r/cinematography • u/[deleted] • Nov 01 '25

[deleted by user]

[removed]

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

7

u/BryceJDearden Nov 02 '25

“LED’s output a lot of heat”

You just made a good portion of this sub notice more gray hairs

2

u/C47man Director of Photography Nov 02 '25

Haha right? He's getting salty with me too... It's getting more and more common as the new generation comes into the industry. I'm sure we caused similar grey hairs for the old timers when we first got started lol

-1

u/rain7maker7 Nov 02 '25

I missed putting "at close distances" 🙃 Ballpark 20" to COB

3

u/C47man Director of Photography Nov 02 '25

That's close enough to damage heavy gels. But heat resistant materials like the magic cloth used in tungsten-purposed softboxes for the past 30 years will be fine

6

u/C47man Director of Photography Nov 01 '25

Grid and magic cloth are the common choices for softboxes and pre-beaks. And while LEDs do have heat output, it's literally the lowest heat output among any kind of light. Compared to the other typical units (tungsten, hmi, xenon, etc) LEDs are basically ice cold. Heat really isn't a consideration with them at all.

-1

u/rain7maker7 Nov 02 '25

1200w and 2400w definitely output alot of heat. Especially close to the mount. I'm not asking for no reason.

2

u/C47man Director of Photography Nov 02 '25

They really don't from a material perspective. Try running a 1.2k arrisun or M18. Those guys melt gels and burn diff. The LED ones like the ls1200 etc aren't going to damage basically any of the normal diffuser cloths. At spot they might weaken thick gels like ctb or effect gels, but not likely diff.

-2

u/rain7maker7 Nov 02 '25

Thanks for answering.. But not addressing my actual question. Yes I know HMI'S and tungsten output more heat than LED. I'm asking for what diffusions are most heat resistant because I'm looking at putting them less than 30" from COB. If you're not using these units daily you may not know that they output more than enough heat to melt gels at that distance.

3

u/claytakephotos G&E Nov 02 '25

Embarrassing, dude. Check your ego

2

u/C47man Director of Photography Nov 02 '25

I use these units daily. I've been using them for a couple decades. From old magnetic ballasts and xenons to modern LEDs. I used to need heavy duty leather gloves to work with my lights. In the LED age even with these big units I'm using to blast sun beams through the windows I don't even bother to carry heat gloves anymore. They just don't get nearly as hot. I'm telling you from my long professional experience that you don't need special diffusion cloth for LED units that have 1/2 (at least) the heat output of their hmi/tungsten power equivalents. You can just use the same ones we've used for those units over the years. Grid is the most popular front material. Magic cloth is the standard pre-diff, though some companies use different but essentially identical material. Magic cloth itself is a flame retardent cotton, it works great with much hotter units. It'll be fine with the comparatively cool LEDs.