Aputure LS1s LED Light Panel Review

Aputure, a designer of quality and affordable video and photography gear announced their new line of Light Storm LED panels at the NAB show back in April. I was so overwhelmed and occupied at other booths while at NAB I never made it over to the Aputure booth, but they were kind enough to send me an evaluation unit of the new Light Store LS1 daylight LED panel.

I have been looking for a good set of LED lights for a long time. Here are the criteria I wanted in an LED lighting instrument:

• Enough power to shoot through diffusion like a scrim or soft box to make a large, soft light source to use as a key light. 650 watt tungsten equivalent at least, 1k preferable

• Good color rendering, especially for skin tones. Ability to mix with sunlight. This was a major issue with most of the sub-$1000 units available until recently

• Preferably a fresnel style light but would consider a panel if the panel at least has barn doors.

• Battery power option using Anton Bauer gold mount or Sony V Mount (though it did NOT need to come with batteries)

• $1000 USD or less per unit

• Quiet! Preferably no fan but if there was a fan, it needs to be very, very quiet

• Dimmable, of course

• Quality build

It looks like the Aputure Light Storm LS1s meets all of these criteria!