5pacey
New member
I am not going to do any in-depth reviews, those have been provided by others in great depth and much more detail than I can provide. Just wanted to share my first impression and ask for your counter opinions.
The Kessil
I've installed the Kessil couple months ago over my 30 Gal temp/holding tank and pretty much was greeted with what one would expect - lots of light and just as much very cool shimmer almost exactly the same as you see when you're snorkling in some tropical shallow with white sand and some reefs. Beautiful, clear happy/sunny look.
Sunny vs blue is adjustable with a knob or 0-10v capable controller. Intensity also adjustable w/another knob or another 0-10v control channel. Pretty much perfect, with exception of low end intensity adjustment, which basically cuts out at 5-10 % and the light just turns off. Annoying for sure because I would like the full dawn to dusk capability and this pretty much rules it out. Not completely, but its not going to be full dawn and full dusk effect for sure. Again, not the end of the world, but a thorn / imperfection. And I know many argue that this is meaningless.
So.. I was like, meh... ok... Radion's going to beat that for sure. Its got uber controllability and everyone (including the manufacturer) says that they are 0-100% adjustable. I'll be able to control it w/the WXM module, they have awesome mounts now, all coolness etc etc. So basically its the light to beat right?
The Radion
Ok, so I had a XR 15W Pro laying around for couple months now for another project that I haven't fully defined yet, and decided to just stick it on the same tank and see how it beats the Kessil... Especially now since Radions are on the Web wide 10% sale and it would be a good time to grab few XR30 Pros just so I get them @ a good price. But... wanted to make sure there aren't any gotchas even though I've been drooling over Radions for some time as the coolest thing since sliced bread in LED lighting.
So I unseal the light box, the mount box, put them together, shove the Kessil on an ugly gooseneck to the back and turn it down to 0%, put the cool Radion on a cool mount up on the tank and flip the switch.
Aaand... wow, nice light, lots of shimmer too... BUT...! Its a freaking disco light show! ... Suddenly all the posts I read about many lights having the disco ball effect issue started coming back and flooding my memory. I always attributed them to the cheapo lights out there and DIY's w/crappy layouts and bad optics... but a Radion!? Disappointed hugely, my excitement bubble completely deflated.
I played w/controls a bit (just the buttons, so not full 100% control), and yes it does 0-100%-0 intensity and you can cycle through different color modes etc. But each and every one has the red shimmer ghosts like an old TV with really badly screwed up convergence setup between the RGB channels.
Not sure here / state of confusion and disbelief...
Q1: Have I been spoiled by the Kessil and the dense matrix LED cluster with a single lens and perfect color blending all into sunny white with smooth blue intensity adjustment?
Q2: Is the Radion I have somehow defective?
Q3: Is it simply a matter of turning off the Red and/or tweaking the different color channels to remove/minimize the bad convergence effect?
Here are my thoughts so far:
a) I suspect that Radion I have is fine - have no reason to believe there is anything wrong w/it.
b) All lights with LED clusters w/separate optics per emmiter may have the convergence problem.
c) With some finer color channel tweaking on the Radion (which I have not done), I could probably minimize or at least reduce the currntly just completely jarring disco ball effect, but this will in effect remove the benefit of having some of the colors in the Radion matrix.
d) Yes I effectively have been spoiled by the Kessil.
e) I really want(ed) to like the Radion, and was mentally totally shocked that real life effect was so much inferior (purely due to misconvergent shimmer issue) to the Kessil. I am seriously gravitating back towards the Kessil camp now having seen & experienced the two lighs side by side. I started appreciating the excitement and wanting people have been expressing towards the new Kessil AP700 panel. Its flat (if anyone had a problem w/the coke can form factor of the Kessils so far - which I don't, I actually like that kind a), its basically 2 A360's sort a, but I am sure newer technology (both emitters and optics) etc etc. What I don't know is if it will do full 0-100%-0 intensity adjustment, or still has the annoying 5-10% cut-off. It uses a Meanwell driver and I know from my DIY days that they used to have the cut-off when I played w/Cree emitters and meanwells, so I fear that the AP700 may have it too. But... its not stated anywhere one way or another, and I have not seen the ligh in person so I can only hope that its full 0-100%. If it were, then its a spot on perfect light. Radions don't come close. Even though its effectively $150 more expensive for the same amount of light as a XR 30W Pro, if you compare MSRP.
f) They are both essentially 90W lights w/a single matrix from two top manufacturers, yet so different at the same time.
What do you think / know / heard / experienced?
Best,
Spacey
The Kessil
I've installed the Kessil couple months ago over my 30 Gal temp/holding tank and pretty much was greeted with what one would expect - lots of light and just as much very cool shimmer almost exactly the same as you see when you're snorkling in some tropical shallow with white sand and some reefs. Beautiful, clear happy/sunny look.
Sunny vs blue is adjustable with a knob or 0-10v capable controller. Intensity also adjustable w/another knob or another 0-10v control channel. Pretty much perfect, with exception of low end intensity adjustment, which basically cuts out at 5-10 % and the light just turns off. Annoying for sure because I would like the full dawn to dusk capability and this pretty much rules it out. Not completely, but its not going to be full dawn and full dusk effect for sure. Again, not the end of the world, but a thorn / imperfection. And I know many argue that this is meaningless.
So.. I was like, meh... ok... Radion's going to beat that for sure. Its got uber controllability and everyone (including the manufacturer) says that they are 0-100% adjustable. I'll be able to control it w/the WXM module, they have awesome mounts now, all coolness etc etc. So basically its the light to beat right?
The Radion
Ok, so I had a XR 15W Pro laying around for couple months now for another project that I haven't fully defined yet, and decided to just stick it on the same tank and see how it beats the Kessil... Especially now since Radions are on the Web wide 10% sale and it would be a good time to grab few XR30 Pros just so I get them @ a good price. But... wanted to make sure there aren't any gotchas even though I've been drooling over Radions for some time as the coolest thing since sliced bread in LED lighting.
So I unseal the light box, the mount box, put them together, shove the Kessil on an ugly gooseneck to the back and turn it down to 0%, put the cool Radion on a cool mount up on the tank and flip the switch.
Aaand... wow, nice light, lots of shimmer too... BUT...! Its a freaking disco light show! ... Suddenly all the posts I read about many lights having the disco ball effect issue started coming back and flooding my memory. I always attributed them to the cheapo lights out there and DIY's w/crappy layouts and bad optics... but a Radion!? Disappointed hugely, my excitement bubble completely deflated.
I played w/controls a bit (just the buttons, so not full 100% control), and yes it does 0-100%-0 intensity and you can cycle through different color modes etc. But each and every one has the red shimmer ghosts like an old TV with really badly screwed up convergence setup between the RGB channels.
Not sure here / state of confusion and disbelief...
Q1: Have I been spoiled by the Kessil and the dense matrix LED cluster with a single lens and perfect color blending all into sunny white with smooth blue intensity adjustment?
Q2: Is the Radion I have somehow defective?
Q3: Is it simply a matter of turning off the Red and/or tweaking the different color channels to remove/minimize the bad convergence effect?
Here are my thoughts so far:
a) I suspect that Radion I have is fine - have no reason to believe there is anything wrong w/it.
b) All lights with LED clusters w/separate optics per emmiter may have the convergence problem.
c) With some finer color channel tweaking on the Radion (which I have not done), I could probably minimize or at least reduce the currntly just completely jarring disco ball effect, but this will in effect remove the benefit of having some of the colors in the Radion matrix.
d) Yes I effectively have been spoiled by the Kessil.
e) I really want(ed) to like the Radion, and was mentally totally shocked that real life effect was so much inferior (purely due to misconvergent shimmer issue) to the Kessil. I am seriously gravitating back towards the Kessil camp now having seen & experienced the two lighs side by side. I started appreciating the excitement and wanting people have been expressing towards the new Kessil AP700 panel. Its flat (if anyone had a problem w/the coke can form factor of the Kessils so far - which I don't, I actually like that kind a), its basically 2 A360's sort a, but I am sure newer technology (both emitters and optics) etc etc. What I don't know is if it will do full 0-100%-0 intensity adjustment, or still has the annoying 5-10% cut-off. It uses a Meanwell driver and I know from my DIY days that they used to have the cut-off when I played w/Cree emitters and meanwells, so I fear that the AP700 may have it too. But... its not stated anywhere one way or another, and I have not seen the ligh in person so I can only hope that its full 0-100%. If it were, then its a spot on perfect light. Radions don't come close. Even though its effectively $150 more expensive for the same amount of light as a XR 30W Pro, if you compare MSRP.
f) They are both essentially 90W lights w/a single matrix from two top manufacturers, yet so different at the same time.
What do you think / know / heard / experienced?
Best,
Spacey
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