How come film lights are so pricey?

[runnah]

You've dipped your toes into a very deep and very vast world. I could write 2k+ words about the various types and uses of "film" lights but I have a meeting.

I'll say like 90% of the things in life you get what you pay for. And with LED lights you pay for things like anti-flciker, high output and quality of light.

 

[table1349]

......
can someone just enlighten me on what you actually pay for when you spend > $100 on camera light equipment that seemly just output light?

Labor
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You forgot one thing, Because You Can't Make It Yourself?

 

[Watchful]

There is nothing special about them other than the label that says 'for photography'.
Because it's a tool for a trade that can make decent money, they want their cut. Tools are always expensive and often easily duplicated, specialty tools, even more so.

 

[table1349]

But I'll get you a dollar the OP didn't consider ANY of them when calculating the true 'cost' of his DIY lights.

I'm well aware of the facts that companies have expenses to pay. I don't think you really understand what I meant. What I'm trying to say is that film lights don't seem that technically advanced to me to really justify the prices they charge, considering the fact that they are basically just led lights on a panel with a driver circuit. So I was asking whether they have special features that I'm missing that justify their high cost or if it might be a case of premium branding to increase profit margins.

I feel like the only way i can see any justification to these prices are that either the market for film light is so small they haven't streamlined the process enough and is basically assembling everything by hand or they have such a quality standard that they basically use gold instead of copper for their pcbs.

Out of curiosity, what is the color temp range for each individual LED you used and the tolerances for that particular color temp range per LED? Do they match, are their any areas that have a different color temp than the others?

Those are the kinds of things that go into a quality made product, as well as being the kind of thing a discerning purchaser looks at. It is the reason we get lighting questions about poor results with mixed lighting. You can use it, but it makes getting the results you want tougher. I'm all for DIY for those things that the DIY will not impact the results. Lighting can be tough one.