Aputure 300d

I have been wanting the Mini 20C since they first showed it. The others look pretty cool too. They changed the Tri8C design quite a bit since last year. I own two of the Aputure LS 1S and have been happy with them overall. It has enough punch to use as a key through my Medium Chimera and look good doing it, although not enough punch to use my 40 degree egg crate for the Chimera.
 
AFAIK LED is about as efficient as HMI at producing light so the claim that this 300W LED is brighter than a 800W HMI Joker is suspect.
 
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Bern Caughey said:
AFAIK LED is about as efficient as HMI at producing light so the claim that this 300W LED is brighter than a 800W HMI Joker is suspect.
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With LED panel lights I agree, but these chip on board LEDs are very bright. I bet it's not far off matching an 800W HMI.
 
There is no way this will come close to a joker 800. Even if numbers are up there, it'll be from a full spot at the shortest distance. If you need any real punch (distance) the output drops by HUGE amounts. I could be wrong but I doubt it. In the video he says it's equivalent to a tungsten 2k yet brighter than an 800w HMI? I appreciate his enthusiasm but these claims are all over the place.

I'm interested in the mini and Tri panels though, they look great.
 
The 300 may be great too, but yeah, I want that mini (or a couple) and the Tri will be a great NPF replacement for my 672s. I always feel like the 672s may fall apart right in front of a client. Love the light, but very plasticky and horrible battery mounts. They finally got the battery mounts right on the Tri8.
 
For me the most interesting in the video aside from the very powerful 300w light was the china lantern attachement. As much as i like powerful lights, if you want soft lighting you need to bounce and diffuse them - which means c stands, bounce boards and a lot of gripping. I need easy to install LARGE source solution. (large, not necessarily powerful in terms of wattage). So far my only solution was extremely large LED panels from Kinoflo, ARRI or Litegear - all of which are VERY pricey.
This lantern (which looks like it can be easily folded) is definitely one of the better options i have seen in a while to get soft lighting without having a ton of gripping(and cheap!)
 
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Very cool! I may well spring for 3 or 4 of these. Can think of a tonne of uses for them. I've been hugely impressed with Aputure's tiny M9 LEDs, and if the colour rendering on these is as good as those little ones - then it's good enough to key faces with.
 
Grug said:
Very cool! I may well spring for 3 or 4 of these. Can think of a tonne of uses for them. I've been hugely impressed with Aputure's tiny M9 LEDs, and if the colour rendering on these is as good as those little ones - then it's good enough to key faces with.
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i've got one of those, they are very useful little eye/face lights, so easy to rig and place in obscure spots too!
 
ozmorphasis said:
I always feel like the 672s may fall apart right in front of a client. Love the light, but very plasticky and horrible battery mounts.
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A 672 with two 970 batteries mounted on the fixture makes it very top heavy and fragile.

One of mine split at the seams, and both of them had electronic circuit failures when two of the supplied batteries didn't connect properly and burnt out both PCBs.
Aputure sent me two new PCBs and real panels.

I now mount my 672 batteries half way down the stand to save the fixture from breaking into bits around the weak 1/4inch mounting point. I've spliced D-Taps into the power cables and rig NP to V-Mount/D-Tap plates on the lighting stand. It brings the COG much lower, and means that I can now trust anyone on the shoot to move the lights for me.
 
Duncan Craig said:
A 672 with two 970 batteries mounted on the fixture makes it very top heavy and fragile.

One of mine split at the seams, and both of them had electronic circuit failures when two of the supplied batteries didn't connect properly and burnt out both PCBs.
Aputure sent me two new PCBs and real panels.

I now mount my 672 batteries half way down the stand to save the fixture from breaking into bits around the weak 1/4inch mounting point. I've spliced D-Taps into the power cables and rig NP to V-Mount/D-Tap plates on the lighting stand. It brings the COG much lower, and means that I can now trust anyone on the shoot to move the lights for me.
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Like I said, looking forward to the Tri-8. ; )

...but thanks for the breakdown of how it can be improved. Just not my thing to do that kind of splicing.
 
The only way I would use or own 672s would be for a small studio setup where they are permanently affixed. For hauling around and actually using in the field, they are about as robust as egg shells.
 
I've had mine for over two years and they've been on many shoots. I think they are fairly tough until you mount two large batteries on them... I guess you might consider a design flaw... Ha.
 
Agree with you Grug - could possibly find many uses for this light. The 120 slightly intested me - but was looking for more punch. Even though I doubt the claims about the hmi equivalent, at the price point, if the color is good - then I think these might sell well. (but it's certainly a very fast growing segment in LED tech)
 
yoclay said:
I am thinking about putting together a group buy for the 300D over at reduser. Trying to gauge interest...any of you folks up for it ?
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I already chimed in on your bmcuser post about this, but just so folks here can gauge interest as well, count me in.
 
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