What’s more important, a super bright mat with a big dimmer plus battery box, or a compact package with less output per LED, but ultimately more portable? Flex Light AlternativesĪt last we get to the Chinese-made flex lights. So that’s another thing to consider when we’re looking at Flex lights. As for beam angle, the Flex claims 140-360 degrees, while the Amaran 672W is about 75 degrees.Īt any rate, the point is, here are two lights with roughly the same photometric output numbers, but one has 256 LEDs and one has 672 LEDs. The Amaran has a power draw of 45W, while the Flex has 55W, which makes sense since the Amaran takes two Sony NP batteries and the Flex requires an additional battery brick to power without AC. Comparatively, the Aputure Amaran 672W light has, you guessed it, 672 LEDs.īoth the Westcott Flex 1x1 Daylight Mat and the Aputure Amaran 672W lights claim around 2000 lux at 1 meter. The power output can vary quite a bit with those differences, but still, the number of LEDs is a good base to use when you’re shopping for lights. Most 1x1 flex lights offer around 250 LEDs in a variety of beam angles and wattage. But the size of the light is worth the added complexity. When you compare a flex light with dimmer and power brick, it ends up being heavier and more complicated than a simple Aputure Amaran 672 with a couple Sony NP batteries. It gives us something we can’t get otherwise. That’s why the large flex light is such an attractive product. And to be honest, most of the professional grade flex lights out there are kind of veering away from the whole reason why we were enamored with flex lights in the first place - their size and weight. (More on that in a bit.)Īt NAB, we got to see where the flex light industry has been moving toward since its introduction a few years ago. We waited for bigger mats - we wanted a manufactured version of the 24x18 inch version we tried to DIY, or larger, like the Westcott 2x2 mat. They looked pretty decent, but knowing that they were probably a bit underpowered compared to the original flex lights, we weren’t as interested in the 1x1 versions. So we decided to put away our DIY electronics dreams and just stick to buying lights that are manufactured and ready to use.Ī few months later, we started hearing about Chinese-made flex lights on Alibaba, Aliexpress, and even Amazon. But the bigger lesson was that even if the DIY version worked, we really wouldn’t feel comfortable depending on it for paid gigs. In the end, we realized we were spending too much money and time on the project, so we decided to scrap it. And it ended up costing quite more than we figured for all the supplies that we didn’t already have, like a temperature controlled soldering iron, the various heat-resistant glues, faux leather, and more LED ribbons than we initially thought we needed. Well, it turns out we don’t have the gift of soldering, so after several attempts, we failed. We figured it was worth a shot, even if we failed, just to learn a little about DIY electronics. If you’ve followed this site for a bit, you may have read about our attempt to make a DIY Flex Light earlier this year. Flex Light: What it is and what it should be And to our surprise, they’re actually pretty good. So we decided to buy a few of them to try them out. Sure, maybe they don't have the build quality of an authentic Flex light, but they're much more affordable. Some even look remarkably like the original Aladdin and Westcott Flex. Which is maybe not that much for a traditional light panel with heavy duty housing and advanced features, but it's harder to swallow when you know that a few ribbons of high CRI LEDs can be bought for $25.įast forward a few years later, and now there’s Chinese-made Flex Lights that sell these high-CRI LED ribbons in flexible housings made for photographers and videographers. With a diffusion screen and a battery, you're looking at over $1000 for a 1x1 flex light. It turns out it’s the little details that have held back many buyers from handing over their wallets (and their current lighting kits).
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