F&V K4000 Daylight or Bi-Color LED Studio Light – PhotoPlus Expo 2012
My friend Connor from F&V gives us a tour of the K4000 LED Studio Light. This is a lightweight and portable studio solution, integrating their newest technology in synchronous lighting, expandability, and power LEDs. Available in daylight and bi-color models. The new K4000 LED Light Studio Panel sports 400 pure color power LEDs, offering 2860 Lux @ 1 meter in a self-contained 1′x1′ unit. F&V USA takes pride in the fact that their LEDs are put through multiple tests and evaluations to ensure perfect color balance and diode matching. This offers an absolute pure color consistency between LEDs, and a clean calibrated color.
Both LED Studio Light in Daylight and Bi-Color are now available for preorder on the F&V website.
K4000 LED Studio Panel – PREORDER
Any particular reason the F&V K4000 is labeled “Studio Panel”? Is it suitable for field use also?
The K4000 was designed for high output studio use, however, it is definitely slim and portable enough to use in the field! It comes with a built-in V-Mount Battery Plate for portable power. As well, it is only 5 lbs making it easy to mount to extended gobo arms or even hand-held use.
How soft is this light with the milk filter, comparable to a large soft box? Recently tested the Ephoto 600/900 LED’s but, I’m sending them back because no matter what kind of diffusion I try, I just can’t get them soft enough for proper interview use unless I just destroy all the light output. Would be very excited to see some samples of the kind of face shadow that these produce.
@Paul LED lights can be difficult to diffuse without killing the output. Typically softbox lights are ideal for interviews as they give a soft wrap around of light and don’t create those harsh shadows that LED are known for. I plan on reviewing the new F&V lights so hopefully it won’t be long until you can see some OTech video examples. From what I noticed at PPE, this light and their new R-300 LED Ring Light are impressive. Clean CRI, nice diffusion, they’ve answered the multi-shadow issue with they’re new design and the diffusion was softer than anything I’ve seen so far in terms of other diffusion options for LED lighting.
Is there a way to shape or flag the light with some kind of barn door?
@Drew I don’t know of any barn door options. LED light typically don’t respond to barn doors very well in my experience, but considering the type of diffusion this light has, black foil might be your best option. I will ask Connor, the F&V expert, and get back to you.
I wrote to F&V but they’re not very good at responding back to emails. I’d like to know how many stops of light difference there is between the bi-color and single at it’s brightest (daylight)
@Gordon I’m not 100% certain, however I will ask Connor at the F&V booth tomorrow and get back to you. Want to be sure you get an accurate response to this. I”m curious as well.
Hey Olivia–Were you able to find out the difference in stops for both lights? I’m planning to pull the trigger on them but can’t decide on which package to get.
Nevermind. Disregard my message above. I just just read 5 pages of an entire thread discussing the topic of the k4000 vs k4000s. The consensus seemed to go with getting the one color panel for its brightness. Thanks!
@Gordon I wasn’t able to get an exact number, however the brightness does change. I know Manfrotto is coming out with a 1X1 that has double the LEDs for their bi-color version so there are no losses in stops of light. Just a thought if you NEED bi-color.
Sweet! Thanks for the heads up. I guess I’ll just wait it out and see how the product does when released.