It's been far too long since we last posted to our blog, so we are delighted to get this all going again with a feature on one of our newest additions to our lighting stock - The Lightstar Luxed 9.
Lightstar, founded in 2001 is a Beijing based manufacturer making lights for TV and film. In addition to their ranges of Kino, Dino, Fresnel and Parnel luminaries, they also manufacture LED fixtures including fresnels, panels and the Luxed range.
The Luxed range is all based around a 180w LED array mounted behind a glass lens giving a beam somewhere close to a medium flood Par 64 lamp. There is also a clip on plastic fresnel available to alter beam angle but we haven’t got our hands on these yet. Dimming from 0 to 100% is very smooth and the units are Bicolour - adjustable from 2800K to 6500K.
The Luxed 9 is the fixture best suited to our needs offering the most appropriate compromise between output and convenience in terms of size and weight. At 39kg it's not exactly a quick lamp to work with and is definitely a two man lift but at just over 4’ square. However, it is still manageable as part of a kit list on one of our 3.5T vans
The Luxed 9 offers a punchy light with good throw which is uncommon in LED fixtures - OK, it will not give a single crisp shadow, but for a power consumption of just 1620w it will give 6600 lumens at a distance of 6m - that’s 87% of what a flooded M40 would give you but you can run it from a domestic socket.
For us the Luxed is useful in several ways - firstly, as demonstrated it is a great choice when you need plenty of light but can’t use a generator. There will still be occasions when an M40 installed with a 2.5k lamp is the best choice but the Luxed gives us the option to add a lot of light with a small power draw. Recently, while lighting for stills and motion, we needed to recreate a wash of daylight in a hospital corridor during working hours. Of course using a generator was not an option, as this would have meant running cables through the hospital. The Luxed 9 through a 6x6 frame was perfect, giving us enough stop for the stills camera without having to relight for the motion, all from local power.
Our favourite use for the Luxed is as a window fill used in conjunction with an M90 or M40. For a late morning or early afternoon feel the additions of one or two softened Luxed 9s adds just the fill needed.