Curtis Judd 5/5/17 Curtis Judd 5/5/17

Aputure Mini 20C LED Fresnel Light - NAB 2017

Aputure keeps cranking out high quality, reasonably priced lighting gear. In this announcement, Ted from Aputure runs us through the features on their new Mini 20C. The light features a focusing beam, including barn doors with an infinity ring, controls for dimming, changing color temperature between 3200 and 5600 Kelvin, and focusing the beam angle between 20 and 80 degrees (flood and spot). One other nice feature is the ability to power with 5 to 18V DC power so you can use a USB battery pack, Sony NP-F style batteries, or even a big Sony V-Lock or Anton Bauer Gold Mount battery.

I've been working with an early copy of the daylight version of this light for a few weeks now and it works great as an accent or hair light.

Apologies for the wild camera work. I had the clever idea to go super light without a tripod at NAB this year. Lesson learned. My brother Cary Judd was kind enough to suffer through shooting. Thanks bro!

Gear used to record this episode:

Panasonic Lumix GH5 Camera

Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 Lens

RODE Reporter Microphone

RODE iXLR Audio Adapter for iPhone

Curtis Judd 5/3/17 Curtis Judd 5/3/17

Aputure Amaran Tri-8C LED Panel Light - NAB 2017

Aputure keeps cranking out high quality, reasonably priced lighting gear. In this announcement, Ted from Aputure runs us through the features on their new Amaran Tri-8C LED light panel. The light features the ability to power with AC, Sony NP-F style batteries or even Sony V-lock or Anton Bauer Gold Mount batteries. This model is color tunable from 2300 Kelvin to 6800 Kelvin. Light output is roughly equivalent to a 650W tungsten light (though speaking in equivalents is fraught with issues).

I've been working with this light for a few days now and it works great as an accent light and I was very happy with the results when I used it as a fill light for an outdoor talking head piece.

Our Vlogging setup:
Panasonic Lumix GH5 Camera - the in-body stabilization saved us because I had the "clever" idea to travel light and not bring a tripod this year. That was a mistake but the IBIS in the GH5 did a pretty nice job!

Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 Lens - This is the original version of this lens. The new version is a bit pricier but evidently works even better with the GH5 to smooth out camera motion.

RODE Reporter Microphone - great at managing handling noise. I didn't hear any in this recording.

RODE iXLR Audio Adapter for iPhone - Yes, recorded this audio to my iPhone. Pretty good for a phone recording on a noisy show floor.

Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd

Curtis Judd 5/2/17 Curtis Judd 5/2/17

Aputure Space Light and Light Dome Mini - NAB 2017

Aputure keeps cranking out high quality, reasonably priced lighting gear and their latest announcement includes two new modifiers for their COB lights (or any LED light with a Bowens mount). These include the Space Light and the Light Dome Mini. Let’s have a quick look at both and talk about when you might choose to use each.

Looking forward to getting our hands on these for review!

Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 Lens - This is the original version of this lens. The new version is a bit pricier but evidently works even better with the GH5 to smooth out camera motion.

Curtis Judd 5/1/17 Curtis Judd 5/1/17

Aputure COB300d First Look at NAB 2017

Aputure keeps cranking out high quality, reasonably priced lighting gear and their latest announcement is for the impressive COB300d - an LED light that is roughly equivalent to a 2k tungsten. That’s a lot of light output. This one is daylight balanced (6000K) and a tungsten version will follow. All the same accessories that fit their smaller COB120 lights also fit this including the soft box, fresnel lens and other bowens mount accessories available on the market like barn doors and beauty dishes. The color quality is rated at a TLCI of 98 which is very high.

Can’t wait to get our hands on one of these for review!

When might you use a light this powerful? The first two scenarios that come to mind are though a window to simulate daylight (so you can shoot a daytime scene at night or just when you want to make it look like a different time of day) or when you want to bring the ambient light levels up in a larger space. Aiming this as the ceiling could do an impressive job lifting that ambience.

Apologies for the wild camera work. I had the clever idea to go super light without a tripod at NAB this year. Lesson learned. My brother Cary Judd was kind enough to suffer through shooting. Thanks bro!

Our Vlogging setup:
Panasonic Lumix GH5 Camera - the in-body stabilization saved us because I had the "clever" idea to travel light and not bring a tripod this year. That was a mistake but the IBIS in the GH5 did a pretty nice job!

RODE Reporter Microphone - great at managing handling noise. I didn't hear any in this recording.

RODE iXLR Audio Adapter for iPhone - Yes, recorded this audio to my iPhone. Pretty good for a phone recording on a noisy show floor.

Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 Lens - This is the original version of this lens. The new version is a bit pricier but evidently works even better with the GH5 to smooth out camera motion.

Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd

Curtis Judd 1/5/17 Curtis Judd 1/5/17

Aputure Deity Shotgun Microphone Review

Aputure has just announced their first pro-grade shotgun microphone, the Aputure Deity. let’s put this new mic through its paces to see how well it does relative to other microphones in the same price range.

I'm pretty impressed! Usually companies that don't specialize in microphones don't do this well. Personally, I prefer the sound of this mic over the others we compared it to here. Nice work, Aputure!

Curtis Judd 11/20/16 Curtis Judd 11/20/16

Versatile Video Light: Aputure Light Storm COB 120d Daylight LED Light

In this episode, we take a look at the Aputure Light Storm COB 120d, an incredibly versatile daylight balanced LED light for video and film. Aputure has a history of finding a very nice balance between affordable pricing and quality products. The COB 120d is a perfect example of that. This is a single LED light with a Bowens S mount. This means that with some additional accessories attached to the mount, the light can be a soft light (with a softbox, scrim, or bounce board), a hard light (with a fresnel and/or barn doors attachment), or a flood light with the included reflector. Color quality is a high priority for me because I don’t have time to invest in a lot of post color correction. Fortunately, the COB 120d delivers on that front as well in our color chart tests compared to tungsten lighting (the best color rendering light source second only to the sun).

Aputure plans to begin shipping the Light Storm COB 120d in the first part of 2017

Curtis Judd 11/9/16 Curtis Judd 11/9/16

Aputure VS-2 FineHD: Now Takes 4K

Earlier this year when we reviewed the Aputure VS-2 FineHD HDMI monitor, one of the downsides we found was that the monitor could only accept up to an HD signal from your camera.

The trick with that is that some of the 4K cameras like the Sony A6300 and A6500 evidently could not down-sample to HD on their HDMI output port and record to 4k internally at the same time. So this monitor just was not a good fit for those cameras.

The Panasonic GH4 could down-sample to HD and record 4K internally but autofocus performance slows when doing this. Not a deal-breaker for everyone, but not ideal.

But now, with the new, free firmware available as of this week, the VS-2 FineHD can now take a UHD (3840x2160 up to 30p) signal. Of course it still only displays it as HD, but this solves a big problem for those shooting 4K cameras. Thanks Aputure!

We'd love to see the same thing for the new VS-5 monitor which I'm in the process of reviewing!

Curtis Judd 9/10/16 Curtis Judd 9/10/16

Aputure Light Dome Soft Box for COB 120 LED Light

For video talking head or interview shots, my go-to choice for my main light is a softbox. Ever since I got the Aputure Light Storm COB 120t LED light a few months back, I’ve been waiting for their Light Dome softbox to start shipping. And I am not disappointed. This softbox produces beautiful soft light for interview shots, feels like a quality product, and is reasonably priced.

As a bonus, because the COB 120 has a bowens mount, you can use the light dome on any other LED lights with a bowens mount.

The light dome will start shipping soon. Check back for updates.

Curtis Judd 6/11/16 Curtis Judd 6/11/16

Aputure Light Storm COB 120t LED Light Review

Aputure just started shipping a new LED light for filmmakers called the Light Storm COB 120t. This is a tungsten color balanced single LED flood light which has a Bowens S mount so it can accept all sorts of light shaping tools like a soft box, barn doors, beauty dish, snoot and even a fresnel lens. This makes the 120t an incredibly flexible light. It also has great color rendering with a CRI of 97 and puts out plenty of light to use as a key light for interviews or talking head video or still photos. Here we review the 120t in detail.

Curtis Judd 5/21/16 Curtis Judd 5/21/16

Aputure LSC20 LED Fresnel Accent Light

At NAB 2016, Aputure announced a very cool little LED fresnel light they call the LSC20. This is designed primarily as an accent light, comes with barn doors and the ability to zoom the beam angle like a traditional fresnel. It also includes a slot for gels to either match your main lights or add a colorful accent. In addition, the light can be powered with 5-18V DC power which means you can use the included DC adapter, a USB charger such as those most phones use, or professional batteries like Sony VLock or Anton Bauer gold mount batteries. Looks like a pretty nice flexible and lightweight addition for location lighting kits.

The only bad news: they're not available just yet, but we should see them in the September 2016 timeframe.

Special thanks to Scott Vanderbilt who was kind enough to bring his brand new Sony FS5 camera to film this series.