shooting colored LED lights

[Wwm2]

I'm doing some video of a piece of equipment that has a series of colored LED lights. When I shoot them they burn out to white with just a faint glow of color around. Is there a setting or a filter I should/could use to capture the full color without them burning out? I'm using a Sony HXR-NX5U camera

[smrpix]

Reduce your exposure, either by using a higher f-stop, turning down the gain, increasing the ND or increasing your shutter speed (or some combination.) That's a good camera that gives you full manual control.

It also sounds like you may simply be inadequately lighting the piece of equipment to achieve proper balance.

[jagabo]

Or you can make the LEDs dimmer:
http://www.amazon.com/Dim-%C2%AE-light-dimming-sheets/dp/B006R0VWSG/
http://www.amazon.com/LightDims-Black-Out-Electronics-Appliances/dp/B009WSN8PK/

[Cornucopia]

Or, Shoot in HDR, then Tone-Map.

Scott

[redwudz]

What I have done with overly bright LEDs and a dark background is to use a black marker on them to temporarily dim them down.
If they are the normal polycarbonate lens, the black marker will remove easily with isopropyl alcohol and has good coverage.
About 90% or so alcohol is plenty strong and works fast and is normally still safe.

If you are a bit nervous about permanent markers or marks or isopropyl, pick up some 'whiteboard' markers, Office Depot or similar carries them.
They don't cover as well, a couple of coats or dabs may improve it. Then wipe off with any cloth when done, though they don't dim as well.

You can also pick up some very small stick on 'dots'. Some office stores have stick on letters and the period works well. Easy to work with using tweezers.

I've also used some stick on dots used for etching printed circuit boards. Check RadioShack.

Give it a try. It might save you some time.

[jagabo]

Even a dot of white paper underneath some transparent tape might diffuse the light enough.

[mike20021969]

Or, Shoot in HDR, then Tone-Map.

For video?

[Cornucopia]

Yeah, for video.
You can use either an MDR/HDR capable cam or use 2 SDR cams & a beamsplitter (like a 3D rig but with no horiz. offset, instead using exposure offset).

Scott

[Wwm2]

Thank you all. I found that adjustments of the iris, gain, shutter speed and the neutral density filter did the trick. Trial and error though tweaking them all till I got it dialed in. I was hoping for a quick fix. Oh well....