Review: Wybron Cygnus VN100 LED Fixture

I knew Wybron was launching a new light- some articles can be found here, here, and (of course) here. I remember seeing it at LDI last year, but to my fault I passed it over. I was not prepared for the light that I pulled out of the box that UPS handed me.

Spec wise it’s got it goin’ on. At full on it pulls 105w with 12 RGBW LEDs pumping 2205 lumens. The built in color correction has a beautiful range from 7000k all the way down to 2800k. The optics have a set beam angle of 13° and a field angle 25° and 4 lenses to choose from (narrow, medium and wide floods, plus an elongated lens) to modify the beam. Data connects through 5 pin DMX, is daisy chain-able and RDM compatible.

Four profiles give you a range of usability from 8 and 16 bit color mixing to the option of a white LED or an intensity master. The built in strobe functions are impressive and could very well rival actual strobe fixtures out there. Probably one of the coolest features on this light is the high speed mode which is optimal for HD recording (see below).

The first thing I noticed about the light was its construction. It was a bit bigger than I expected at 10″ long and 6.5″ wide- about the same size as a Source4 PAR with a clamp. The housing is constructed from aluminum and at just over 9 pounds I didn’t feel like it was going to break in my hands like a lot of new LED fixtures I’ve used. The tilt knob was also large and sturdy feeling allowing me to crank down on it without the fear of cross threading. I was very happy to see a dedicated loop for a safety cable attached right to the fixture.

The next thing that caught my eye were the LEDs. All 12 of them. All integrated RGBW units. All very blinding (I may or may not have peaked down the barrel while it was on). The dimming on the fixture has  3000:1 ratio and is comparable to an incandescent light.  The next obvious thing to do is to test the throw of those very blinding LEDs. Since I didn’t really have a stage at my disposal, I used the next best thing: The apartment building across the street.

The distance of the garage to the third floor windows is close to 75 feet, if not more. And it punched. The color and intensity were bright and crisp. After putting the lenses in I was impressed with how little they cut the output and still flooded out the light. Shadows, both multiple and rainbow, were minimal at most.

For the quick and dirty there are a couple of cool stand alone features like 8 recordable scenes and a master / slave configuration.

The only downside for me is it’s rated at IP20 so that means dry indoor locations only. This is a bit of a bummer for me since I do a lot of outdoor work.

What I thought I was going to review was a small fixture meant for display installations. I was mistaken. Big time. I was given a light that I’m sure will give  a lot of conventional wash fixtures a run for their money. From the smooth Dimming of the LEDs all the way to 0 and a strobe that would make any rave the place to be this light packs some serious heat in a small package.

The Cygnus VN100 has an MSRP of $1,547. The Cygnus family also comes in a VN200 and MF200 model at 200 watts and very narrow and medium flood respectively.

Do I really have to give this thing back?

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Friday Flickr Lighting Porn – Will Johnson

This weeks Friday Flickr Lighting Design photo come from Will Johnson.  The above photo is from the Butler Showchoir Showcase in El Dorado, Kansas.  I love the simplicity of the design with super saturated color washes and then the white light center stage highlighting the piano player.  Excellent work Will, love this design along with all of the others from the show.

I have to give photo credit to the photographer, Martin Blake Cram.  Excellent job capturing Will’s lighting.  Check out more of Will’s work by visiting his site at www.ictwill.com.

Want to see your work featured here on iSquint?  Each Friday, I randomly select a photo from the iSquint Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool on Flickr.com.  All you have to do is add your lighting design work to the pool for a chance to be featured.  Add as many photos as you like, the more the merrier.

#LDI2010: Day One Photos On Day Two… OPPS!

I am not going to sit here and ramble on and on and on.  Here are just a couple of  the photos that I took while walking through the show floor today yesterday.  What kind of day would it be with out sharks with lasers on their heads? To everyone that couldn’t make it to LDI, we all miss you and wish you were here.  Hopefully these photos will tide you over for a bit and giving you a bit of what it is like here in Vegas.

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Friday Flickr Lighting Porn: My Turn

I’m changing it up a bit this week and showing off one of my favorite photos that I have taken.  While it may not be of a design that I have done, it is still lighting related.  I took the photo in Maui little over a year ago at a luau right as the sun was setting.  While the lighting wasn’t that great, it shows that we lighting people are pretty inventive and can put our lights ANYWHERE. I miss Maui, it was beautiful and a great time.  Maybe the LDI Show should move to Maui, I will defiantly be there!

Want to see you lighting design work featured here on iSquint?  Each Friday I randomly select a photo from the iSquint Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool and post it here.  Add as many photos of your design work as you like to the pool, the more the merrier!  A huge thanks to everyone that has already added photos, you guys are awesome and keep up the great work!

Friday Flickr Lighting Porn: Main Light

This weeks randomly selected Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Photo comes from Main Light in Wilmington, Delaware.  The photo was taken during their recent Barco/High End Open House showcasing the High End Intellaspot XT-1 and the Barco DML-1200 along with some other High End Systems lighting fixtures.  You really have to love aerials, I could stare at them all day!

Check out Main Lights Flickr Set.  They have plenty more photos from their High End Open House earlier this month.  Thanks Main Light for adding the photos to the pool!

Want to see your photos added to the iSquint Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool? Every Friday, I randomly select a photo from the Flickr Pool and feature it here on iSquint.  Add your photos to the Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool as often as you like, the more the merrier! Thanks everyone for adding your great lighting design photos to the pool, keep it up!

Friday Flickr Lighting Porn – Hoffonian

This weeks randomly selected Friday Flickr Lighting Porn comes from Flickr user Hoffonian.  Alas, I wish I could tell you more about Hoffonian and where this photo came from, but no information was associated with the image. I can tell you that this is AWESOME!  What a great use of truss, spandex and light! From some of the other images of the “truss bird” as I am I calling it, it looks as though there was some sort of exhibit or something in the belly of the beast.  What, I am not sure.  I wish I could have been there to see this in person!

Thanks Hoffonian for sharing your lighting design work on the iSquint Friday Flickr Lighting Pool.  You can see more of Hoffonian’s work by visiting their photostream on Flickr.

Want to see your lighting design featured here on iSquint?  Each Friday, I randomly select a photo from the iSquint Friday Flickr Lighting Pool.  Besure to add your photos to the pool and make sure to add some information about the design.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend everyone!

Friday Flickr Lighting Porn – HoranLD

This weeks randomly selected Friday Flickr Lighting Porn comes from Flickr user HoranLD. The photo is from a show called Macabaret that went off in October of 2005 at the Porchlight Music Theatre in the windy city, Chicago. I don’t know much about the show, but I am a HUGE fan of back lighting and silhouettes.  Add the green and WHOA, instant awesomeness.  The bowler hat makes me want to find a performance of the show and check it out.

What do you think?  How does this photo make you feel?  I love talking about color theory and would like to hear what you think.  Leave a comment here and let everyone know what you think.

Thanks HoranLD for adding your photo to the Flickr pool.  You can check out more of HoranLD’s work by visiting his Flickr page.  Want to see your lighting design work featured here on iSquint?  Add you photos to the Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool.  Each Friday I randomly select a photo from the pool and feature here.

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

Update: Thanks to Tim, (@tm204) for correcting me and providing a little bit more information on HoranLD, better known as John Horan, (@HoranLD). Check the comments section, John was featured on Live Design in 2007 as one of USITT Rising Star Designers!

Friday Flickr Lighting Porn – Da_v_id

This weeks Friday Flickr Lighting Porn comes from Da_v_id on flickr.  The above photo is from a Finish Rock band, Welmu from there 2008 performance in Vantaa Finland. From searching around the internet, I am not sure if Da_v_id lite the show, but he took a TON of awesome photos of the concert from front of house and backstage.  If you look through his set of photos from the concert, you’ll notice a PC setup running gradnMAPC, excellent!  Excellent work Da_v_id, love the photos!

Want to see your lighting design work featured here on iSquint?  Add your lighting design photos to the iSquint Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool.  Each week I randomly select a photo from the pool and feature it right here. Thanks everyone for sharing your great photos!

Friday Flickr Lighting Porn – David Perkins

This weeks randomly selected Friday Flickr Lighting Porn comes from David Perkins at Indigo Lighting.  The above photo is from his 2009 design for the HOSA National Leadership Conference. Check out some of the other photos from this design, I am really diggin the crescent shapes changing colors and of course the audience blinders.  Who doesn’t love blinders?!? It just goes to show that even in the corporate world, color and effects can play a huge role in the presentation and feel of the conference.

Thanks David for adding your design work to the Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool!  Check out David’s web site and all of his other design work at www.indigolighting.com. Want to see your work featured here?  On Fridays, I randomly select a photo from the Friday Flickr Lighting Pron Pool and feature it here.  Add as many of your lighting design photos as you like.  If you haven’t done it already, check out some of the great work designers have already added to the pool.

Summer Solstice and the iSquint Summer Contest Starts TODAY!

Welcome to the 2010 Summer Solstice!  It is officially the start of summer.  It also happens to be the longest day of the year with the most amount of sun light we’ll see all year.  That is expect for the Barrow Alaska that started it’s longest day on May 10th and won’t see night time for three months.  Can you imagine that… almost three months worth of daylight? Now that is a lot of a light!

Summer brings many well deserved vacations and holidays.  Most of us get a chance to breath easy for a week or so to spend time with family and friends at some pretty amazing places. Are you planning a special get away or visiting some place new and different?  If so, don’t forget your camera!  Like I mentioned in my City Lights post a month or so ago, always carry your camera with you, you never know when an amazing shot with reveal it’s self to you.

I am holding a summer long contest to see who can capture the essence of summer with lighting.  whether it be an amazing sun set, an awesome show that you lite or just the amazing afternoon sun bouncing off a building, I am looking for photos that really capture what summer meant to you. You can submit as many photos as you want all summer long.

On the first day of Fall, September 21st, 2010, I will announce the winner of the Summer Time Lighting Contest.  At this time, I don’t want to tell you exactly what you win as I want you to focus on the photo and not the prize.  But let me tell you, it will be SO WORTH IT.

All you have to do is add your photos all summer long to the iSquint 2010 Summer Contest Pool on Flickr.com.  At the end of summer, a panel of judges will select the best photo from the collection that best captures the 2010 summer.  The contest is only open to US Residence at this time, I’m sorry my friends out of country! :(  That doesn’t mean you can still add your summer photos though, all of us would still love to see them.

Have a safe and wonderful summer and happy photo hunting, I can’t wait to see your additions!

Friday Flickr Lighting Porn – Jeff Davis

This weeks randomly selected Friday Flickr Lighting Porn photos is of a Tuba Piece at The Academy Centerstage 2010 Production. Lighting design by Jeff A. Davis/Focus Entertainment Design. www.focus-entertainment.com.

Thanks for adding your design photos to the Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool. There are some really amazing photos up there! Thanks to everyone for adding their work, keep up the great job!

Friday Flickr Lighting Porn – Daniel (Dnny) Richert

This weeks randomly selected Friday Flickr Porn Photo comes all the way from Helsinki, Finland by Daniel Richert.  The photo is from the Alpo Ja Tomi performance back in January 2009.  From what I can understand about the “band”, it is two guys “dueling” on stage with home made “instruments” making some pretty unique sounds. I love the silhouette shots, what can I say!  I wish I could have been there for this one, watching the movers in the back move with the sounds, crazy awesome!

Check out more of Daniel’s work on his Flickr Page.  I am really diggin’ his “cable Art” photos.  Who knew something we use everyday could be so beautiful if viewed correctly?  Thanks Daniel for sharing!

Want to see your lighting design work featured here on ISquint?  Add you lighting design photos to the iSquint Friday Flickr Lighting Porn Pool on Flickr.com.  Each week, I randomly select a photo from the pool to feature here.  Thanks everyone for sharing all of your great lighting design work, keep it coming!