BLAIR: The Best Tunable White Light

The BLAIR light engine comprises five colors of LED emitters: Blue/Lime/Amber/Indigo/Red. These five colors are mixed to create a rich white light spectrum. By varying the levels, the color temperature can be adjusted from 2500K to 10,000K, and green bias can be shifted by a 100% +/- range, as prescribed by the ASC MITC standard. The STORM 400x also has Limited HSIC+ and x,y coordinate modes, which allow the full range of color adjustment available with the BLAIR light engine.

Real daylight, tungsten quartz, and other full-spectrum natural light sources output UV and near-UV light. While such light is not very visible to the human eye, the effect it has on many surfaces is. Under this near-UV light, these surfaces will fluoresce, reflecting back light brightly at a wavelength that humans (and our cameras) see. Detergent and toothpaste manufacturers use this phenomenon to make our clothing and teeth appear brighter and whiter, but fluorescing occurs naturally on many surfaces, including skin, eyes, and fingernails. The addition of the indigo emitter in the BLAIR light engine replicates the near-UV of real daylight and tungsten, making it the first LED light to truly replace natural light.

The BLAIR light engine in the STORM 400x is optimized to deliver the best tunable white light at the highest brightness per watt. A large part of the visible spectrum is in the green range, but it is weighted more towards lime than true technical green. By using a lime emitter, the BLAIR light engine outputs higher light levels. This increased efficiency is part of the reason why, when set to 5600K, the STORM 400x rivals the brightness of the LS 600x Pro.

There are two White Light Standards, Blackbody and CIE Daylight. Blackbody is the color that items burn at different temperatures and is a mathematically derived standard. CIE Daylight takes into account the natural shift to slightly green that the Earth’s atmosphere introduces to daylight. The CIE Daylight standard is slightly shifted green compared to the Blackbody standard above 4000K, which is the color temperature range associated with daylight. The STORM 400x can switch its White Light Standard to Blackbody or CIE Daylight. Whether you need to match other LED lights, which are calibrated to the Blackbody standard, or you are matching real daylight, the STORM 400x allows you to switch between the standards.

The STORM 400x features a new clamping Bowens Mount, the ProLock. The ProLock is fast and easy to use to mount Bowens modifiers, and it holds them securely in place. The outer ring screws down onto the Bowens modifier, locking it to the light so that the modifier will not shift or wobble. Optical modifiers such as the CF7 Fresnel will not shift or sag in the mount, keeping them correctly aligned to the light for the best optical performance.