I did not expect this - amaran Ray 660c video light

Amaran has a new line of lights called the Ray, with four models. Today we look at the 660C, a 660W point-source light with a Bowens mount. Amaran and Aputure are related companies that split focus a couple years ago — Aputure targets high-end production/commercial/narrative work needing extreme durability (rental-house gear thrown on production trucks), while Amaran is more affordable but shares much of the same color-accuracy DNA. I found myself in a middle market between big-budget productions and home creators — working in a studio (at Webflow) where lights get set up and stay put, needing color accuracy and reliability without production-truck-grade durability.

We’re lighting this whole video with the 660C at 3% intensity, 5600K, about 2 meters away. It’s incredibly quiet even when the fan does kick in. Color accuracy: SSI is 86 at 3200K and 82 at 5500K, very close to the Aputure Storm 400X’s excellent Blaire light engine. Amaran’s new Omnicolor light engine mixes multiple LED colors (two reds, a green, two blues, an indigo, and a soft white with a bit of lime) to counteract how blue raw LEDs are without such mixing, and it does this at lower cost than Blaire while remaining very close in quality.

All Ray lights are IP54 rated — splash resistant, not waterproof, and dust resistant enough to not worry about occasional rain. Bluetooth control via the Amaran app is excellent with NFC pairing, even while lights are off, letting you pair multiple lights very quickly. It’s DMX-capable via a USB-C-to-DMX dongle rather than built in, which is great for people who don’t need it full time. The clever “Flow Turn” motorized knob lets you spin it for large adjustments and tap to stop, then fine-tune — surprisingly useful.

All four Ray lights use Bowens mounts with a new modifier line optimized for them, like the 120cm Octabox I’m using, which sets up and breaks down quickly. The 660 and 330 have their power supplies integrated into the light head itself, so there’s no separate power brick to manage — just an IEC cable to AC mains. There’s a high frame rate mode supporting 1/1000s shutter or 240fps video by locking the dimmer to a 50% minimum, avoiding visible flicker from pulse-width-modulation dimming at lower outputs.

Pricing: $699 US for the 660, $429 US for the 330. Build quality is tremendous — the yoke matches the durability of my Aputure Storm 400X’s metal yoke, though the outer casing is high-density plastic rather than the Storm’s thick production-grade metal. It doesn’t have the Storm’s locking Pro-lock Bowens mount, the Storm’s separate power box with cine-battery mounting, or quite the same absolute color accuracy of Blaire — but it’s remarkably close on all counts at a fraction of the price, and lighter as a result. For people like me in that middle space between creators and top-tier pros, the Ray 330/660 hit a sweet spot: excellent color and output, achievable pricing, DMX available if needed later, and build quality that’s everything I need without paying for capabilities I don’t use. Full disclosure, Amaran sent these lights to me free of charge and hasn’t told me what to say. Get out there and make some great lighting designs. We’ll talk to you soon.