BUYERS’ GUIDE
NANLITE FC-120C £359/$364 nanlite.com
NEEWER FS150C £310/$280 uk.neewer.com
PROFOTO L1600D £8154/$8995 profoto.com
Nanlite’s latest offering is the FC-120C, a compact, full-colour LED spotlight that’s built for content creators and filmmakers. It offers high performance, accurate colour and a high output of 12,850 lux at 1m/3.3ft and 5600K, when fitted with its standard reflector at least. It’s compatible with Nanlite’s range of compact FM-fit modifiers, but an adapter allows standard Bowens-fit accessories to be attached too. The colour temperature range is 2700- 7500K and it has advanced fine tuning of white light with ±150 green-magenta adjustments. The FC-120C features CCT, HSI, RGBW and special effect modes, each controlled through the user interface on the lamp head or wirelessly via the Nanlink app. It can also be connected to a DMX console. The FC-120C can be powered with a mains adapter, V-Mount battery or USB- PD, and it can be connected to an optional V-Mount battery grip. It’s equipped with an adjustable cooling system – four fan modes are available to choose the desired output and noise control.
Profoto’s new L1600D is a high-end bicolour LED from a brand that’s famous for its flash lighting systems, used by many of the world’s top photographers At 14kg/30.8lb total weight, it’s at the top end of what’s reasonable to use on a large stand. Not only does it pack a 1600W punch but it does so without the use of a separate ballast unit, which slims down the total package and means the light plugs right into a household plug socket. The head uses cooling fans with Profoto’s own liquid-cooling HydroCTech, which makes it virtually silent. This rugged IP54-rated daylight LED is built to perform, last for decades and bring a huge swathe of new lighting modifiers to filmmaking from Profoto’s huge range. It also fits Bowens S-type modifiers. The on-head controls are simple, but there’s also DMX input and output sockets and a free app to change the settings if you wish to use them. And with this standard reflector, the 12° beam puts out 1.225 million lux at 1m/3.3ft.
Neewer is another fast-growing brand making affordable lighting for filmmakers, and the FS150C is typical of the brand’s top-quality COB fixtures. This is a 130W RGBWW light that offers a huge range of colour controls, as well as multiple power options, app control and fan cooling. With the standard reflector, it gives 19,800 lux at 1m/3.3ft away. Colours can be adjusted using the RGBCW, HSI or gel modes to replicate the most-used coloured filters. White light is adjustable from 2500 to 7500K too. If you want to replicate certain light colours without any hassle, there are 17 presets to choose from, including candlelight, moonlight, dawn, sodium vapour lamps and more. Seventeen is the magic number, as this is also how many special effects it has, such as lightning, defective bulb, cop car and fireworks. Its four dimming curves are linear, S-curve, exponential or logarithmic. Power can be from a mains input or from a battery with XLR connections, and Bowens mount is the standard.
Pros: Compact and affordable Cons: Needs adapter for Bowens mount
Pros: Quality of light, build, power Cons: Only daylight
Pros: Lots of features Cons: Not the best-known brand yet
81
PROMOVIEMAKER.NET
Powered by FlippingBook