NANLUX has put out a new video explaining how their Nebula C8 Color Light Engine, which is the industry’s first eight-color LED light engine, benefits skin tone reproduction.
Nebula C8 Light Engine
According to NANLUX, the Nebula C8 Light Engine is capable of delivering
exceptional light quality in both white and colored light.
Its eight colors (Deep Red, Red, Amber, Lime, Green, Cyan, Blue, Indigo), combined with an advanced mixing algorithm, enable an ultra-wide CCT range from 1,000K to 20,000K, which at least to my knowledge, is the widest range currently available. It also features a ±200 Green/Magenta adjustment, broader color gamut coverage, and claimed higher saturation.
NANLUX states that when compared to conventional color engines, the Nebula C8 achieves superior fidelity and skin tone accuracy in white light.
Looking back at light source technology, NANLUX and the industry have progressed in color fixtures from 4-color and 5-color solutions (RGBW/RGBWW) to 6-color systems (RGBLAC), and in bi-color fixtures from traditional Warm White & Cool White solutions to designs incorporating red and green LEDs.
With these goals in mind, NANLUX redefined its technological direction and embarked on a path of research and development that ultimately created the Nebula Light Engine.
With the Nebula Light Engine, NANLUX aims to provide users with a more precise, efficient, and safer creative experience.
The Nebula C8 is the first color light engine in the Nebula light engine series. The Nebula C8 Full Color Light Engine is the industry’s first eight-color light engine, which is claimed to achieve full coverage of the entire visible spectrum. With NANLUX’s proprietary color-mixing algorithm, its eight colors are said to be precisely balanced and seamlessly blended, delivering a wider CCT range and a broader color gamut.
The Nebula C8 is an evolution of NANLUX’s RGBLAC six-color light engine. The Nebula C8 builds on this with the addition of two more colors – deep red and indigo. This fills the gaps found in traditional color light engines, producing a more complete spectrum and offering a wider range of color temperatures and richer colors.
With the addition of the color deep red, the Nebula C8 Color Light Engine achieves the industry’s widest CCT range of 1,000K-20,000K, fully covering all color temperature needs in production.
The low end of Nebula C8’s CCT range has gone to 1000K, far below the color temperature of sunrise or candlelight, delivering exceptional capability for shaping ultra-warm tones.
In addition to the ultra-wide CCT range, the Nebula C8 also supports +/-200 green/magenta adjustment across its entire color temperature range, allowing users to fine-tune the tint at any color temperature with precision.
The Evoke 600C, which uses the Nebula C8 Color Light Engine, can achieve 82% coverage of the CIE 1931 visible color gamut. It is 6% higher than Rec. 2020 in the visible color gamut and has 94% coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space. It has a claimed CRI of 98, a TLCI of 98, and TM-30 scores of Rf 96 and Rg 100.
As a comparison, the competing Aputure STORM 700x has a 70% coverage of the Rec. 2020 color gamut. It has a claimed rating for both CRI and TLCI of 95. The light also has claimed SSI scores of 87 at both 3200 and 5600K, as well as TM-30 ratings at Rf 95 and Rg 100.
The natural rendering of human skin tones depends on the fixture’s full coverage of the red spectral range. However, in most color light engines available in the industry, the red spectrum leans toward orange, making skin tones appear pale and less natural both to the eye and on camera.
The Nebula C8 extends its original 645 nm red color with an added 665 nm deep-red color. This extends coverage across the red spectrum, delivering what NANLUX states as richer, healthier skin tones with a natural vibrancy.
Compared with RGBW and RGBWW, Nebula C8 is claimed to deliver smoother and more accurate RGB transitions, addressing the common color distortion issues seen in traditional light engines during color blending.
Safety is always a top priority for NANLUX, both on-set operational safety and the user’s health. These were also taken into account during the development of the Nebula C8 Light Engine. After carefully refining its spectral distribution, the indigo LED has been engineered to eliminate ultraviolet wavelengths below 400 nm, thereby avoiding UV hazards to the skin and eyes of crew and talent on set, and ensuring safer, prolonged lighting use.
