Would have loved to see a comparison with the new Nanlite 30X tubes which are significantly better than the 30C you tested. It's great to see Aputure in the tube light game, love all of the mounting options.
@@MoonlightSocial Agreed. The Pavotubes with the app and the pixel mapping is a win over these in my opinion. Im very much an Aputure fan, but I always give all companies a fair and equal evaluation.
Your workshop here is very very interesting. Also the live demo of lighting while filming blew my mind ^^ I will consider these lights for sure ! Thanks
Hi Caleb - Thank you for being so upfront and transparent about both the pros and cons of these tube lights. I'm a HUGE fan of Aputure and was going to order these lights 50% into your review, but after seeing the downsides I decided to hold off since my Pavotubes seem to be more suited for my needs. Can't wait for your review(s) on the flexible lights as well!
I am in same boat! I was all excited to get these and replace my Pavotubes. But I do use the color a lot and these wouldn't help in this department......other than the app. Also the battery life is half of the Pavotube. But I do love the look of these when in corded mode. And the mounting looks amazing.
IMO you can't oversell the benefit of these tubes being part of the Sidus ecosystem. Once you've experiencd being able to control whole sets of lights as comprehensive sets in one pretty well designed app, you don't want to even consider lights that don't fit in. (Most lights mobile apps are junk, and its ridiculous on set to try to juggle multiple different apps simultaneous.)
I am still unsure if I like the idea to buy only Aputure with their great app in mind. Nonetheless: their products are great, pricing is decent and they evolved a lot in the last years. And finally multi apps on set is horror.
Thanks so much for this review Caleb, it is interesting to understand the pros and see if the cons are bearable snd worth the buy to save some bucks. Cheers from England
Actually you can control the Pavotubes with an app. The old model 30C tubes that you tested require a hub (similar to the Aputure Sidus Hub), but the new 30X have Bluetooth built in to connect much easier. That being said, the Nanlite app isn't the easiest to use and Sidus is definitely more refined and feature packed.
I was in a shoot recently with nanlite 60x tube and on iphone we couldnt connect to it, on android we managed to connect, but the thing wouldnt change anything using the app. So, apparently you can "control" it, but that might not work
It’s a shame you haven’t been able to compare them with the current II series Nanlite tubes. Nanlite have fixed some of your complaint - especially improving brightness and diffusion.
The power handle is a huge disappointment, not having a solid battery built-in ruins the potential for using them as natural-looking background tubes. Swappable batteries have some Pro's but personally, tubes are either best used as Eyelights or additions to the background, Not much reason to use tubes for a Keylight today with all the brighter more powerful LED, Flex, and solid panels being a thing.
Sweet tube lights. I was just looking at options for tube lights for some music video projects and these pretty much hit the mark on what I'm looking for in the price bracket I'm after.
As an aputure/amaran user, I will be selling my pavotube 15c for one of the t2c’s. My main faff with nanlite is the lack of usable app that integrates without a big hassle. As I’m a single operator I love being able to adjust all my lights from one app when behind the camera. Been waiting for tubes from aputure for ages and so glad it’s out soon!
I'm not sure if you're already finished with the f22c review. But if you're still shooting, it would be so awesome if you could compare the output to a 300d II with a softbox. I feel like that's a major selling point for the flexible LED lights, they're output while maintaining softness.
Lets keep it real. I mostly will buy these tubes over every other just because of sidus link. It simply doesnt make sense having some aputure/amaran lights already to get a manual control nanlite tube
I can't justify LED tubes, they're simply not there yet. Not one brand has made one that has all the features I'm looking for. First, it's a must that all LED tubes have removable batteries and the batteries need to be internal (+ the option to power them externally without having the battery inside to save on weight when required). The design has to be closer to what Aputure did with these tubes with small "bezels" on the ends in case you want to mount 2 or more tubes next to each other, they also need to feature all those mounting options. The power output is still low and limiting for many situations, I'd like to see 2ft tubes with at least 30w of power. There should be an option for non RGB tubes, because 95% of the time i see myself just using the CCT mode. A tube that doesn't come with modifiers such as a grid is already a turn down for me, but launching one without the option to buy a grid separately is just a deal breaker for me. Other modifiers should include larger diffusion panels in case you want to make the light are larger (some companies are making inflatable diffusion for this purpose). Another modifier I'd like to see is a reflector that directs the beam in some narrower angle while increasing it's power, complete with honeycomb grid for spill control. Lastly, they all need to be compatible with V mount batteries, as these Aputure lights do.
Can these be used as effective toy lightsabers between projects? I'm a big kid (which I think a lot of photographers/cinematographers are), so this is an important selling point to me.
Okay I’m trying to get into streaming and I’ve recently purchased 2 of the t2c beams and was wondering if I wanted to mount by table tripod is that possible. Or what kind of other stand would you recommend
Caleb, you make it so hard for me to save my money...that double color set up you had looked awesome. Off topic but lookin good with the beard my dude and second, your audio sounds incredible! New mic or just changing the EQ settings?
Would also liked to have seen a comparison with the Godox TL30 and TL60 lights. I have the TL30 which I like but a lot of my other lights are Aputure and it is something I would consider changing.
The real 'cat amongst the pigeons' tube light is the Nanlite T8-7X light, which i hope you get to review sometime soon. With each tube costing about $99 (£75) per light and having 16 pixels, its quiet the low cost tube. Yes they have initial downsides due to how you want to use them (defo not an 'all purpose' light) , but they offer a lot for the cost
I’m the future, would you be willing to add a quick over exposed shot to shot what lights look like closer to your eyes? For me personally it can help influence wether I feel an accent like these is worth buying over already established lighting
Very Cool! Finally someone has added some much needed updates to RGB tube lights. Love the option for a detachable battery or DC power. I was thinking the exact same thing about having a pinned connector instead of that barrel cable for power input.
Hello, i have a Problem with my Aputure t4c tube light. Its Not working, i connect the Power cable and press on and it wont goes on. Nothing Happen when i switch the Power Button. Anyone help? During A Video SHOOT the tube light Controlled with the App and then light goes out. Is there A lock Button or something?
As someone who does a lot of interview setups, I’m wondering if these tubes are bright enough to use as a kicker or backlight in a scenario with windows in the shot where I’m shooting at the equivalent of 200 or even 50 ISO. Any thoughts?
I find it very suspicious that i cant find any RGB lux values for these lights. None of the reviews except this one, and he shows an average which i personally don't find very helpfull (and which shows its very low). Its not on the aputure site either. It looks great on camera but its a small room. I'd like to know the values the compare it to the pavotubes. Does anyone know where to find acurate measurements per color?
Yup these suck, no where compared to Asteras... I was really hoping these would be at least compared to Quasars. They are not. Just a new set of cheap crappy lights not met for pro use or even trying to head that direction. :/
Did I understand it correctly that if you power the tube via a separate V-Mount solution then you don't need the battery handle at all? Because that would make it a great option for me to put on a boom arm and have the heavy v-mount somewhere as either counterweight, or if on a person, on their belt or something.
YYYEEESSS!!! I've been waiting for Aputure to get into the light tube space. I've been using Westcotts forever and while I'll probably keep them for productions where I have time to gel lights, but these would make quick productions a breeze. A 2 ft tube paired with an MC and a reflector for good measure would make a killer run and gun setup. Something I could use to enhance available light with less than 2 minutes of setup time.
weird question - but let's just say for fun this was used as a shift for a handbrake or a sequential shifter... haha. Is this as delicate as it appears? at 11:36 makes me nervous just even how you're holding it. but in the initial build part of the video when you are looking at the barrel section o ring, the 2 foot tube upon seeing the 2:31 close up looks like it has a decent enclosure. would you trust it to habitually engage a momentary arduino switch with, say, the force you open your car door?
Hi Caleb. I need to get a couple of tube lights that work in a medium sized room. The small little RGB lights I have do not flood the area very wel or show any real concentration on a larger area. What do you recommend in 2023 that’s reasonable pricing and has a lot of versatility for use? Thanks and great video as always!
One point I think was missed is that the Amaran tubes also have a built in Nato Rail opening it up not only for MORE mounting options, but could also work as a remote support rail for various other things. Given Caleb's history of creating interesting gear builds, I have little doubt he could do something interesting with the rails despite the heat issues of the tubes.
I'd love to know which mini-tripod you are using here. I also wish you'd go into more detail on using the menu system, which I'm finding to be very confusing and difficult!
Thanks the point about how much length the size of the battery adds to the tube. This seems like an ideal solution for someone doing mobile filmmaking with someone hollywooding the light, not so great for mounting in small spaces.
I was super excited about these until I saw the output compared to nanlite. I have the 1st gen 4 footers and love and hate them. These are really exciting for just the integration with my existing Aputure system. But man I was hoping for more color output. It just shows all things have pros and cons.
oh heck ya. I actually got some good tube lights chinese sokani which are actually really good but that sidus link with the aputure lights is looking good
