GEAR NEWPRODUCT TEST
“The toughened LED touchscreen colour display lets you access all key features with quick-start icons”
hence the RGBWW tag. These are all cleverly dialled in to set the precise colour temperature and green/ magenta balance for white light from 3000-10,000K, or any other colour. There are also settings tomatch the light output to around 1400 filters, matching the popular Lee or Rosco catalogues. By picking one of those specific filters, the Titan X1 matches the colour exactly. The gels are sorted by colour grouping, name and number. And using the touchscreen on the rear of the panel, you can click on a specific gel and it tells you what it’s typically used for. Then, if you want to tweak the colour even further, you can do it by using the on-screen sliders or control dials. The toughened LCD touchscreen colour display lets you access all key features with quick-start icons and up to 50 user-customisable presets. In the basic home screenmode, there are a variety of menu options. The first is CCT, where you can set the colour temperature green/ magenta tint to produce different ‘flavours’ of white light. Our trusty meter checked their accuracy, and we also imported some footage of a white balance card into our NLE. All the settings proved very accurate. In HSI mode, you can drag the sliders for different hue, saturation
IMAGES With no diffusion applied, you can clearly see the LED lights (top). But dial in diffusion and you can see the changes (below)
than lesser-powered lights, while still maintaining the right exposure. This has the effect of making the light a harder, more punchy source. That’s not only good for SFX but for creative lighting. Move the light closer and the look is softer. Near or far, the electronically- adjustable diffusion has a visible effect on the softness and quality of light, as well as its spread. Altering the SmartSoft diffusion from clear to fully soft also changes the spread and focus of the light to a wider andmore even spread that wraps around your subject. The beam angle changes from68 to 150°, which is a big difference that you can really see and use to your advantage. Get the light up close to your interviewee and dial in the diffusion, for example, and it’s a lovely soft light. Or, use it to flood the background. If youmove it further away from your sitter, go fully clear and perhaps fit barn doors to control the light evenmore, it makes a great hair or accent light. It’s versatile and is made evenmore useful with this adjustable diffusion. If you are using the light up close and are recording audio, you have
and intensity. Or, you can use the adjustment knobs instead. RGBW mode lets you adjust the red, green and blue colours using the sliders or dials. And XYmode lets you select the colour space you are working in, either full gamut, Rec. 709 or Rec. 2020 for HDR. After that, any tweaks are made to ensure the XY values are within the specified coordinates for that colour space. If that’s a bit too techy for you, the SFXmode is more fun and lets you access lots of different special effects – all of them customisable. There are settings to replicate fire, lightning, TV, gunshots, camera flashes, welding sparks andmore. The smaller size of the Titan X1 compared to the X2means some of these actually work better as the unit often tries to replicate the look of smaller, point light sources. This is helped by the power of the light, which Rotolight claims is the brightest 1x1ft soft light ever made, putting out a maximumof 8290 lux/ 770 foot-candles at 1m/3.3ft at 5600K with no diffusion. This brightness means the light can be moved further away from the subject
BELOW The new Rotolight twin V-lock battery system is great for location use and very well designed
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