Are LED flashes taking advantage of what we already know is out there.

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BirdofPrey

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I'm sure my plethora of lights has jaded me but why is it that the led based external flashes are disappointing? I just recently started rigging my gopro to record in places I can't personally get to. I have been using my ZL H602 mounted directly under the camera. Good but not great.

Now, here is the question. Does anyone make a a truly good led camera flash that I can slide onto the hotshoe of my DSLR or my Canon Sx50? I would like it to work as a flash but also as a hot source when running the camera in HD video mode.

I tried two from Walmart and as expected, garbage.

So, anyone have experience on this.

Should add, in a pinch I'd like it to work as a flashlight since I do a lot of night photography.
 

Jakefreese

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I have been thinking real hard about over driving a pulse to the led and trying it. Just too many other projects going on to get to it. I really want to get some Cree cxa3590 and try it for studio strobes.
 

SemiMan

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Wasting your time. 100000's of thousands of lumens .... How many hundreds of big LEDS are you planning to buy?
 

BirdofPrey

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Hmm, never got an alert there were replies.

Well, my issue is that I also need a "flash" that would double as a light for videoing with the camera's HD recording feature.
 

Yoda4561

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light for video is another matter entirely. LEDs in a properly designed unit are pretty good for the job. If you just want enough light for a 1/60 or 1/30 second exposure the LED can work for that too, but it'll need to be on for much longer than a real flash unit to get the right exposure, which can cause motion blur.
 

dmac386

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light for video is another matter entirely. LEDs in a properly designed unit are pretty good for the job. If you just want enough light for a 1/60 or 1/30 second exposure the LED can work for that too, but it'll need to be on for much longer than a real flash unit to get the right exposure, which can cause motion blur.
Agree with Yoda, electonic flash pulse is actually along the order of 1/20,000th of a second or faster. fast enough so there is almost no blur for a bullet. Camera shutter speeds are real slow to make it easier to time the flash while the shutter is open. Video lighting is a whole different animal because it has to be bright enough to illuminate the area of focus CONTINUOUSLY.
dmac386
 

FRITZHID

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With video you also have to worry about LED strobing. Pwm controlled LEDs can cause issues while filming. I ran into this with my 1st LED ring light for macro. Causes lined pics and funny artifacts when filming. CC/CV drivers are best for this issue.
 

rollandelliott

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this is a very old thread, but I want to do something similar.
this is the ONLY led flash I can find
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y91n0YF3m4I&t=2s

I haved looked all over the internet for a LED flash circuit, all I can find are Strobe circuits that constantly flash the leds.

anyone know how to take an exsisting led ring light and add circuits to make it flash?
 

DIWdiver

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Try googling "LED photoflash circuit". The first four hits had eight different solutions (that's right, because the first one was "Five Solutions for Driving LED Flash).
 
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