Reviews
Interesting Light!
This is an interesting little light. It has an impressive range of light control. Being small, however, means it needs to be fairly close to whatever you are lighting up to make a significant lighting impact.
The light is very well built and sturdy. I like the two metal control knobs on the side - they feel robust and work well. There are even a couple of flared pieces of the case that help protect the knobs from accidentally being turned. There are two 1/4-20 threaded sockets - one on top, one on the bottom - so you can mount this to a standard tripod or other support.
There are three different modes of operation. The first one is white light mode. In this mode, you can control the brightness from 1% to 100%. You can also control the color temperature from 2500 K to 9900 K. For reference, a typical incandescent light bulb emits 2800 K light and daylight (from a blue sky) is about 6000 K. So, the range of color temperature available in this mode is impressive.
The second mode is HSI mode where HSI stands for Hue, Saturation, Intensity. Go look up an HSI color wheel. You can vary the hue from 0 degrees to 360 degrees, i.e. all the way around the color wheel. You can vary the saturation from 0% (white) to 100% (fully intense color). Intensity can be varied from 1% to 100%. You could use this mode to set the light as needed for a colorful accent light, for example.
The third mode lets you choose one of 21 "Effects" modes. There are different strobe effects, color chase effects, "club" lighting effects, flame effects, and others. Probably the most visually impressive is the "Police" effect where the light repeatedly alternates a series of blue flashes with a series of red flashes. It is eye-catching.
The light comes with short USB-A to USB-C charging cord. It take a few hours to charge the light fully but you get a lot of life from each charge.
The light also comes with a cold shoe adapter for mounting to a camera or some other compatible support. the cold shoe adapter is made of metal so make sure you do not try to mount the light on the HOT shoe of some DLSR. You might short out the hot shoe and damage your camera.
The light has a pair of magnets built into the back so that you can stick it to a piece of metal instead of using a tripod. In practice, the magnets are kind of weak. While they will hold it to, say, a refrigerator door or the side of an old Steelcase desk, the light slowly slides down the door. I wouldn't count on using the magnets to hold the light to anything.
This is a pretty small light and, for that reason, it doesn't put out a huge amount of light. There is only so much light you can get out of the LED array. So, this is mostly suited for lighting up smaller objects within a few feet. A darkened room enhances the effectiveness of the light.
My light came with two "gifts". One is a small tripod that can be used to hold the light. It really isn't very useful because (a) it is only about 3" tall and (b) it has no tilt head. Thus, the light can only be aimed parallel to the table or whatever surface the tripod is standing on. You can't tilt it up, for example, to point it at someone's face.
The second "gift" is more useful. It is a white, translucent rubber cover that turns the light into a tiny softbox. It does soften the light but at the expense of range and intensity. Also, the cover is close enough to the 1/4-20 sockets that it interferes with using a tripod. You might need to cut away a part of the cover near the sockets if you choose to use a tripod and the cover at the same time.
So, an interesting little light with an impressive amount of color control that is good for small subjects within several feet or so of the light.
The light is very well built and sturdy. I like the two metal control knobs on the side - they feel robust and work well. There are even a couple of flared pieces of the case that help protect the knobs from accidentally being turned. There are two 1/4-20 threaded sockets - one on top, one on the bottom - so you can mount this to a standard tripod or other support.
There are three different modes of operation. The first one is white light mode. In this mode, you can control the brightness from 1% to 100%. You can also control the color temperature from 2500 K to 9900 K. For reference, a typical incandescent light bulb emits 2800 K light and daylight (from a blue sky) is about 6000 K. So, the range of color temperature available in this mode is impressive.
The second mode is HSI mode where HSI stands for Hue, Saturation, Intensity. Go look up an HSI color wheel. You can vary the hue from 0 degrees to 360 degrees, i.e. all the way around the color wheel. You can vary the saturation from 0% (white) to 100% (fully intense color). Intensity can be varied from 1% to 100%. You could use this mode to set the light as needed for a colorful accent light, for example.
The third mode lets you choose one of 21 "Effects" modes. There are different strobe effects, color chase effects, "club" lighting effects, flame effects, and others. Probably the most visually impressive is the "Police" effect where the light repeatedly alternates a series of blue flashes with a series of red flashes. It is eye-catching.
The light comes with short USB-A to USB-C charging cord. It take a few hours to charge the light fully but you get a lot of life from each charge.
The light also comes with a cold shoe adapter for mounting to a camera or some other compatible support. the cold shoe adapter is made of metal so make sure you do not try to mount the light on the HOT shoe of some DLSR. You might short out the hot shoe and damage your camera.
The light has a pair of magnets built into the back so that you can stick it to a piece of metal instead of using a tripod. In practice, the magnets are kind of weak. While they will hold it to, say, a refrigerator door or the side of an old Steelcase desk, the light slowly slides down the door. I wouldn't count on using the magnets to hold the light to anything.
This is a pretty small light and, for that reason, it doesn't put out a huge amount of light. There is only so much light you can get out of the LED array. So, this is mostly suited for lighting up smaller objects within a few feet. A darkened room enhances the effectiveness of the light.
My light came with two "gifts". One is a small tripod that can be used to hold the light. It really isn't very useful because (a) it is only about 3" tall and (b) it has no tilt head. Thus, the light can only be aimed parallel to the table or whatever surface the tripod is standing on. You can't tilt it up, for example, to point it at someone's face.
The second "gift" is more useful. It is a white, translucent rubber cover that turns the light into a tiny softbox. It does soften the light but at the expense of range and intensity. Also, the cover is close enough to the 1/4-20 sockets that it interferes with using a tripod. You might need to cut away a part of the cover near the sockets if you choose to use a tripod and the cover at the same time.
So, an interesting little light with an impressive amount of color control that is good for small subjects within several feet or so of the light.
20/11/2023