Photography News Issue 51

Photography News | Issue 51 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

Rotolight NEO 2 £299.99

Specs

We all need light to take pictures and there are so many options for adding it artificially. There have been great strides made in flash kit recently and also with continuous lighting thanks to high-powered LEDs; Light Emitting Diodes are small and light, produce lots of illumination from little electricity, generateminimal heat and last a very long time. Rotolight’s NEO 2 is the company’s latest portable LED lighting unit, offering quality continuous light – but it’s also a flash. Confused? Don’t be: it gives manual control and features high speed flash sync with a compatible (optional) radio trigger. The NEO 2 is small enough to fit on a camera’s accessory shoe, has adjustable colour temperature and can be powered by six AA cells or by the mains. By any measure, that is an impressive feature set and of interest to still and movie photographers. The unit houses 192 LEDs, half white and half orange. It is by varying the output of each LED colour that allows variable colour temperature output from 3150K to 6300K in 100K steps. So at 3150K it is the orange LEDs that are fully on and at 6300K it is the white LEDs. Setting the colour temperature for continuous light also means you adjust the colour of flash output, which is handy when mixing flash with ambient light and you want to colour match. For example, shooting in typically warm indoor lighting you could set the NEO 2 to 3200K for a warm flash, too. The greatest output comes at 4100K when both colour LEDs are on. Taking a continuous light meter reading at 1m from the NEO 2, and with the light set at 4100K and 100% output it gave 1/125sec at f/5.6 and ISO 400. Setting a colour temperature reading of 6300K lost over 0.5EV. In its flash mode, the unit pumps 500% more energy (with the mains adapter or V-lock battery), or 250% (with AA batteries ) more energy into the LEDs compared with when the unit is used for continuous lighting.

Prices NEO 2 only £299.99; HSS Transmitter £228.99; softbox £99.99; barn doors £99.99; battery pack and charger £53.32 In the box 1x Rotolight NEO 2, 1x belt pouch carry case, 1x universal power adapter with regional mains cable, 1x filter pack, 1x 216 Full Diffuser (1.5EV), 1x 250 Medium, Half White diffuser (3/4EV), 1x 184 Cosmetic Peach diffusion, 1x 279 1/8th Minus Green (magenta, 1x filter holder, universal hotshoe camera adapter mount Control Local, wirelessly using built- in Skyport flash receiver and Rotolight HSS transmitter by Elinchrom, or with third party HSS flash trigger received with 3.5mm or PC sync socket Output 2000lux at 3ft, highest output at 4100K. Flash mode provides 500% more light output with mains and 250% with AA (NiMh or Li-ion) batteries Colour temperature 3150-6300K on flash and continuous light, Accu-Colour technology Flash sync Up to 1/8000sec with compatible transmitter LEDs 100,000 hours lifespan Cinesfx mode Delivers Custom Lighting Fx (Fire, Lightning, TV, Gunshot etc) Recycling No recycle time Power Six AA (NiMH or Lithium-ion) high performance batteries provide 85,000 flashes at full power, or 1.5-2 hours continuous run time (max power) Dimensions 14.5x5cm (diameter x depth) Weight 354g body, 504g with six AA cells Contact rotolight.com

Images The Rotolight NEO 2 is a highly versatile piece of lighting gear. It’s capable of acting as a continuous light or as a flash, and colour temperature can easily be controlled between 3150K and 6300K.

This happens very quickly to give the effect of flash with very brief light bursts lasting from 1/50sec to 1/1000sec. Recycling time is instant so it can keep up with cameras with high continuous burst speeds, and

so if you want more depth-of-field you need to push up the ISO. That applies even more so with HSS. To test HSS, I had the compatible Rotolight Nikon transmitter on a Nikon D810 and took pictures of a test scene at shutter speeds up to 1/8000sec. At 1/1000sec I got good exposures using f/4 and ISO 800 at 1m, while to get a decent exposure at 1/8000sec, the same aperture and at the same distance I needed ISO 6400. So, if you want smaller f/stops or need to shoot at a greater distance, you need to up your ISO even more. WC

capacity from a set of AAs is around 85,000 bursts. My tests with a Gossen flash meter in normal sync and high speed sync modes showed the NEO 2 worked well, within limits. In normal flash sync, at 1m and ISO 400 my flash meter reading was f/4

Verdict

The NEO 2 is a clever innovation and a high-quality dual lighting source. It will suit photographers who shoot video and stills, and want to travel with just one light source – it can be a continuous light one instant and a flash the next. Power is not its forte, though, but versatility certainly is.

Right This is a test shot with the Rotolight NEO 2 positioned 1m from the colour chart with the fan running at its slowest setting. With the unit giving full flash power, ISO 400 was used together with an exposure of 1/60sec at f/4. A light meter reading taken of the NEO 2 in its continuous light mode at the same distance gave a reading of f/5.6 at ISO 400.

Pros Flexible colour temperature, compact continuous light source, super quick recycling Cons Limited flash potential