Aputure COB 300d II

Bern Caughey

Bern Caughey

Veteran
Wasn’t sold on the original 300d, but version II is intriguing, especially for use with Apurture’s upcoming ellipsoidal attachment.

Believe Erik’s review was previously posted somewhere on the forums, but here it is again.

Hands-on with the Aputure LS 300d II
by Erik Naso
https://www.newsshooter.com/2019/07/22/aputure-ls-300d-ii-officially-released-hands-on-review/

And today Andrew Lock posted a 40 minute review on his Vlog, Gaffer & Gear.

https://youtu.be/5wve6XW6lzw

Andrew was impressed enough by the lamp that he thinks he can send it out on rentals, & is planning on adding one or two to his lighting package. I was disappointed by the beam of the updated Fresnel attachment, but it does intensify the output significantly so appears useful for punching through a diffusion frame, & while Andrew can’t release his review of the ellipse yet due to a media embargo, he is calling it ‘the Game Changer”.

He also appears impressed by the new, or updated, softbox attachments, & will be dedicating a Vlog to them. I’m especially interested in the China Ball, & noticed Erik reviewed it recently, with an emphasis on using it for product photography.

Hands-On with the Aputure Bowens Mount Lantern
by Erik Naso
https://www.newsshooter.com/2019/08/08/hands-on-with-the-aputure-bowens-mount-lantern/

Would love to see a side-by-side comparison of the 300d II, & Hive’s “Super Hornet 575-C” (plus get a look at it’s mysterious ballast). Also looking forward to reports on K5600’s Joker 300, & Alpha 300, LEDs. All these options have strengths, & weaknesses, but the thought of getting three, or more, of the 300d II, plus optical attachments, for the price of one of the Hives, or K5600s, is appealing. After all, “Quantity has a quality all of its own”.
 
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Starting to look like a pretty good product. I was pretty impressed with the barn doors/bare light. It looks bright enough to use with full CTO too.

Hive has a pretty tough sell on their hands for those looking for a daylight only light and don't need the RGB function.
 
If you need RGB or tungsten output, obviously the Aputure is out of the running. But I've just watched through Andrew's video and I'm not just intrigued, I'm flat out impressed.

The level of thought that's gone into the design is really delightful - it seems that every decision has been made with on-set users in mind. And that (sadly) doesn't always ring true with lighting manufacturers.

The black-out barndoor attachment looks great for sharp shadows and clean cuts. The output and colour rendering look excellent. The ability to use the Fresnel to genuinely control beam angle and intensity is FANTASTIC (I'm totally okay with the sacrifices you make on shadow quality, for the versatility it offers - it's not a Fresnel light afterall).

Aputure's Lightdome II and the Projector attachment (which I got to use at one of their roadshows) are both excellent. And the build-quality and transport case all seem excellent as well.

It just looks set-ready to me. Quick to deploy. Difficult to damage. And with a LOT of versatility.

I'm very well positioned with my current lighting kit. But the versatility that this offers (and the output) certainly has me thinking.
 
rob norton said:
Starting to look like a pretty good product. I was pretty impressed with the barn doors/bare light. It looks bright enough to use with full CTO too.

Hive has a pretty tough sell on their hands for those looking for a daylight only light and don't need the RGB function.
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To me, RGB is the whole point of the Hive C series. Using them for color is probably 80%+ of what I use them for. So, if you don’t want/need that ability, you can probably save some money and look at single color/bi-color only fixtures.
 
I have 2 of the 300D V1 lights and just ordered 2 more of the 300D V2. I have Gemini's and flex panels etc in our studio but find the 300D to be one of the most versatile lights we have. Use it with a large softbox, spacelight attachement, fresnel, and now the lantern and leko attachments. It really has become the swiss army knife light for us and I am really impressed with the changes to V2. Aputure seems to really listen to its users feedback as they fixed pretty much all my little gripes about the V1 models.
 
Liam Hall said:
This one is next on my hit list. I've been using the 120D mkII for a few months which is a great fixture, but the extra poke afforded by the 300 will well worth the investment.
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+1

And with the incredible dimming capabilities and the feature to go on le battery at lower power there is little holdin it back in functionality. The 120d models are smaller is about it.
 
aputure, as a lighting fixture company, has generally been putting out decent products.

will the 300dmk2 last a generation or two like my actual arri built 650?

perhaps not.

but by then the technology would have moved on and there will be less need for a 20yr old led light.

ymmv

rob
smalltalk productions
 
Grug said:
Aputure's Lightdome II and the Projector attachment (which I got to use at one of their roadshows) are both excellent. And the build-quality and transport case all seem excellent as well.

It just looks set-ready to me. Quick to deploy. Difficult to damage. And with a LOT of versatility.
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Bought one 300d II on Friday, & after a bit of testing, picked up another today. These are my only single-color LEDs, but the allure of (relatively) powerful COBs won me over, especially ones that can be used with a ellipse (aka Spotlight Mount).

Also picked up a Light Dome II, Mini Light Dome II, a pair of Fresnel 2X, plus a pair of Barndoors, & special ordered the Lantern (aka China Ball).
 
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Bern Caughey said:
Bought one 300d II on Friday, & after a bit of testing, picked up another today. These are my only single-color LEDs, but the allure of (relatively) powerful COBs won me over, especially ones that can be used with a ellipse (aka Spotlight Mount).

Also picked up a Light Dome II, Mini Light Dome II, a pair of Fresnel 2X, plus a pair of Barndoors, & special ordered the Lantern (aka China Ball).
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Keep us updated with how it all works out for you. I'm feeling more and more drawn to the idea of the versatility these things have.
 
Bern Caughey said:
Bought one 300d II on Friday, & after a bit of testing, picked up another today. These are my only single-color LEDs, but the allure of (relatively) powerful COBs won me over, especially ones that can be used with a ellipse (aka Spotlight Mount).

Also picked up a Light Dome II, Mini Light Dome II, a pair of Fresnel 2X, plus a pair of Barndoors, & special ordered the Lantern (aka China Ball).
Click to expand...

Gotta buy in pairs! Looking forward to any notes you have Bern.
 
Grug said:
Keep us updated with how it all works out for you. I'm feeling more and more drawn to the idea of the versatility these things have.
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Mark how do you think you'd use them the most? I see myself going into the domes, spotlight mounts or bare with barndoors being the most frequent modifiers. I can't see the Fresnel attachment getting that much airtime, especially if you have a real Fresnel on hand, I could be wrong though. China ball will be awesome too if you have the room, though I think the LiteCloths may still be better for that set up because of the height (and I'm assuming weight) savings...
 
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rob norton said:
Gotta buy in pairs! Looking forward to any notes you have Bern.
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That’s why I spend so damn much on lighting, now... Just bought a pair of 1x1 Gemini’s. And a set of Astera Lightdrops(8). The last time I bought just a single light was a 2x1 Gemini last year during the group buy. It ate at me for months, but luckily LP put them on sale at pretty much the same price around December and I picked up a sister for the first one.

It just sucks, because who knows if in ten years all of these lights we're dropping tens of thousands on now will still work or be supported.
 
Bern Caughey said:
Bought one 300d II on Friday, & after a bit of testing, picked up another today. These are my only single-color LEDs, but the allure of (relatively) powerful COBs won me over, especially ones that can be used with a ellipse (aka Spotlight Mount).
Click to expand...

Please do report back on how you feel about the unit Bern, after using it a couple of times. I'm holding off (just barely) until I learn just a bit more about that spotlight mount...

Run&Gun said:
It just sucks, because who knows if in ten years all of these lights we're dropping tens of thousands on now will still work or be supported.
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I wonder about this quite a bit...and it's certainly a very valid point.
 
Run&Gun said:
That’s why I spend so damn much on lighting, now... Just bought a pair of 1x1 Gemini’s. And a set of Astera Lightdrops(8). The last time I bought just a single light was a 2x1 Gemini last year during the group buy. It ate at me for months, but luckily LP put them on sale at pretty much the same price around December and I picked up a sister for the first one.

It just sucks, because who knows if in ten years all of these lights we're dropping tens of thousands on now will still work or be supported.
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Haha you’re in pretty deep! Those light drops look cool, need a report on those too.

That’s a good point about service in years to come. I think while it’s tempting and sometimes appropriate to buy from smaller companies, any serious purchases can only be from the more established manufacturers. On the smaller side of things, I guess when selling the lights they’ll just provide a discount for the next bit of gear you’re buying. Otherwise they can be relegated to other duties eg backups or even props in shot. I have 4x intellytechs which get used as key/fill lights but as new tech comes in they’ll probably become more of a dedicated cloth set up to use only when their thin footprint is required. I’m sure support for the skypanels will be pretty strong or Arri would be toast (the SP is coming up to 4 years I think, not bad). Compare that with the 300d ii, which I doubt they’ll even make parts for in a decade.

I like the look of the Cineo LB800 - https://www.cineolighting.com/products/lb800/. I’m sure it’d be appropriate to only buy one of these!
 
rob norton said:
Haha you’re in pretty deep! Those light drops look cool, need a report on those too.

That’s a good point about service in years to come. I think while it’s tempting and sometimes appropriate to buy from smaller companies, any serious purchases can only be from the more established manufacturers. On the smaller side of things, I guess when selling the lights they’ll just provide a discount for the next bit of gear you’re buying. Otherwise they can be relegated to other duties eg backups or even props in shot. I have 4x intellytechs which get used as key/fill lights but as new tech comes in they’ll probably become more of a dedicated cloth set up to use only when their thin footprint is required. I’m sure support for the skypanels will be pretty strong or Arri would be toast (the SP is coming up to 4 years I think, not bad). Compare that with the 300d ii, which I doubt they’ll even make parts for in a decade.

I like the look of the Cineo LB800 - https://www.cineolighting.com/products/lb800/. I’m sure it’d be appropriate to only buy one of these!
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I was hoping they were gonna be in before I leave for my shoot out of town, but it doesn’t look like they will. I ordered late last week and my dealer said the distributor had everything in-stock in their warehouse. But they had to be shipped to my dealer and then to me. I have some more sit-downs scheduled for the beginning of next week, too, so maybe they’ll get here before the weekend so I can try them out next week. I was just ranting on another thread about how we live in the age of Amazon 2 hour delivery on a lot of things and free 2 day delivery on almost everything else. I guess that’s why it cracks me up to see TV ads for mail order type crap that still says “please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery”. Heck, I’ve had Apple products ship directly from the factory in China to my house in like a day.

Wow. WTH is wrong with me and why am I on these shipping rants? I need to go to sleep. But hopefully I can have some good info to report on the Lightdrops by this time next week.
 
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