Thank you for spending so much time on the colour spectrum. As a product stills photog i've had plenty of trouble with LED lighting. So much that i've gone back to my strobes...
Another great comprehensive review Andrew. It started off looking like the Sensei was connecting with solid punches, but it appears to have a glass jaw in the end. I'm looking for a good RGB tube with fewer cons, a solid app (or even better, a credit-card sized remote, which I find faster to deploy), and internal charging capability. If you have leads on one, let me know.
Man that’s a lot of negatives… the biggest, deal breakers in my opinion, are the lack of g/m dimming as you dim CCT and it not using white emitters in RGB. The brightness and removable batts are nice… maybe a firmware correction can fix the two big issues? I’m with you, would love a couple for their brightness but still a hard pass based on the current negatives.
Interesting light, I was waiting for this review. Also I'm waiting for longer tubes. I know that Nanlite soon will start to sell 60x tube. Strange that nobody other is making longer tubes. I have several attempts to make longer tubes by myself. But handmade tube can't compare to factory fitted tube.
A clever cinematographer is working on an inflatable tube that you can put your existing tubes inside. You will be able to get 8ft, 12ft, 16ft and 20ft. This should be released this year.
After buying a couple of Falconeyes tubes last year i did wonder about these Soonwell when they came on sale here in the UK. Whilst the Falconeyes aren't great, to have a couple of RGB tubes 'in the back of the van', they've served me well for splash colour on walls and giving some atmosphere. The Soonwell ST50 four light 'Peli Kit' with tonnes of accessories and wifi box comes in just under £1500 (VAT EX), which is pretty damned good for a Peli Case kit. However............I'm going to wait for the Aputure (or is it Amaran???) tube lights as i'm very much in the Aputure eco-system (god i hate that word!). Many thanks for the review Andrew and i hope your work is picking up 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Great review!! I'm such a fan. Question: what is your opinion between these tubes comparing to Godox TL30 and 60 ? And with the new Pavotubes II 15X and 30X. ? Thanks
Thats an interesting light. A bit too much cons though maybe I should wait for Aputure. Andrew, have you heard of the SGC tube lights? They're Sidus Link compatible and on paper looks amazing. They claim to be developed with Aputure and Quasar, but Aputure has since said they are not associated with them. Seem to be bad blood, but the light itself looks pretty good from reviews I'm seeing. Nobody does DMX tests like you do though!
Hey, I work for SGC and would be happy to answer any questions on that. Simply put, politics led to SGC being its own brand now. The SGC Prism can use sidus link. I'm pretty sure SGC has the patent on removable battery for tubes, but it is nice to see someone else agrees its a good idea. Looking forward to Andrew's review and analysis :)
Looking forward to your review on the SGC tube lights too, specially pros and cons on removable batteries, and heat generated when running and charging at the same time. Looks like SGC got some interesting mount accessories and carrying cases.
Fantastic as always. I would love to see how you organize all your gear in studio rather than in the vans. Something I am struggling with setting up now and would love to see how you do it.
Thanks for another great review. I'm surprised they don't have a USB port to allow future upgrades. I know software sometimes can be painful :-). But on the flip side, with firmware upgrade, you can continue to improve battery power management, or add new features, like charging and running simultaneously. I wish more companies would come up with solid tube lights. They are easiest lights to set up for travel photography or documentary, but they are not easy to fly with.
If they fix the whole +/- green Thing this would still be interesting to me, for one specific use case: Taping it above windows in small rooms when there is no way to light it from the outside, one of the only times the Titans leave me wanting more output. Still, shame about the color modes. Maybe something they could fix in firmware?
From the review, it looks like it would be better if some of the features weren’t present, as if they;re trying to punch above their weight class. It’s reaching far but misses the mark for higher end work. I wonder if they wanted a lower cost light that dabbles in some of the more advanced features.
I have a feeling Aputure is or will. It is a clear pattern that Aputure is busy pushing the Amaran line at the moment in order to complete their defense, a classic marketing strategy. With their knowledge built on Sidus Link and other technologies, they can crush some tube light competitors easily.
I was REALLY interested in this light at first.... but the cons list were deal breakers for me. It seems like a lot of them are software issues, but I don't have faith that they will update the software.
Andrew, did I miss where you talked about their brightness levels? I know you said that they are 80% brighter than other tubes, but you usually give specific numbers. Any reason why you didn't do that here?
Would you say they're brighter than SGC? I have the SGC and Asteras but held off on adding more tubes as they don't seem to be in as great a demand where I'm from.
