Butch,

I find these to be particularly good (and cheap) - Ledgo

You can also make panels out of multiples of these puppies.

Tom

About 18months ago, I bought one of these, just out of curiosity. I ended up buying another one, and sold my 2 - much more expensive - Sony lights on ebay. A bit bigger than the Sony's, but I use Canon XA20's so they'll be at home on a XA10.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yongnuo-YN-1410-140-LED-Video-Flash-Light-Lamp-for-Olympus-Samsung-Camera-/160932780554?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:GB:1123

I will add that I use them with plain 'ol AA batteries. The battery life is amazing!

Lots of older threads like this one.

I bought this. Filters snap on securely, pretty compact, very inexpensive.

The Z96 is still hard to beat, mine are still used regularly.

The other light I own and use from time to time is the Comer 1800. It's very handy for me and my EX1 as I can power it from the 3rd party camera batteries. You can also use the Sony NP batteries but that adds weight,

The great thing with the Comer 1800 is the flip down lens thingie for greater reach from the light.

Bob.

I have the Yongnuo also. I bought a few of the sony knock off batteries as well, for next to nothing and the light stays on for hours. HOURS! Crazy.

Anyone try the Amaran 198A or B?

btw, how wide is the light pattern on the Yongnuio? I'm in between buying that and Amaran 198c. Spot or wide?

@John222
John, please check CRI index and the greenish cast produced by LEDs. Generally the cheaper LEDs are, the problem is bigger. I don't have neither Amaran (Aputure) nor Yangnuo. However I remember that my collegue had bought Apature LED light and it has had a significant green cast.
What important - LED producers sometimes give CRI values not for a whole light spectrum, but for chosen color ranges.
Here are some test of color spectrum (tungsten vs LED).
http://www.cineolighting.com/index.php/pages/light_lab/92
And here tungsten vs Akurat LED ligting: http://akuratlighting.com/webpage/en/v-white.html

How wide? Don't really know how to measure that!. I've used them outside in darkness to conduct interviews. Wouldn't regard them as 'spots'. As far as colour cast goes, I'd describe these as colour neutral. Whereas my previous Sony's had a definite warm tinge. The Amaran looks a bit slimmer, but don't like the fact that you have to mess with screws to change filter. The Yongnuo's just slide in/out. Having said that, how often will you be changing them if the colour temp is variable as on the Amaran?

[I]"What important - LED producers sometimes give CRI values not for a whole light spectrum, but for chosen color ranges."[/I]

CRI is a meaningless figure for LED lights. It's only based on a few points.

The biggest problem with LED lights isn't the green spike. One problem is parts of the spectrum are missing but that's not as big a problem as the lack of infrared output. Without that skin can appear pallid. The green spike can be removed with a minus green filter, no way to fill in the missing parts of the spectrum.

In the end no one cares much. Any light is better than no light and half the population wouldn't been seen dead without makeup. If it really bugs anyone there are remote phosphor LED lights with a true CRI of over 90 but for the moment they're very expensive. The other alternative is the Zylight which uses RGB LEDs and is calibrated but again expensive and pretty big, too big for anything less than an ENG camera.

Bob.

I'd like it to be wide enough to do interviews. I've looked at so many youtube reviews and a few of the lights like the Chromo 160 neewer 160 seem to be to much of a spot. The whole thig is getting me dizzy. I'd really like Ikan 144 but it's out of my price range. So the following is what I'm down to;

1. Yongnuo-YN-1410 - $38 - Isn't stackable and don't know much about them.
2. Amaran 198C - $60 - Bi Color, but that means half the LED are 5500k and the other half are 3200k. Stackable but less light?
3. Amaran 198A - $60 - Spot&Wide. Once again half the LED are 25degree and the other halg 60 degree. Stackable but less light?
4. HDV-Z96 $86 - $169 - Looks pretty good overall, but so manyof them are fakes. Does this look like a fake?
http://www.amazon.com/F-V-11812305-Light-Panel/dp/B003UCGDSS/ref=sr_1_1?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1422195649&sr=1-1

So many of these Z96's are comming out of the same factory, I can't tell if they are real or not. Would it just be smarter to get the cheapYongnuo?

Will mainly be used for interviews, skyping and as a video fill light.

The Z96 comes in two models; the original version that has a claimed CRI of 85+ for around $70-$80, and the "Ultracolor" version with a claimed CRI of 95 for $199. I have six of them and they work acceptably well. I've bought them all through F&V and I'm certain that they are authentic.

Yes, LED lights are rather like POV/Sportscams

The companies in China who make the vital bits (LEDs or CMOS sensors) bring out something better and then every company that integrates them into a finished item brings out something better than the last model.

When it comes to these budget priced LED lights they're all going to be pretty much the same in terms of light quality and spread. Secondary factors then influence choice. One issue I have with the original Z96 is it only uses 5x "AA" batteries which is a PIA. Today I'd go for one that uses 6x "AA" batteries, assuming it was solidly built.

One thing to be careful off, some of the really cheap units only have a fixed cold shoe attachment which means you need an adaptor to put it on a light stand etc.

Bob.