LITTLE LEDS GEAR
For £99/$99, there’s no excuse not to have a palm- sized panel like the Zhiyun Fiveray M40 in your bag when you need some extra lighting. It may lack the bells and whistles of a more professional-focused LED panel, but it pumps out some decent power. This is made possible by the heat-dispersion tech pioneered in Zhiyun’s motorised gimbals. Small and affordable lights like this often put out no more than around 15W of power, but as its name suggests, the M40 manages an impressive 40W because it’s fan-cooled. At only 320g/0.7lb and 137x78x29mm/5.4x3.1x1.1in, this diminutive unit can really slip in your pocket. It packs in 176 LED chips, which can put out illuminance of 1050 lux at 1m/3.3ft at its peak 4300K setting, where it will run for an hour on a single charge of its internal 2600mAh battery. Charging is by USB-C 50W PD fast charge, so it can continue to put out maximum power while being charged. In our tests, we used it at quarter- power and it worked for around two hours. It can be recharged in just under two hours, too. To make sure you know how much juice you’ve used, four LED indicator lights show how much power is left. That’s not as accurate as a percentage reading, but you can’t expect everything at this price point. The M40 is a bicolour LED with a temperature ranging from 2700-6200K, with all adjustments via a pair of small dials on the body. One is for ZHIYUN IS BELIEVING “A bicolour LED with a temperature ranging from 2700-6200K, with adjustments via two dials” intensity and the other for colour temperature. Both are marked with % intensity on one dial and the actual colour temperature on the other – which is important, as there’s no LCD screen to see what you’ve set. Colour accuracy is great, with CRI reaching 96+ and TLCI reaching 97+. Right up to the maximum 40W power, there was no strobing at all and the light source was consistent. This small fixture has an unusual 360° rotational bracket with a pair of 1/4in-20 threaded holes. This allows for various ways of mounting it to the top of a camera, a small light stand or even just swinging the bracket round and using it as a leaning-style stand, ideal for putting on a flat surface. With 40W on tap, it works well for a fill light, hair light or on-camera light. And as it’s bicolour, it can be used in interior scenes to fill in areas of darkness – or fixed inside a household lamp to give a more consistent, flicker-free look. Once you have one, you’ll find a lot of use for it and will want a few. It doesn’t cost a huge amount of cash and takes up virtually no room. And the 40W output is enough to make a difference. zhiyun-tech.com
SLIMMING WORLD Zhiyun has put LED panels on a diet with the very thin M40
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