TOOLZ: Could the New Lumapad LED Light Be Better Than a LitePanels LED Light?

Here’s a very intriguing new KickStarter project that could shake a few things up in the world of film lighting. LED’s have slowly, but surely been working their way onto more and more film sets. LED lighting units have become popular for their high light output relative to their low power consumption and they stay fairly cool to the touch.  So they are safer, use less power and fairly bright, but the only real downside is that they ain’t cheap.  (Example: One of the popular LED light units by one of the most popular LED light companies- Litepanels, is the Litepanels 1×1 Bi-Color LED which costs about $2700.00.)

However, inventor Richard Haberkern could potentially change the whole LED light game with his new Lumapad LED unit.  He’s made some working prototypes and if all goes well, he’ll be shipping new and improved units to his Kick Starter backers around June 2013 for about 1/5th of the cost of the equivalent Litepanels unit.  I think anytime a new product offers double the features at a fraction of the price, it’s at least worth a serious look.

Litepanels has a long and  strong track record of solid LED products, so it’d be  a pretty high bar for this product to be better than a Litepanels Bi-Color LED.  But at 1/5 of the cost of the bi-Color Litepanels 1×1, if it delivers the goods as promoted, it’s definitely a way better bang for your buck.  And if it actually does everything it appears to do in the video below, I think it’s a no-brainer.

I’m in the market for some LED lighting at the moment and I just may take a gamble on this new invention.    Plus, you know I love a good guerrilla upstart with the goal of giving filmmakers more for less, so I might cop one just on principal to support the guerrilla  innovation.  (Only 10 days left on the initial KickStarter Campaign, so I’ll let you know if I do.)

Peep the video below to see the Lumapad in action.

LUMAPAD QUICK STATS:

• Ultra Compact Size 6.75″ X 4.50″
• 88 Watts of power conumption
• Approx. 1000 Watts of light output
• Dual 3200K/6500K switchable units available
• Wifi controllable
• Built-in lighting FX (thunder, fire, etc.)

If you like what you see and you want to be the first on your block to cop a LumaPad LED, you can get one by backing the LumaPad KickStarter campaign HERE.  But hurry if you want one, you’ve got a little more than a week to get in on the first batch.