SmallRig RC 30B Bi-Color LED Focusing Video Light

This light is cheap, you can find it for 85-€100. The quality is what you 9d expect for that price. It will likely break if dropped at any height. It may also be the smallest lightest bi-color light with a lens (beam angle adjustment) and barn doors, which makes it pretty great for a hair light or highlighting/spotlighting details within your scene. Some will find it extremely useful (like myself) and some won 9t be able to get over the build quality. I 9m happy to gamble €3-400 on these lights to avoid purchasing more €500-€3000 fixtures that accomplish the same thing. Time will tell if they last.

I have always been a big fan of compact, focusable lights and have owned a 150W tungsten 4-light Dedolight kit for years which has served me well. Finding myself more and more in daylight situations, I have been looking for a LED bi-color spotlight with similar controls than my Dedolight but failed to find a good alternative. With its optics mimicking the Dedos, the SmallRig RC30B caught my attention. As expected with such a great price, the built quality is average. I actually don't mind plastic... Plastic can be strong, it's lightweight which is great to keep the gear light for travel. The main body of the light is actually pretty well built, but I wish it would cost €20 or €30 more and have a solid yoke and better barn doors. The yoke needs to be beefier and the ridiculously tiny tightening knob ain't gonna last under strong hands. Worst of all, is the dented yoke which only allows to tilt and lock the light at a certain angle. In practice, I often felt that once locked, the light is aiming too low or too high and need to fine tune the beam direction by raising or lowering the stand. I may try to grind the teath on one of my lights and see if that does the trick.... The barn doors... Well again nothing wrong with plastic (the light is not getting hot) but the hinges holding the leaves need to be made tighter. They can come off easily while adjusting their position. On the upside, they pop right back in :) Now on the positive. The light quality and control is amazing at that price. The optical lens design similar to Dedolight's €1,500 bi-color spot light does a great job and the 30°-60° focus control works wonders to precisely adjust the light beam and shape. When closing the barndoors to form a narrow slice of light on a wall, you will notice softening of the light pattern, most likely due to the limitation of the single LED and optical loope but it is still way bettern than what you would achieve with any fresnel light head. The built-in umbrella mount can prove handy to also use the light as a small key or fill light. The 30W power output is adequate for most use but in the near future, it would be great to see a 50W version. To sum it up. This is not a light to be carried by a rental house or shared by multiple users but it's a great buy for a single owner who takes good care of her/his gear. No other light on the market offers such control and flexibility at that price. Let's hope SmallRig improves the barndoors attachment and yoke built soon.