"RagLite" Is A Flexible, Waterproof, And Portable LED Lighting Concept

"RagLite" Is A Flexible, Waterproof, And Portable LED Lighting Concept

The RagLite LED systems are a product seeking backing on Kickstarter to do a production run of what appear to be LED strips on fabric that can be rolled up, powered by battery, are waterproof, and claim a CRI of 95. With several rewards being offered, including various sizes of their light, they seek to raise about $25,000. Read on for their video and more information on these unique lights.

If you have ever shot a scene in a car, you know how tricky it is to get light on your talent by hiding a light around the dash and getting the intensity and quality just right. If you've ever flown for a video shoot but didn't have the budget for excess media baggage or local gear rentals, it looks like the RagLite could easily be packed and taken along.

Below is their Kickstarter video.

Their main light for video and photo professionals is the RagLite Cine, which boasts a CRI of 95, 0-100% dimming without flicker, 3200K or 5600K (different models achieve these in different ways), and options for powering with a battery.

The 14" x 24" Cine version comes at $2,400 donation level, the 14" x 12" at $1,750, and the 6" x 6" is $750. I did not see any information on the level of lumens or footcandles on these models, so it's hard to compare these lights to other systems without knowing how much output they will provide. To add some perspective, the cost of the largest version Raglite is right up there next to the Celeb Light from Kino Flo (an amazing light, one of my personal favorites) so it's certainly not cheap.

fstoppers-raglite-LED-1

In my opinion, the most attractive of their products is not the expensive Cine version, but rather the smaller "RGB" or "Original" models. Having a portable, versatile light for special uses (under water?!) can be very helpful when lighting backgrounds for interviews or working in tricky situations.

To learn more, check out the Raglite Kickstarter.

What do you think? Is this a unique product or something you would never use?

[via No Film School via Kickstarter]

Mike Wilkinson's picture

Mike Wilkinson is an award-winning video director with his company Wilkinson Visual, currently based out of Lexington, Kentucky. Mike has been working in production for over 10 years as a shooter, editor, and producer. His passion lies in outdoor adventures, documentary filmmaking, photography, and locally-sourced food and beer.

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31 Comments

I know others have faith in them and have used them with a lot of success, but I still have no faith in LEDs. The color on them is usually off, and they're never really soft.

Regardless, interesting concept.

I agree, for music photographers LED lights are the worst.

You're kidding right....correct me I am wrong but this just looks exacty like 5050 waterproof LED strip lighting attached to a piece of fabric. You can buy these lights in warm or white light for around $3.20 AUD per metre here in Australia, completely dimmable, same 5600k or 3200k colour temperature, and very low power draw and waterproof...what a joke

My first toughts exactly!!

"You can use it whan camping.." They can't be serious...

They just beat Apple as "most overpriced product of the year"!!!

Soon in DX for only $99,00

Mine will be $750-1000. This is a joke and won't get patent and I'll make sure it's never sold. P.S. it won't show up anywhere because my intellectual property design patent is already pending

Yeah, but it's like...............professional..............dude..............yeah...

Cheers Janaka. Do you have a link to that place. Im also in OZ. Cheers mate!

Just search 5050 LED on ebay. It's such a common product available in many different lengths, colours, temperatures.

e.g

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5050-SMD-Cool-White-Waterproof-DC-12V-5M-300L...

Man, this is so overpriced!

Great and very interesting concept...not for me personally however I see its uses. They have a following behind them and the final images/video to back it. Wish them all the success.

Gotta love the "photography tax" of something being designed for photo or video. If this exact same thing was actually in a camping store designed for camping as they suggest it could be used for the price would be under $100, but since it is designed for photographers we have to pay $2,400 for a sheet of dimmable LED's.

Very cool, impressive, idea that I will never buy because the price is insultingly high. Kinda reminds me of the icelight. ;)

What you said. I can understand the mentality of having a product that does a similar job, and in a unique and versatile way, but there's no way that will command a price similar to tried and true product that has been a staple on productions for many years.

A Sony 7R sells for $2300 and they want $2400 for a light? They are looking for $25,000 (about 10 lights) and I think the costs for Sony were a bit higher than 25k to fund the 7R. Something is not adding up here!

A Sony 7S will go for ~$2400, and you won't need these lights for it...

While I do find the pricing to be somewhat hilarious, you are comparing apples and oranges. You are comparing someone who needs a kickstart in order to produce their first product with SONY which is a freaking giant in electronic equipment production. Sony CAN afford to launch 30 products and only mass produce 1 if the others don't do good. Yes it's bad for business but they have the resources to do it. They can afford to bite the bullet and make experiments on new technology stuff, firsts of their kind, and release them to the public ( like the RX1, translucent mirror, mirrorless FX etc ). A lot more than Canon and Nikon.

My point of the post was simply that usually a $2400 product costs more than 10x it's cost to develop. The price/developeemt ration seems unusual, that's all.

Price is a bit insane I think.

Wow, this is just an example of how greed completely ruins the hardware scene in photography.

Completely agree. Pricing like this should never be encouraged unless the product is on par quality wise.

I love the concept but I don't think LEDs should be that expensive. This gives me an idea to try the LED strips in Ace Hardware. Thanks!

The trouble with the photography world is companies think they can charge the earth for their products.
You only have to read about the financial trouble Nikon & Canon are in at present.
It's like everything, the bubble will eventually burst

I wish I could get this kind of publicity for my Kickstarter project which is actually about taking photographs.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simongking/cowboy-up-a-photobook.

i saw a little girl make a "raglite" on youtube a few months ago with some LED strip lights and whatever backing was close at hand. to think she was potentially sitting on a $745 profit at that moment!

smd strips taped to a cloth ok next.

I agree with most of you here, these seem rather overpriced relative to the materials. I would never drop $2,400 on something like this.

I do see the application for these as a special accent light, one of those things you throw in the bottom of your kit bag and every once in a while it will come in handy, but really wouldn't want to spend more than $150 on something like that. They are much cheaper ways of having an accent lighting solution to add to your kit.

material cost isn't the only reasoning behind the price of products. there's development costs, R&D for new products, paying employees from assembly workers and packagers all the way up to boss, etc.

You will not get a patent. Mine is more pixel dense, cri 97-100, 3000k, 5000k, 6000k. 12,000 lumens and 60,000 lumens. And most importantly my patent is already pending. LEDS attached to fabric is the design patent submitted 4mo ago. Been designing for a year. Gary job trying to steal IP but it won't work.

at 3:05 I thought the guy on the left started freestyling lol
interesting item though