyle 21 LED was way under 1k at 2.4 stops under. It also has a diffusion in front of it and it’s built in, so it’s nice if you want a softer light without extra equipment.

I’ve used a silk light from Rosco for a long time, and it performed the same as the Kino Flo Freestyle 21. These are diffused soft LEDs that are used as is right out of the box.

Lite Mats

Now we are going to switch to our Lite Mats. Checking out the Litegear LiteMat+ Plus 2 it was -2 stops off a flooded 1k. Even though this is an LED light without any diffusion, it wasn’t as bright as I thought it would be.

Intellytech LiteCloth LC-160 2X2 was -1.5 stops, which is a little brighter than the Litegear LiteMat Plus 2.

Single LED Bulb

Now we move onto our single LED with a Bowens mount category! We have first up the Aputure Light Storm 300D, which was -.5 stop under a 1k. The Aputure Light Storm C120D G1 was -1.6 under a 1k.

We had the pleasure of testing out Mole Richardson Fresnel lights as well and these were our results. The Mole Richardson JuniorLED 200W 8’’ and this was a .4 over a 1k. Our Mole Richardson Junior 400W 10’’ on flood was +.8 stops brighter, so almost a full stop brighter, but close to a 2k in power.

Intensity isn’t the only way to choose light. There are other factors to consider that we have listed below. A lite mat is going to be something you can put on the ceiling and it’s very easy to use. So it’s really about the application, whether you are using them for travel or just for small interviews.

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Jay P’s Gear @ B&H: https://bhpho.to/2ES90Eb

Gear Used:

K5600 Lighting Joker2 800W
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2MPwuef

ARRI Sky Panel S60-C led Softlight
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2MNVYsu
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WLwRuT

ARRI Sky Panel S30-C LED Softlight
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2MNVORU
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Gclvv5

Litepanels Astra Bi Color LED Panel
B&h: https://bhpho.to/2MVekYU
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2MOYEq1

Kino Flo FreeStyle 21 LED
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2MOdUDx
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2UGKN7G

Intellytech LiteCloth LC-160 2X2
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2yNZznc

Aputure Light Storm 120d G1
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2rvg1T0
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2DcdvGB

Aputure Light Storm 300D
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2FHJgqS
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2UKeODx

Mole Richardson 200W Junior LED 10 inch
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2MSWipP

Mole Richardson 400W Junior LED 8 inch
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2MSWPIl

Rosco Silk 210
B&H: https://bhpho.to/2MOPCsV