WE TAKE LIGHT SERIOUSLY!
The goal of this page is to inform our customers about the LED technologies and educate them on why they should select our product over our competitor's. We understand that there are lot of lighting option available on the market for underwater video and photo. Its important to note that not all lights are the same. Most underwater light manufacturers typically don't tell you the truth about their products in terms of light quality, light output power, burn time, efficiency, beam angle and color rendering index. Hopefully, by reading this page, as an educated customer you can make an informed choice when it come to your lighting application.
PHYSICS OF LIGHT
To understand how white LED light works we must first understand the physics of light. Visible light is a portion of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum that is visible to human eyes. The EM radiation is characterized by its wave length which is normally expressed as nanometers (nm). The portion of EM spectrum that is visible to human eye spans from 380nm to 780nm.
White light is a combination of lights of different wavelengths in the EM spectrum. When white light travels though materials with different reflective index such a glass prism, the individual waves lengths of light leave the prism at different angles making it possible to view individual light colors that make up the white light. This is the idea behind spectroscopy which we use to measure and characterized quality of white light.
At Anglerfish Creative Lighting we used the latest tools to analyze the light output of our LEDs
HOW DO LEDS PRODUCE WHITE LIGHT
There are two methods of producing white light: RGB method and phosphor method. In the RGB method a mixture of red, green and blue LEDs are combined into one LED chip. The RGB white method produces white light by combining the output from red, green and blue LEDs. This technique is referred to as an additive colour method.
RGB white gives user control over the exact colour of the light. However, white light from RGB tends to render pastel colours unnaturally, which results in poor colour rendering index. |
The phosphor method involves the use of a blue LED light source to convert the blue light (440-460nm) into other colors by phosphors, chemicals that absorb light and then give it off at a different higher wave length. Different phosphor recipes are used to convert the blue light into green and red. Therefore, if you combine a blue LED with some of these phosphors, you get white LED. Its important or note that it is the phosphor formula that ultimately determined the CRI and quality of the light produced by the LED.
|
QUALITY OF LED LIGHT
Not all white lights are the same. The highest quality of light is the one that come from daylight. This is because daylight provides full-spectrum light which covers the entire EM spectrum evenly. Halogen and high quality incandescent lights also provide the highest quality of white light.
To the naked eye, the subtle differences between an LED light and daylight may not be profound. However, the quality of the light has profound impact on the image quality and image contrast when the image is recorded on the digital camera sensor.
To the naked eye, the subtle differences between an LED light and daylight may not be profound. However, the quality of the light has profound impact on the image quality and image contrast when the image is recorded on the digital camera sensor.
Anglerfish Creative Lighting custom high color rendering index LED lights dramatically improve the image contrast by allowing colors to appear clear, vivid and distinguishable. This allows the photographer to record the highest image quality on to the digital sensor.
HIGH CRI
CRI (color rendering index) is a measure of how accurately a light source illuminates the subject’s true colors. At Anglerfish Creative Lighting we strive to produce underwater LED lighting solutions that have CRI of up to 96 and are able to produce white light that approximate halogen or incandescent lighting and natural daylight.
LUMINOUS EFFICACY
Luminous efficacy is is a measure of how well a light source produces visible light. It is essentially a measure of how well an LED will produce light. It is typically measured in lumens per watt. A typical LED can produce 100-130 lumens per watt of power. Therefore a 100W LED can have an output of about 10,000 to 13,000 lumens. High luminous efficacy is always at the cost of low quality or low CRI light, A high quality light from an LED will always have lower output than the one from a low CRI LED.
COLOR MIXING TECHNOLOGY
By implementing a hybrid solution of mixing a high CRI warm-white and cool-white color temperature LEDs on a single chip we are able to change the LED color temperature from 2700K to 5600K while maintaining high CRI value.
|
|
LED DRIVERS
An LED driver is an electrical circuit that regulates power to an LED or a string of LEDs. Using one is very important in preventing damage to the LEDs as the forward voltage of a high-power LED changes with temperature. Most underwater LED dive lights utilize a constant voltage power supply drive the LEDs. This not the most optimal way to drive the LEDs since as the LEDs heat up, the current supplied to the LEDs also changes. Since the light output for LED is determined by the supply current, it is best to use a constant current driver. This type of driver supplies a constant current to the LEDs regardless of the LED forward voltage.
Anglerfish Creative Lighting LED video lights utilize constant current LED drivers. Each component is carefully selected for high power application and is designed to be extremely efficient. Our LED drivers can achieve efficiency of up to 96-98% compared to our competitors (80% maximum efficiency). This mean more of the battery power is delivered to the LED. |
A 100W high power constant current LED Driver designed by Anglerfish Creative Lighting
|
DIMMING LEDS
There are two methods for dimming an LED: pulse width modulation (PWM) and current dimming.
LEDs have the ability to turn on and off very quickly. By turning on and off an LED at very high speeds (high frequency), the LED can be dimmed. The duty cycle, or the amount of time the LED is on in one cycle is proportional to the light output. The drawback from PWM is flicker which may result at higher frame rate. By selecting high PWM frequencies flicker can be eliminating. The benefit of PWM method is that its very simple and cost effective to implement.
Analog dimming or current dimming changes LED light output by simply adjusting the DC current in the LED strings. The drawback with current dimming is that reducing the supply current to the LEDs will result in small shift in color temperature. Moreover, analog dimming only allow 10:1 dimming ratio where as PWM can achieve higher dimming ratios of up to 3000:1. Analog dimming is hardware intensive and costly to implement. However, analog dimming offers zero flicker at any frame rate.
Anglerfish Creative Lighting LED drivers are configured to deliver both analog and PWM dimming. The user has the ability to select both PWM or analog dimming. Moreover, the PWM frequency can be user configured to achieve zero flicker for high speed underwater video application.
LEDs have the ability to turn on and off very quickly. By turning on and off an LED at very high speeds (high frequency), the LED can be dimmed. The duty cycle, or the amount of time the LED is on in one cycle is proportional to the light output. The drawback from PWM is flicker which may result at higher frame rate. By selecting high PWM frequencies flicker can be eliminating. The benefit of PWM method is that its very simple and cost effective to implement.
Analog dimming or current dimming changes LED light output by simply adjusting the DC current in the LED strings. The drawback with current dimming is that reducing the supply current to the LEDs will result in small shift in color temperature. Moreover, analog dimming only allow 10:1 dimming ratio where as PWM can achieve higher dimming ratios of up to 3000:1. Analog dimming is hardware intensive and costly to implement. However, analog dimming offers zero flicker at any frame rate.
Anglerfish Creative Lighting LED drivers are configured to deliver both analog and PWM dimming. The user has the ability to select both PWM or analog dimming. Moreover, the PWM frequency can be user configured to achieve zero flicker for high speed underwater video application.
LIGHT BEAM ANGLE UNDERWATER
To come (under construction)