Lume Dice Panel MINI Assessment

Teasel Weed lit with a Lume Dice Panel MINI (@ 10% energy) lighting the left aspect and an everyday Lume Dice Panel (@ 5% energy, however with material filters to cut back depth) lighting the precise aspect, with an out of focus Milky Manner background.

Lume Dice despatched me their new Lume Dice Panel MINI gentle just a few weeks in the past to evaluate. It undoubtedly is small! At 3.58 x 2.18 inches, it is solely in regards to the measurement of a bank card, and 0.45″ thick. Weighing in at solely 3 ounces, its lower than half the burden of their unique Lume Dice Panel and about one-half the scale.

The Lume Dice Panel MINI’s efficiency is what impressed me most. For such a small bundle, it places out quite a lot of gentle. The specs say the 60 bi-color LEDs (30 @ 5600K and 30 @ 3200K) will put out 138 LUX @ 1 meter (though my gentle meter measurement got here in just below that, at 120 LUX), which is a bit more than one-third the output of its large brother, who is available in at 400 LUX (and my meter confirmed that), utilizing 120 bi-color LEDs.

You would possibly suppose that 138 LUX is just not quite a bit for severe pictures lighting, however in my specialty of Low Degree Panorama Lighting, that is loads of energy for many of my work. For a few years, I’ve used the F&V Z96 panel lights at 10% energy (about 50 LUX) for panorama foreground options that common about 100 to 150 ft away. The Panel MINI can simply do the identical at about 40% energy, and with its capability to go all the way down to as little as 1% energy for close-distance accent lighting, this makes it a really versatile gentle for what I do. And, at solely $59.95, the Lume Dice Panel MINI is sort of one-third the worth of the bigger Lume Dice Panel ($149.95).

Out of the field, the Panel MINI has the whole lot you must get began: a slip-on silicon gentle softening diffuser, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, a 1/4″/20 DSLR digital camera mount, and the MINI with a built-in rechargeable 1200mA Li-Polymer battery, housed in a robust aluminum physique.

Utilizing the Panel MINI within the area makes you admire its built-in clever LCD show options. Not like a lot of the different panel lights I’ve used up to now, each the Panel MINI and the unique Panel present you its accessible battery energy and run time at any energy setting.

Holding down the highest energy button on the aspect for 3-seconds activates the sunshine. Miserable the facility button momentarily toggles between energy/gentle depth and the colour temperature. A aspect wheel-lever (positioned between the “+” and “-“) permits you to change the sunshine depth between 100% and 1%, in 5% increments. When the sunshine brightness is ready to 100%, the run time on a totally charged battery is 1.2 hours, 50% brightness run time is 2.2 hours, 20% brightness is 5.0 hours (proven), and 1% brightness (nice for studying in your tent) is eighteen hours!  Full recharge time is 1.8 hours. Shade Temperature is adjustable by the identical aspect wheel-lever from 5600K to 3200K in 100K unit increments. Miserable the highest energy button for 3-seconds turns off the panel gentle.

Mounted or hand-held: I discovered quite a bit gentle portray makes use of for the Panel MINI, simply utilizing the unit in my hand (extra examples later this week…). Nevertheless, most will need to mount the panel within the horizontal or vertical place, utilizing one of many two 1/4″ 20 tripod threaded mounting holes. Mounting the panel to the highest of your DSLR is simple with the included 1/4″/20 digital camera mount. This straightforward setup permits for fast, on-the-move portrait fill lighting, whether or not you are doing stills or video. For extra severe portrait or product lighting, you need to use those self same threaded mounting holes to safe the panel to a tripod or gentle stand (that has a male 1/4″/20 threaded screw). For extra gentle adjustability, you could want to think about Lume Dice’s ball head digital camera and lightweight stand adapter.

Video Conferencing Mild: Many are additionally utilizing the Panel Mini as a video conferencing gentle when working remotely. You should buy the suction cup mount individually to connect to your pc laptop computer or monitor, or as a bundle with the Panel MINI.

MORE EXAMPLES IN THE FIELD…

The highest picture on this foot bridge scene is a night twilight publicity of 30 seconds, f/8, ISO 320. Within the backside picture, just some minutes later, there is a campfire on the finish of the trail, and I’ve walked by the bridge, holding my Panel MINI. I did this a couple of dozen occasions, till I bought the proper picture. Because the twilight started to darken and alter shade temperature, I needed to improve my ISO and alter my shade temperature. The fantastic thing about the Panel MINI is that I used to be capable of rapidly make changes to my gentle with the intention to naturally match my digital camera settings.

“Pixie Mud Path“ ~ Each of the pictures above are 50-second exposures. The highest picture was taken through the Blue Hour twilight. The underside picture is a mix of that picture and this 50-second gentle painted picture, taken about 20 minutes later. Throughout this publicity, I walked the path holding a Panel MINI that was in a selfmade “lamp shade.” My lamp shade was made utilizing a styrofoam faucet protector, however you could possibly additionally use an empty metal soup can. Elevating and decreasing the lamp shade will change the scale of the sunshine protection. The next pictures illustrate how my shade was made and used.

Bokeh Magic: My closing photograph comparability was to do some avenue pictures, “portrait” model. I employed a method many cinematographers use: a really “quick,” giant aperture, medium telephoto lens for an incredible bokeh impact. I used my cheap 85mm Rokinon f/1.4 lens (which additionally has nice coma correction for star pictures). It is cheap as a result of it has no auto focus (true cinematographers usually use the cine model of this lens, as a result of it has geared focus). Canon and Nikon variations of this lens have auto focus, however you may pay about 5 occasions the worth. Both manner, the out of focus highlights you get within the background are really magical! You will get good bokeh by taking pictures extensive open with an f/2.8 lens, however the out of focus highlights at f/1.4 are about twice as giant and dreamy.

Focusing extensive open, with an f/1.4 aperture is usually a little difficult at first, even with auto focus. Your depth of focus at portrait distances is commonly solely a couple of 1/4 inch! Concentrate on the eyes and the tip of the eyelashes are beginning to exit of focus. If the pinnacle is turned an excessive amount of, one eye will likely be significantly out of focus. Regardless of these challenges, the flattering impact it has on the face is extraordinary, and well worth the effort.

Panel MINI portrait lighting: Mix bokeh magic with portrait-style lighting from the Panel MINI, and you’ve got an incredible mixture! The one distinction between the 2 pictures beneath is that the underside picture has lighting from the Lume Dice Panel MINI. I’ve positioned the MINI solely about 3 ft to my left (to the precise of the mannequin), and I’ve used the silicon diffuser that comes with the unit to melt the sunshine. I used to be capable of dial down the facility to twenty% and modify the colour temperature to stability with the present avenue lighting on this downtown procuring middle. EXIF for each photographs: f/1.4, 1/160 second, ISO 1600 • Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 lens on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III • handheld, guide focus.