- LUME CUBE has got a lot of attention recently
as a portable lighting option,
but is it worth the money?
In this video we're gonna take a look
at my thoughts.
So what's good about it,
and why I think it's not suited for most people.
But we'll also take a look at a low cost alternative
that I'd recommend.
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Hey, this is Justin Brown here from Primal Video.
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Alright, so this is the LUME CUBE.
We're gonna start off with my thoughts
on what's good about this light,
and when this light is great.
And then we're gonna have a look at when this light
isn't so great,
and why it's not as good as a lot of people
are saying it is.
Make sure you stick around until the end
because I'll be covering an alternative lighting solution
that I'd recommend to most people over the LUME CUBE.
Alright, so what's good about the LUME CUBE.
Well, the first thing is that it's fully waterproof.
Its got a tripod thread on the bottom,
so there's a heap of mounting options.
It's also quick-charging,
so it doesn't take too long to charge up.
And its also got built-in Bluetooth,
which means you can control it from your phone.
You can actually control multiple LUME CUBE lights
all from the one device,
which is pretty cool.
You can even set up your LUME CUBE to work
as a remote flash,
so that when you take a photo on your phone
that the LUME CUBE will flash as well,
giving you a lot more light.
Where I think the LUME CUBE works really well
is when it's paired up with action cameras,
like a GOPRO.
You can mount two LUME CUBES either side of your GOPRO
which means if you're filming in the water,
or you're gonna be filming in the rain,
or any dirty or muddy environments,
these lights will work really well.
They'll also suit your filming needs
if you need an insanely bright light.
Even on the lowest setting this is a bright light,
but when you max it out,
it's more powerful than most torches.
So it's just crazy bright,
which would be really good if you're filming in the water.
Alright, so what don't I like about the LUME CUBE.
First off, it sells for $79 U.S.,
which makes it one of the most expensive portable
LED lights available.
You can get some really awesome portable LED lights
starting at 20 to $30 U.S.
And we'll have a video coming out soon
that we'll link up in the cards,
with some other options for you around those prices.
The color temperature this light
throws out is really, really blue.
It's way beyond daylight,
which makes it really hard to match other lights
in your scene.
So if you want to use this as an on-camera light,
something to light yourself up
when you're presenting to camera,
or even to travel around as a portable Facebook
or YouTube Live light,
it's really hard to match the lights in your scene,
which means the colors in your videos
are going to be out,
and they're gonna look wrong.
And your skin colors and your skin tones
are gonna be out-of-whack,
especially with the rest of your scene.
And its also got no diffusion,
so it's a really harsh light.
So it's gonna cast a lot of shadows.
You'll need to put something over the front of it
to soften the light that it throws,
which really makes it hard to use it as an on-camera light
to get good results with your videos.
Now, in all my testing the battery life lasted around
an hour to an hour and a half,
and that's only using the second brightness level.
There's nine or 10 brightness levels
on this light.
As I said,
it goes insanely bright.
But you'd never need to go beyond one or two.
So using level one or two
and only getting between an hour and
an hour and a half.
for the price,
for the size,
and being an LED,
you'd normally expect quite a lot more.
Now, in saying that you can run the light off
external power, external USB power,
so that you can have the light plugged in,
so it's not gonna drain your battery,
or that it's charging the battery while the light is on.
And the last thing to be aware of
is that the LUME CUBE does heat up quite a lot
when it's in use.
It actually gets untouchable at the...
Around an hour, an hour and a half
or just before the battery goes flat.
But the light does heat up really quickly,
especially when it's plugged into external power.
Alright, so the LUME CUBE is great if you need
an insanely bright light
to light up pitch-black darkness.
It would be fantastic.
If you need a light that is also waterproof,
splash-proof, something you can get dirty or muddy,
then the LUME CUBE could be a great solution
for you then.
If you're looking for a portable lighting option
for creating videos like these,
or for Facebook Live, YouTube Live,
something that's really easy to move around,
quickly turn on,
you've got additional lights,
then I wouldn't recommend the LUME CUBE.
I would, however, recommend the Aputure AL-M9,
which sells on Amazon for $45.
So while this light isn't quite as small as
the LUME CUBE,
it's definitely thinner and lighter.
This light can also be charged and powered through USB.
It also comes with a magnetic diffuser,
so that you're getting a nice, soft light,
instead of a really bright, harsh light.
The color temperature is 5600 Kelvin, so daylight.
And it also comes with a blue and an orange gel
if you need to change the color temperature.
So for $45 for the Aputure AL-M9 versus
$79 for the LUME CUBE,
my pick would be the Aputure AL-M9
over the LUME CUBE.
Now, the Aputure light doesn't throw out
anywhere near as much light as the LUME CUBE.
The LUME CUBE is just insane at how much light it has.
And it's definitely, definitely overkill.
The Aputure light throws more than enough light
to be used as an awesome portable lighting solution.
So those are my thoughts on the LUME CUBE.
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And check out the video linked on screen now
to more portable lighting options.
I'll see you soon.