The best budget light I've used to date — amaran Halo 300X
· Lighting · 4:40
In this week’s episode we quickly review the new budget lights from amaran, specifically the Halo 300x. This bi-color light delivers over 275 W of output of quality color, especially when tuned to the tungsten end of the spectrum. The Halo 300x is also incredibly well built for its price so its Bowens mount can support almost any light modifier and the light includes some very useful features like NFC pairing to the mobile control app, and even the ability to include in a studio setup with an optional DMX adapter. Let’s have a quick look!
Gear used or mentioned
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- amaran Halo — LED Bowens mount lights
- Sound Devices MixPre-3 II — 32-bit float audio recorder
- Sennheiser MKH50 — microphone
Read the transcript
amaran Halo is a new line of five different lights from amaran, ranging from 60 up to 600 watts, for creators making any sort of videos. These lights were provided to me free of charge from amaran to make this video — they haven’t paid me any more money beyond that, and they have not told me what to say.
We’re using the Halo 300x as our key light in today’s setup, dimmer set to 16%. It’s a bi-color light, not a full-color RGB light. It can adjust its color temperature between 2700K down to a very orange tungsten, and up to 6500K, a bluish daylight. It puts out 276 watts for the 300x. The spectral similarity index (SSI) is 74 for daylight, 84 for tungsten, meaning its color quality is solid, very good. It’s dimmable in 1% increments between 0 and 100%, and you can switch fan modes between smart, high, or silent — in silent mode you’re limited to 10% output.
It includes nine FX presets and can be controlled via knobs and buttons on the back, or via the amaran mobile app, which pairs quickly via NFC. You can also do wired DMX with a USB-C to DMX dongle, but it’s AC powered only — no USB or battery powering with this light. It has a full-size Bowens mount so you can use pretty much any Bowens mount light modifier, plus an umbrella slot on the yoke. It’s a solid build with metal at the stress points — the yoke, the wrap-around body, and the Bowens mount are all metal, with some plastic end caps.
We measured the photometrics in our studio with the Sekonic C800 and compared it to the Aputure 300x, the next lineup up from amaran, which are full-color lights and more expensive. We also did a flicker test — no problems with flicker down to 10% dimming at an 11.25° shutter angle at 23.976 fps. Fan noise is super quiet — they’ve really improved the thermal design. Beam angle is 85°, so it fills almost any softbox nicely.
Two cons I identified: it doesn’t come with a reflector or any modifiers, just a foam-insert box with no case, and there’s no native battery powering — this is a light to plug into AC power only. It’s priced at $299, which is astonishing for a nearly 300-watt light with this color quality and build quality — I don’t know of any other 300W light at this price point that I’d trust. My take: if you don’t need full RGB color, the Halo line of lights is super solid. Get out there and make some great lighting designs. Talk to you soon.