ROSCO MI XBOOK | USER REVI EW
“CONTROLLING THE LIGHT FROM A PHONE APP ADDS SOME INTERESTING CAPABILITIES”
LEFT From left to right, screenshots of the myMIX gel library; selecting a colour from a photograph and XY colour selection
light, using the same six-chip LED technology as the DMG Lumière Mix fixtures (phosphor-coated red, green, blue, white, phosphor-coated amber, lime), so it faithfully generates the same colours as its big brothers. The idea is that you keep the tiny (110g) unit in its neoprene protective case on your belt. It has a very robust strap mount, quarter-inch tripod bush, micro-USB socket for charging, and an on/off push button. When you need to see the effect of a light, you pull out the Mixbook and use it like a torch with a gel over the front. A thick diffuser gives a surprisingly even light from such a small unit. The battery was good for about three hours in my tests, and the unit
itself, despite being very light, felt very sturdy – easily up to the rigours of on-set work. APP HELP Colours and other controls are set up using a Bluetooth-paired phone and the Rosco myMIX app (more odd capitalisation). The app itself can also control the Lumière Mix products, so a colour you set up on the Mixbook can be easily transferred to the main lights. It has a library of all the standard gel colours, as well as being able to generate custom colours. Controlling the light from a phone app adds some interesting capabilities. One of my favourites is the ability to pick a colour from an
image captured by the camera – tap anywhere on an existing photo (or use the camera to take a new one) and the colour at your tap point is captured and can be transmitted to the light. It’s only as accurate as the colour rendition of the image, but it’s usually a good starting point. Colours can be selected by hue and saturation or XY colour coordinates (numerically or from a colour picker), by colour temperature and ‘source match’ (for example, candlelight, tungsten, mercury vapour etc). At under £100/$100, the Rosco Mixbook is a very handy tool to have on your belt. Not only does it have swatch-book capabilities, it also makes a pretty groovy torch.
IMAGES The battery-powered
light uses the same six-chip
LED tech as DMG Lumière’s fixtures
FEBRUARY 2020 | DEF I N I T ION 65
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