Like many of you, I've been watching the progression of high-power (200w+) LED COB lights avidly. At first, the available instruments came in two categories: expensive and mostly color accurate, or cheaper and potentially troublesome. Build quality varied as much as color quality unless you stuck with the more expensive brands. My first units (Alzo digital), had some green cast issues (but eventually improved), I steered clear of the Neewer and Godox brands because I've read issues of build quality, noise, support and/or color issues. To be fair, I haven't experienced that personally, so I can't vouch for the experience of others.
I'm a fan of the Aputure line of lights, owning a few of their smaller panel lights...but I couldn't justify buying the 300d when it was first introduced, so I went 'off-brand'. Not the best decision, perhaps, but it served it's purpose (Clar Illumi-max 300). Colors were decent, as was the build quality, but it was a 3 piece unit, and the power supply was noisy enough that I needed to cover it with a ventilated box, or just tuck it away around a corner to keep a set quiet.
When Clar (an Adorama brand) announced a newer and (slightly) more powerful Illumi-max 350 that was completely re-designed, I took a chance...and I'm glad I did. I'm pretty sure that it can go head-to-head with the Aputure 300d, but at 1/2 the price. If you want to see my review and how Clar improved their offering, you can watch it here.
November 4th, 2020, 11:06 AM
