Airboxlights.com was at the DTC Grip & Lighting Gear Expo last weekend, and there was an event that we've all talked about but have never actually seen put together formally:
THE GRIP OLYMPICS!
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| The Sandbag Relay |
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| DTC Office Staff winning sandbag relay |
The team of ladies from the DTC office won the sandbag relay, despite the best efforts of Steve Cardellini and his buddies.
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| Why throw them when we can roll them? |
There's something you learn when you get to be an old grip: Work smart, not hard. The other teams obediently pulled sandbags from the muscle cart, tossed them to the next teammate, who passed the bag to the next teammate, who tossed it over the line. Hard work, no? So the cagey old technicians just grabbed their muscle cart, pushed it to the finish line, and dumped all the bags out. Much faster than the recommended technique and easier on the back.
I was the dark horse competitor in the Cable Wrapping event. Everyone else in the event was well-known warehouse staffers or electricians, but then I came out of the booth and crushed everyone in my first heat. Alas, in the final round, I couldn't prevail against a handsome and strapping young gaffer named Evan Davies. He's 16 years younger than me and in frankly much stronger and faster. Plus I haven't wrapped any 4/0 in over 2 years. But I got a bunch of good cheers! People liked that an exhibitor got up in the competition. Next year I'll show them.
We of Airbox Lights were at the Expo in a booth next to Arri:
I was showing off a prototype of my new 1x1 Airbox as well as the new Model 126, both of which were very well received. The larger LEDs like 1x1s and 6"x12" LEDs are a perfect match for Airbox inflatable softboxes, because they've got enough juice that they can afford to be softened up more and made into a larger softer source, and then made controllable with a folding eggcrate.
Here's a preview of the 1x1 Airbox quality of light on a 1st generation 1x1 Litepanel:
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| The only model available in a pinch. |
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| Nice soft source! No nasty LED quality here. |
GEAR AT THE EXPO
The gear that was there that I had a chance to see that I found noteworthy:
Newish lights from Arri: the
M90 , an update to the 6k par with a Max reflector, and the
M8, an 800w update to the 575. The M8 was cool, but the rep said it wasn't intended as a competitor to the Joker 800. It's bigger, has the efficient Arrimax reflector, and doesn't go bug-style like a joker. Priced a little higher too, at about 8000$.
I liked the idea of a maximized HMI source that still works on 100A bates. Who doesn't want more power in a familiar package?
The M8 I was less enthusiastic about- I feel like the M18 pretty much covers that ground already, plus I have a vested interest because I own an 800w joker. Seriously though, it looked like a really good light. It has a great flood to spot range and will no doubt be as rock solid as all of Arri's products.
Barger Baglites: What I liked is some of the Lighttools crates he's carrying now. Besides the quick snap-open eggcrates and Octabank sized eggcrates, there's a new one they've got called a CUFocus soft eggcrate. The fins of the eggcrate are all angled slightly towards the center, so that the light from the frame or the softbox is directed towards a subject close to the frame. That's a clever innovation on the regular parallel fins in a soft eggcrate.
The CU focus crates basically "funnel" the light towards one sweet spot, and occlude an increasing amount of light the farther away you get from the ideal spot. In that sweet spot, you'll still see the whole frame and thus have a nice sift source falling on you, but anywhere else the light falls off quite a lot.
BBS lighting is bringing out a companion to their exciting
Area 48 Remote phosphor fixture....
a 1x1 LED Panel! Ummm.... I asked them why they wanted to get into that saturated space, and Toby Sali said that theirs looks the same, but is much brighter and better colored than the competition. 7000-800W tungsten equivalent, 95 CRI. Ok, great, always happy to see the workhorse products improve. The brighter the better on that light shape.
Other than that, I was manning the booth the whole time.
See you at Photo Plus next week in NYC if you're there!
