The 200W version of Zylight's F8 LED fresnel light series is making its way to retailers in advance of NAB 2016.
LED lighting has exploded in popularity in recent years, given the advantages of power consumption and portability (not to mention keeping your actors from melting under hot lights). Quality has definitely improved over early examples of LED cine lighting that suffered from lower CRI and few housing options. Now, you can find high quality, high-end LED instruments that replicate much of what was possible with traditional cinema lighting.
Over this LED boom, Zylight has become one of shooters' go-to brands for pro level LED lighting. We've very positively reviewed many of Zylight's products in the past, including the Newz on-camera light, and the Ice Light 2, which is an LED instrument that has the appearance of a portable single fluorescent tube.
The company's most popular items may hail from its F8 series of fresnel lights. We profiled the F8-100 and the F8-300 last year, earning high marks from our Technical Editor, Phil Rhodes.
Zylight has just announced that the 200w variant of the F8 LED fresnel series is now shipping. Like its siblings, it features the company's proprietary quantum dot technology to "produce refined, balanced, and natural looking light,” said Joe Arnao, president of Zylight.
The F8-200, according to the press release, is "brighter than a 400-watt HMI Fresnel and almost as bright as a 2,000-watt tungsten fixture," featuring the flat fresnel design of the series. The F8-200 shares the same chassis as the F8-100, so you can expect it to collapse down to under five inches of depth for easy transport. There are 3200K and 5600K version available and the instrument can be run on AC power of Zylight's RAWPower dual battery module, taking standard Gold Mount or V-mount batteries.
We'll follow-up this story with a review of the F8-200 when we get our hands on one, which may be at NAB 2016, as Zylight will be in attendance, exhibiting its LED lighting solutions.