What generates 500 watts of light but only draws 40 from an household outlet?

The Complete History of Lighting (Abbreviated)

Back in the day, “hot” lights were the norm. Incandescent, HMI, tungsten - they could light up a room like the sun. Generate about as much heat, too.

Smaller hot lights could be plugged into the wall, but larger instruments need special outlets. On location, that meant an electrician and tying into the power box.

Then, fluorescent lights for film and video came along. Banks of tubes started popping up on locations everywhere - lightweight, low power draw from any household outlet and soft, even illumination.

But a new light is dispelling the darkness. It’s LED lighting for film, video & photography.

The Future of Lighting?

FloLight in Campbell, California has introduced the LED 500. This 14×8x3 package has 500 tiny LEDs and generates 500 watts of illumination while drawing only 40 watts from the wall.

For versatility, the output is switchable in steps down to 25% of total wattage. The unit weighs only 5 pounds (!) and can be mounted horizontally or vertically.

Two interesting facts about LED lights:

1. Very rugged compared to hot or fluorescent lights
2. Narrow beam angle - that is, more of the light is pointed forward. This gives the LED500 a usable range from 5 to 15 feet. Fluorescent lights especially fall off in brightness dramatically as you move the subject away from the source.

At less than $500 (with 50,000 hours of projected life for the LEDs), the FloLight LED500 seems perfect for web video, podcasting and vlogs.

We’ll see if we can get one and test it out