- Hey guys.
Today we're gonna be doing a longterm review
of one of my all time favourite LED panels,
the Aputure F7.
(gentle music)
Today's video is proudly sponsored
by Gold Coast Camera Hire.
So over the years,
I've bought a lot of different LED panels.
And my journey in LED land
started off with the generically branded CN 160s
which were all of $30.
Don't buy them.
They're terrible.
Save your 30 bucks.
They almost all broke.
And those that didn't break had really bad CRI.
They're just not a good light.
Then I picked up some of these.
I have a full set of these.
These are the Aputure AL-H198.
These were definitely a step up from the $30 generic panels
but they're not a perfect light.
And then Aputure released the successor to this light
which is this one, the F7
which is what we're gonna be talking about today.
One of the things I love about Aputure
is they listen to their customer base
and they took basically all of the issues
that I had with this light and they fixed it
in the next model.
So this was really exciting for me when this was released.
So the first thing that I wanna look at with this light
is the build quality.
Now the build quality on this is surprisingly good
for an inexpensive and lightweight panel.
Compare it to the AL-H198,
you can kind of hear and feel that the plastic
like the joins between the plastic isn't very good
and you can kind of squidge them.
And it doesn't give you a lot of confidence
that this is gonna survive if it falls off a light stand
or some kind of rigging and tumbles to the ground.
The build quality on this, which is like a hard shell ABS,
it's really, really high quality.
It doesn't feel like there's anything
that has any kind of give, which I really appreciate.
The other good thing about this
is that there's nothing on here
that I feel would break on an impact.
Whereas here, you've got a lot of little plastic bits
and pieces that kind of protrude out.
And this is actually one of the things that I don't like
about this particular panel
is that the diffusion panels here are hard plastic
and these crack and break really easily.
And they're held in place by small plastic pegs
which I've also had snap off on several of my lights.
So Aputure have definitely improved the situation
by going with this design, which simply slots in there.
These can't crack because they're flexible.
And that also means that you can have multiple grades.
So you have choice as to how much
you wanna diffuse your light.
So I really appreciate that inclusion.
You'll also note that the F7 is a lot smaller
than the previous light.
And I'm gonna put that down to the fact
that they have removed the double A battery compartment
from the previous model.
Because let's face it,
I think I ran one of these lights of double As once.
So instead, this one only has your Sony NP-F style mount
which is actually a really nice mount.
So that's really easy.
There's locking mechanism; comes off and on really easily.
It's really easy to use.
And this is one of the better ones
that I've come across in general,
not just on a small LED panel.
So while we're on the topic of power options,
this light has two new power options
in addition to the Sony NP-F style battery.
So you can run this off a D-Tap
and you also have a USB-C powering option here.
Now there's a quirk to this USB-C power port,
which I've discovered.
I think when they implemented this,
it was in the early days of USB-C and USB-C power delivery.
But when I've plugged this light into a USB-C power bank
and a USB-C charger, it will not power the light.
Now, when I subbed that out for a USB-C to USB-A cable,
and I was running it off a regular five volt, one amp
or five volt, two amp USB-A connector,
it powers the light just fine.
So that's something to bear in mind
is that it won't actually accept USB-C power.
It has to be a USB-A power source with a USB-C cable.
It's a little bit confusing, a little bit weird.
If anyone else has had a different experience with this,
please let me know down in the comments.
I'd love to work out why that is the case.
But in my experience, that's what it is.
So just run it off a regular USB-A type battery,
and you'll be just fine.
Couple of other features of this light.
It has quarter-20 screws on the side,
the bottom and the top, which is really great
because you have a bunch of different mounting options
depending on how you want to position the light.
One downside to that is just purely user error.
I keep mounting the light upside down
and then I have to go and flip it around
or I can't read the writing on the back,
which is the next thing that I wanna talk about.
Now, this has a really nice little LED display here
on the back.
It gives you a colour temperature settings
as well as your battery percentage.
Now this light here can go all the way down to 0%
in 1% increments, which is really appreciated.
A lot of lights will tap out at 10% or 20%.
This one goes all the way down to 1%
and it's very, very precise.
The other thing I love about this light,
unlike these is that this one is bicolor.
And in fact it goes further than bicolor.
Now at the moment, it's set to 5,600 degrees Kelvin
which is on daylight colour temperature.
But if you press the dub here,
it switches over to colour temperature mode.
So I can adjust my Kelvin settings
down to 3,200 degrees Kelvin, which is tungsten
or all the way up to 9,500 degrees Kelvin
for a really cool blue kind of a look.
Now the fact that they've gone past 5,600 Kelvin
past daylight, all the way to 9,500 Kelvin
is a really intelligent move by Aputure
'cause not only does it allow you
to get that nice cool blue look
if you're shooting under daylight conditions
but it also positions 5,600 Kelvin squarely in the middle.
'Cause as you can see here,
there are alternating rows of LEDs.
So you have your 9,500 Kelvin LEDs on one row.
If I just dial this back down,
you can see that now both LED rows are coming on
all the way to 3,200 Kelvin.
You can see your tungsten LEDs here.
So by putting 5,600 Kelvin in the middle,
that means that all the LEDs are on.
And that is gonna give you the maximum output
at that setting, which is a really smart move.
These LEDs are also a really high quality LED.
They come in at 95+ CRI and TLCI, which is really good.
So you're not gonna get any noticeable green
or magenta ships on this light,
unlike some other panels that I've used.
And it's also quite a bright little light as well.
When I measured the output of this light,
it actually came in slightly brighter than advertised.
Aputure has listed the brightest output on this light
at 1500 lux at one metre.
And I actually got a higher reading than that.
Now that may come down to my light metre
but I have a good quality subsonic light metre.
And that measured 1,900 lux at one metre
at 5,600 degrees Kelvin.
In 3,200 degrees Kelvin, I measured 840 lux.
And at 9,500 degrees Kelvin, I measured 1400 lux.
So it's a fairly good output
for a bicolor light of this size.
This is another step up from the AL-198,
which came in at 1600 lux.
And of course this isn't bicolor.
So that is it's max output.
This light comes in at $98 US,
which is about 140, $150 Australian.
But I have noticed in the last few months
and this may have something to do with the pandemic
and supply and demand of Aputure products,
but the price of these lights has increased
and is up around the $200 mark Australian at the moment.
But I don't think this has much to do
with the retail pricing from Aputure,
as much as it has to do with people jacking up the prices
and just overall being a bit (beep).
So one of the things that I really respect about Aputure
as a company is that they continue to improve
and innovate their products.
There is actually not a lot to complain about this light.
All of the issues that I had with the previous model
have been fixed.
Even at $200, this is a really well-made light.
It has a lot of features.
And how much do I like this light?
Well, I have like five of these and one of these.
And in a heartbeat, I would trade all of these
for like another one or two F7s.
And I really look forward to seeing the next iteration
of this light, which I'm assuming will follow a similar path
to the Aputure MC and the new Nova
which will be probably a RGB, HSI engine powered light.
That would be my assumption.
And that's what I would love to see
out of a panel this size.
I look forward to seeing the next version of this light
and seeing how they improve and innovate
on an already awesome product.
Thank you so much for watching guys.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
And if you did, as always make sure to hit that Like button
and let us know in the comments below
what kind of gear would you like to see us review next.
Would you like to see more of these longterm reviews
of gear that I've been using for years?
Or would you like us to be reviewing the new
and exciting gear that's just been announced?
So let us know.
We'd love to hear what you have to say.
And we will see you in the next video.