Rotolight NEO 2's being unveiled on Monday, Sept 4.

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Budgieboots

Well-known member
Looks like it will be Rotolight NEO 2’s being unveiled on Monday according to Rotolight’s website.
They've entered into a partnership with Elinchrom to add some tech to it for photography usage.

https://www.rotolight.com

But I primarily use my NEO's for video purposes.
Is there any speculation on if the output of the light is increased compared to the first generation NEO?
 
Are these supposed to be good lights? What's the benefit over some of the other popular 1x1 LEDs? I think a recent client had the little one (Neo?) on a shoot, but used it to light a background so didn't get to see it on a face.
 
I've used the Rotolight NEOs in that 3 light kit they sell and I've gotten good results out of them for the past 2 years on primarily corporate video work.

I upgraded from Rotolight's very first RL-48 light that they had back in 2011ish -- which compared to what's available now, is a bit barebones.

NEOs were a colossal upgrade from the RL-48 lights.
You could now plug them in to power them, as well as be AA battery operated (life of about 2-3 hours for me at 100% brightness, although it's 6 AA's -- bit of a pain to charge), dial in brightness + colour temp and they have this SFX mode which can make the light flicker to mimic fire or strobe for example. Lightweight and very portable too. The light is also very soft.

But I can't speak to how it differs from other brands of LEDs, but I've really enjoyed using them.

I suppose the next tech upgrade (likely not NEO 2) would be being able to dial in any RGB colour you want.
 
That's neat. . .especially powering for any length of time on AAs. If they can take rechargeables that could be way more cost effective than AB or NP1 type batteries. I'd still plug in when possible for mobile applications that'd be neat. How's the output/color temp?
 
Since it's Bi-colour, the light is noticeably brighter at 4300k where everything meets in the middle with it's orange and blue LEDs. The output falls a little too once you start layering on coloured filters, like a red or something.

In pitch blackness, and having the 3 rotolight neos about 10-15 feet away from our lead actress, was able to get exposure at 3200 ISO, F4 and 1/60 shutter. She was sitting in a car and we were doing a poor man's process thing where we spin lights around to look like traffic lights. Would have liked to have gotten it to 1600 ISO without moving the lights or changing the lens, but not enough output.

So I'd say after about 6 feet, the output starts to fall dramatically. Their new light AEOS likely would have worked better in my above case since it has more LEDs packed into it because it's bigger -- but that means of course less portable. Just gotta know the limitations and advantages of the gear.
 
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