Sekonic L478D and DR

The new day of light meters has come upon us. For the new age of cinematography, for the HDSLR to the Red and Alexa cameras, the Sekonic Litemaster Pro L-478DR has it all. I remember working on a shoot about a year or so ago with my Sekonic I bought over 5 years ago, saying to my camera op “ I don’t know if what I am getting on my meter is going to be accurate to what we are shooting, I guess the meter is going to be reference for me.” Ok I know what you guys are saying, “ The light meter does way more then you think,” and I totally understand. But when you are perfectionist and also a gadget geek, with using all my gadgets to be a perfectionist... then you will understand. So lets get back to the Pro L-478DR, I thought it was an iPhone attachment and app. But realizing its the new age of light meters, it got me interested. The Sekonic Lightmaster Pro L-478D and the L-478DR the most innovative and advanced  features available to any light meter today. With the touch screen interface you can navigate easily threw menu settings such as F-stop, ISO, Shutter, even selecting what light is on a gel. Just like navigating with an iPhone or Android touch screen. For the motion picture industry this is the most full featured meter today. You can choose your shutter angle and frame ratios for special effects as well the meter is designed for todays camera with selecting 23.976 f/s instead of 24 f/s and so on. The L-478D and DR has a new features that lets you get exact light levels, by going in and selecting the light and what gel it has on. The best part to this meter is that you can program the dynamic range from the camera you are using and also mimics the latitude range on the camera. With only a $300 to $400 range this is a great price for this meter. I Just ordered the Pro L-478D and will have updates on to how it really works. 

Happy Light 

Here is a great video if you don't know how a light meter works, or how helpful a light meter will improve your shots. 

ARRI L7-C

          I am really excited to report on the new ARRI L-Series LED light. I have always wanted to use an all in one Light. This New Focusable Fresnel has brought much needed efficiency to the Broadcast studios around the world. One of the biggest things you will notice is the cost savings more than anything with lamp replacements and maintenance.

           The L7-C LED source produces the equivalent of a 750W tungsten light while drawing only 220W for a savings of a whopping 75% over similar output tungsten lights. Low heat means lower AC bills in the studio. You can actually run 9 L7s off of a 20A, 110V outlet as opposed to two 1,000W or three 650W standard fixtures. The full-spectrum of the L7-C is fully tune-able, the white light can be adjusted for different skin tone. With the ability to adjust color tempter, plus and minis green (green and Magenta shift) it fits well with mixed-light environments especially in a news broadcast that have large windows that look out into the streets that changes threw out the day, you only need to change the color temp and not have to worry about adding jells. On top of all that you can also have color effects and create moods and feels in a broadcast environment. As well you are able to place certain lights for different talent or news anchors that has different skin tone and the L7 is the only LED light that can come the closest to real tungsten lamps in color tempter.  The L7 is fixable to 15deg to 50deg spot to flood and works just like the other Arri lights. The L7 comes in two colors, Silver and Black. 

With the $2500 Price tag I feel this is a great light in a broadcast or studio environment. The L7 is a light thats been a dream to lighting designers and directors for a long time. 

Great Job Arri. 

Happy Light.  

If you would like to know more Check out this Youtube clip from ARRI at NAB 2012 or click here.