Photography News Issue 30 absolutephoto.com
107
First tests
Rotolight Anova V2 Bi-Colour £1258.99
Specs
Prices Option of two heads, Ecoflood 50° Standard, or 110° Ultrawide £1258.99, Pro Kit Upgrade (includes barndoors and flight case) £1497.60, barn doors £149.99. Rotolight Magic Eye app from iTunes £4.99 In the box 6-piece gel filter kit, yoke, power supply 110-240V, regional power cable, extension cable Colour output 3150-6300K in +/-50K steps Overall CRI CR= >95 (100 is standardized daylight) Power consumption 39W at 5600K, 100% output Dimensions (wxhxd) 44x49.3x10.7cm Weight 3.1kg with yoke, 4.96kg with yoke and barn doors Contact rotolight.com
You need a continuous light source for shooting video but it’s also worth considering one for still photography too, especially with the availability of high-output, low- power consumption LED units. The Rotolight Anova V2 Bi-Colour unit is the sort of thing you can expect if you want a pro-level LED light. It can give an output equivalent to 3500W of tungsten bulbs (imagine the heat!) and the light it produces is flicker-free. Output can be adjusted to the situation with a range of 3150K to 6300K. Two Bi-Colour options are available, the Standard 50° (the one we tested) or the Ultrawide 110°. The latter gives a wider light spread with a softer character, while the former gives a tighter beam of light output, with even coverage for a 35mm lens in the 35mm format and a punchier effect. A cheaper fixed 5600K output unit is also available. The basic kit comes with a yoke to hold the light on a standard lighting stand, while going for the Pro kit gets you a custom flight case and a set of six-blade barn doors. The light is ready to go straight out of the box and all you have to do is plug the 15V DC transformer into the mains. The unit can also be battery powered with a V-lock battery – a standard battery type in the broadcast and video industry. The large red dial on the back allows you to select the mode and adjust settings once in the appropriate mode. Rotate this to select the mode you want and then push it to then make your adjustments. Pushing it in again takes you back to the mode options. It is here, for example, where you
adjust colour temperature and overall brightness. Holding down the button as you rotate it makes changes in bigger steps – with brightness, changes are in 10% steps rather than 1%.
Remote control of the light is possible from an iPhone or iPad with the optional Rotolight Magic Eye, £4.99 from iTunes. Look closely at the LEDs on the front of the Bi-Colour unit, while the light is at a low power setting or off for comfort, and you’ll see that there are two colours, white and pale orange. This is what gives the unit its colour controllable output so if you want to balance light in a domestic environment or perhaps give fill-in typical daylight, you can and very accurately too with the unit adjustment in 50K steps. As part of the test, I shot a Datacolor SpyderCheckr test chart using a camera with AWB set and selected preset Kelvin values to match the light’s output in Kelvin – 3150K, 4500K, 5500K and 6300K. We also took custom white-balance readings. Brightness levels were set at 100%, 50% 25% and 13% and images shot at the aforementioned Kelvin settings. As you can see from the unadjusted JPEGs, accuracy is very good and it’s only at 3150K where the pictures are noticeably on the warm side of neutral. Of course, this might well be a camera variable so you need to check with your own kit. Regardless, it is easily resolved with a customWB reading. Colour consistency at different output levels was impressive too so once you are happy with the look
of the shots, adjusting output won’t upset colour balance. Light output was measured with a Gossen Digipro F lightmeter set to ISO 200. At 100% brightness with the lighting unit at a distance of two metres the light reading was 1/60sec at f/2.8, at 50% it was f/2 and at 25% f/1.4.3. In sum, the proportional output that you can get is very accurate too. To check evenness we lit a blank wall – again from two metres and with the barndoors fully folded back – and took meter readings as well as actual test pictures. Coverage is consistent. Our Standard 50° unit was consistent to +/-0.2EV across the field of view of a 50mm lens from the light’s position and +/-0.3EV with a 35mm lens. WC
Anova 5500K, camera 5500K, 13% brightness
Anova 5500K, camera 5500K, 100% brightness
The light is ready to go straight out of the box and all you have to do is plug the 15V DC transformer into the mains
Left For the test pictures we used a Nikon Df to photograph a Datacolor SpyderCheckr chart and a Gossen Digipro F to measure output. For the colour temperature tests the same Kelvin values were set on the camera and the Anova.
Verdict
The Anova V2 Bi-Colour is a professional quality lighting unit with a price and performance to match. It is an excellent unit delivering a high-quality light with the ability to accurately control the colour of its output which makes it very versatile. The Anova is also built to last so if you need a solid, LED continuous light you should give it some serious consideration. Pros Build quality, controllable, colour performance, even coverage, cool running Cons Price
Anova 5500K, camera AWB, 100% brightness
Anova 3150K, camera 3150K, 100% brightness
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