LED lights on a G11 - warning home-build kit!! (4 <100kb)

[John_Baker]

Inspired by various devices and widgets at the recent Focus Show, I thought I would save myself some money and have a "Blue Peter moment" and try building an LED light unit for my G11. These are different to flash, as they work on the basis of being a constant “modeling light”, they also do not increase the light significantly, but they do illuminate the subject and remove shadows, etc.

The first attempt consisted of a couple of really expensive head torches (ok, so they were from the local pound shop!), each unit had a meager 5 bulbs, while they worked, they did not really do a lot.

I then decided I need more light, after a bit of looking around I found the ideal unit, each light was made up of 24 LEDs – introducing the “Über LED Camera Light” – now we are not talking expensive, they are £2.99 a unit!!!



The lights have magnets on the back and were originally simply stuck to small right-angle brackets. The first modification was that the lights needed to be permanently fixed to the brackets to keep them rigid. The brackets are then attached to the adapter by some old bicycle inner tube, which allows wedges to be placed at the rear to refine the focus of the lights, plus allows the light to be moved.



In the picture I have fitted on the lens a high quality Minolta Achromatic CL49-200, +4 Dioptre filter - This allows this sort of image, I am sorry I really wanted to post a dragonfly, but it is still a bit cold for them, so you get another watch shot. But it has depth and shows well additional DoF you get from the smaller sensor.



The camera above also fitted with a very small Olympus 1.4x Teleconverter, this increases the magnification, while maintaining a nice working distance - it basically gives this sort of effect...



Posted as a bit of fun and to show you do not have to spend a fortune to get some working kit. A simple bit of rewiring would allow the batteries (3 x AAA per unit) to be moved to a remote battery pack and also incorporate a simple on/off switch.
Enjoy...

[Roger_Provins]

Well John you certainly deserve your Blue Peter badge for that! Excellent

[John_Baker]

Well John you certainly deserve your Blue Peter badge for that! Excellent

Comes from being made redundant recently and having far too much time on my hands!!! But every day is a photo day and the sun has shined every day, so I am feeling good...

This is the first version with the small lights, the magnets were great and held the units nicely.



Another view of the beast

[Guitarist]

Excellent! Now I've got my lens adapter, I will be looking to make something similar. One problem......I sold my DSLR and all its kit and caboodle because I wanted a more compact set-up with no bits. Ah well..............

[kt2]

I'm really enjoying your experiments with the G11.

Sorry to hear about you being made redundant .

Kt

[John_Baker]

I wanted a more compact set-up with no bits. Ah well..............

You don’t have to go quite this silly, but at the end of the day, I bought it for the macro facility and all this helps!!

Sorry to hear about you being made redundant .
Kt

It is a worry, but I strongly believe one door shuts, others open. After 11 years in post I am really looking for new challenges and meeting new people. I lost my mum in November and it bought home the reality of what is important in life, a job is only a job.

One last pic, G11 sporting a nice extra viewfinder from an old rangefinder.
Allows quick alignment when using the 21mm lens!! The small Op/Tech hand strap was from Focus and works a treat...

[bob58]

interesting John, does it light the subject enough, have you tried it on an insect yet,
i have read that flash with macro can quite often blow the subject out, so this looks an interesting set up

[alanworland]

Great idea, seems to work well, perhaps you could sell them for a living!

[bob58]

ssshhhhhh next move was to offer to assist in trialing it

[John_Baker]

i have read that flash with macro can quite often blow the subject out, so this looks an interesting set up

Hi Bob, normally when I am using my 180 and DSLR, I will fit my flash on a bracket and then use a big diffuser to get light all over, or possibly use a couple of flashes off camera to light from different angles. While I can do all that on the G11 it does look like serious overkill. These are really only just modelling lights, so they are great for lifting shadows and getting light into the corners. By having a pair I can either balance them or put them to one side to add an element of directional lighting. All the “gubbins” I am adding to the lens is basically to give me additional working space, the normal camera when using close up, focuses at about 2cm at 28mm. Fitting the 1.45 x converter takes the lens up to just over 200mm, the +4 dioptre takes the close focusing at infinity to 25cm – but the magnification is greater than 1:1 – I am yet to test exactly what magnification I am getting. Unfortunately I am yet to find an insect to test it on – I will post some results when I get them…

Re starting as a business, there are plenty of these systems around, but many have a small number of LEDs, while you can get panels, there are none quite like this!!!