Author Topic: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012  (Read 3961 times)

Offline keitha43

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Re: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012
« Reply #15 on: July 27, 2012, »
Yes and it depends on which lens is inside the aether II. With no lens it is not as bright but widest coverage. With the narrowest spot lens it is the most powerful but didn't blend colors well at close distance. The medium lens blended well at close distance and was still quite bright. Also if you are measuring just white, some floods use only a white led and some use rgb or rgb + white which may make them more powerful when using white but less powerful for all other colors. I am estatic with my aether II's.

Offline smeighan

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Re: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012
« Reply #16 on: July 27, 2012, »
Hi;

i might suggest this method for measuring the floods

have a target marked like this

         
         X
          |
          |
   X----X------X
          |
          |
          X

Take 5 measurements of the flood on a wall. Have each X be 3' away from the center.
This way you dont just get the center brightness, you also get the fall off

alternatively

X------X--------X-------X--------X

just measure once through the horizontal plane, each X is 3' apart

now you get a feel over a 12' range

be careful that the floods are exactly the same distance to the wall since light falls off inversely the square of the distance.

If light is brightness X at 1' then
it is 1/4 as bright at 2', 1/9th as bright at 3 ' .etc.

thanks
sean

Sean
Littleton, CO
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Offline tbone321

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Re: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012
« Reply #17 on: July 27, 2012, »
I was wondering the same thing as Chris.  Exactly what specs are you going to us to compare them?  I was at the UNscientific shootout at the Academy and even there, some of the reading really didn't make much sense.  In some cases, it was obvious how and why the readings were what they were but if all you went by were the readings alone without seeing them, you would be mislead.  For example, one of the "floods" had a light output similar to the AetherII but it had a light output more like a spot light.  Another had a light output much higher than the AetherII and it really was that much brighter but it was a commercial unit that had either 2 or 4 bulbs and was many times the cost of the AetherII.  Even when the Aether and AetherII were compared, the AetherII had a much higher reading on the meter but being there, I could see that they really were not that much different in either brightness or beam pattern or at least not enough to justify the difference in readings.  What was different though was the color temp.  The Aether was putting out a blue er light than the AetherII which could account for a lower reading on the meter.  While the meter readings didn't mean much in that demo, actually seeing them and what they could do was great.

I hope that when you guys do this, you do this with a more scientific method if you intend to share the results.  That would require all of the lights projecting on the same surface, from the same distance, at the same angle, with the same or very similar pattern, and at or near the same color temps so that the meter can record them correctly.  Otherwise, I would toss the meter and just show a video of the outputs but even here, you would still need the same surface, same distance, and same angle to make a valid comparison.  Either way, good luck and have fun.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2012, by tbone321 »
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Offline Steve Gase

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Re: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012
« Reply #18 on: July 27, 2012, »
I think to do such a study, it should be done in a quiet environment where you can methodically make these measurements.

With the chaos of a dozen lights coming together for the first time... with a lot of well-meaning advice... and the lack of a rigorous procedure... you might end up with unsatisfying results.

IMO, specs should only be one consideration.  Cost.  Color diffusion.  Flexibility.  all should be considerations in your choice in flood.  I also think that "response time" is a consideration as you compare lights -- I observed that some lights were quick to come on, and quick to change color compared to other lights using an identical signal.

I highly value the ability to change out the lens with the Aether2.  I can make the light be a 4-degree spot, or a fairly wide-angle flood.  I think there are about 7 lens choices of varying angles.  As you gather comparative data, I suggest that each of the lens options be treated as a separate entry.  I also thought the Aether to be quick in the color transitions and startup time.


At some point I will likely do an Aether2 comparison to share, taking light and size measurements, preparing a video, etc.  But if you were to compare my results to another person's results... I'd expect "experimental error" to be a big factor.   (how would my eggshell-white with flat finish as a backdrop compare to your cream-color white with gloss?)
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Offline JerryPlak

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Re: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012
« Reply #19 on: July 27, 2012, »
Talking with my partner Tim Herberger for the Flood shoot out portion of C3 
 It would take all night to properly set up and measure the output across the beam spread.
 thinking we should just stick to a " by eye" comparison as to what would work best for an individuals set-up
Jerry Plak

Offline JerryPlak

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Re: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012
« Reply #20 on: July 27, 2012, »
Steve, very well said..

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I think to do such a study, it should be done in a quiet environment where you can methodically make these measurements.

With the chaos of a dozen lights coming together for the first time... with a lot of well-meaning advice... and the lack of a rigorous procedure... you might end up with unsatisfying results.

IMO, specs should only be one consideration.  Cost.  Color diffusion.  Flexibility.  all should be considerations in your choice in flood.  I also think that "response time" is a consideration as you compare lights -- I observed that some lights were quick to come on, and quick to change color compared to other lights using an identical signal.

I highly value the ability to change out the lens with the Aether2.  I can make the light be a 4-degree spot, or a fairly wide-angle flood.  I think there are about 7 lens choices of varying angles.  As you gather comparative data, I suggest that each of the lens options be treated as a separate entry.  I also thought the Aether to be quick in the color transitions and startup time.


At some point I will likely do an Aether2 comparison to share, taking light and size measurements, preparing a video, etc.  But if you were to compare my results to another person's results... I'd expect "experimental error" to be a big factor.   (how would my eggshell-white with flat finish as a backdrop compare to your cream-color white with gloss?)
Jerry Plak

Offline JerryPlak

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Re: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012
« Reply #21 on: July 27, 2012, »
two year ago one guy did bring two floods, that he got from China
they was very bright as they was more like spot, but the funny thing about the two
floods one had 32  and the other had 128 Level of Fading
Jerry Plak

Offline RJ

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Re: The Great Flood shoot-out in Chicago 2012
« Reply #22 on: July 28, 2012, »
If you want fast/easy to do and more fair then mark an area on the wall and shine each light at it. Then move the light in our out on the floor to fill the area with light. Then do a reading.  This at least evens  up some from like the spots and the floods. We had some lights at the academy that to cover what our floods were doing you would have needed to take them to the back of the room. Light drops at a square of the distence so their readings would have been much less to cover the same area.

It is about how much area you can light with how bright a light. If you leave one of these out of the formula as we did at the academy it kind of makes the readings mean less.

As one user said, "I will show up with a laser and beat everyone."

RJ
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