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- [Tom] When it comes to lighting for your videos,
there are so many options,
even in the budget realm of under $100,
it can be overwhelming.
But I think there's one shining example,
that is a bright spot above the rest.
My name is Tom,
this is the enthusiasm project
and today we are gonna take a not sponsored look
at what I think is the best non-key light
you can get for under $100.
And I am talking about the Aperture, M C.
We're gonna skip right to the end of this review.
Amna spoil everything
and then we'll go back and fill in the finer details.
What I mean when I say that
I think this is the best non-key light
you can get for under $100 is exactly that.
I don't think this would be a great main key light.
It's just not big enough.
It's just not quite bright enough.
And if you don't have a key light already
in the sub $100 range,
there are a lot of options that will make a huge difference.
Of course, you kind of get what you pay for,
but for a long time,
I actually used an $85 fluorescent light
that I found on Amazon.
I made an entire video about it,
so if you want to check that out,
that is a great place to start
if you don't have any dedicated video lights.
Once you've got your key light, your main light set up,
and you're looking to get a fill light or an accent light
or an effect light, or to round out a lighting setup,
that's where I don't think
there's really anything better than this on the market.
It usually sells for about $90.
So you get a light that is incredibly well-built.
It has wireless charging,
it has USB regular charging,
it's super bright,
The quality of light is great,
it's an RGB light,
so it can do all the colors of the rainbow.
It has an app that's actually very, very helpful.
It has some very cool features that we'll go into.
It's got an onboard display
that will let you see your battery level,
your color temperature, and some of your basic settings.
It comes with a diffuser that actually works,
and it comes with a USB charging cable.
Of course, it also comes with a little pouch,
which is shockingly rugged.
Although I don't know how much
you'll actually end up using this.
I might use it as a case for my road wireless go
cause it's kind of the perfect size for all that stuff.
In the back of it, it has two super strong magnets,
which mean your mounting options
are almost limitless with this thing.
It's got about a two hour battery life
and you can actually run it off of USBC power
either from a wall outlet or even from a battery pack.
So tons of versatility, lots of options.
I'd almost recommend having a couple of these
and not just one.
So let's talk about some of the basic features
of the Aperture MC.
You've got some controls built right in.
On one side, you've got the USBC charging port,
you've got the power switch
and you also have your menu dial,
which is a scroll wheel and a button.
And that's really how you navigate
through the menus on the light itself.
On the top, it does have a small LCD panel
that lets you see the information that you need.
And on the bottom, there is a quarter 20 mounts.
So you can attach it to tripods. Light stands.
If you take this light and you pair it with a little tripod,
like the Manfrotto pixie,
you end up with a really nice little lighting setup
that you can position however you want it
for whatever you're filming or taking photos of.
And it does have wireless charging.
I found that it works just fine
with the wireless charger I use for my iPhone 10 R.
And of course it charges a little bit faster
if you use the actual USBC port.
As I said, it does come with a diffuser,
which is pretty interesting.
So lots of lights,
some $100 or even over
come with some kind of diffuser.
Like my older Aperture light comes with this plastic panel,
that's supposed to act as a diffuser.
But while it does kind of diffuse the light a bit,
it still is gonna give you some pretty harsh shadows.
This is the first time I've ever seen a small light
with a diffuser that actually works.
And the reason for it,
the light is thin
the diffuser is thick.
So when the light is in the diffuser,
it's not up against it like this.
It's actually just like a soft box on a bigger light,
the light source is away from the front
and it has more room to kind of be diffused and spread out.
This is also very thick material that diffuses the light,
worth noting it does actually diminish the brightness,
pretty considerably,
so it makes the light not as bright
when you're using the diffuser,
but the quality of light is excellent.
You end up with this really nice soft light.
And when you've got the diffuser on,
you still have access to the LCD screen,
you still have access to all the buttons
and you still have access to the quarter 20 mount.
So it doesn't limit any of the functionality of the light,
which I love.
And even though I said,
you wouldn't want to use this as your main key light,
it can function as a key light in a pinch.
So if you're traveling, if you're at a convention,
if you're doing an interview somewhere
and you just need a key light,
cause things are a little dark,
this will work and it will get the job done.
But if you're setting up like your video studio
or your home studio,
you definitely want a bigger light as your main key light.
Now I did mention there are some built in effects,
so I can navigate through those
to some of the different settings here.
There's a faulty bulb,
which could be great for like a horror movie or something.
A lot of these effects are actually based on flashing lights
and I'm super sensitive to flashing lights.
So I kinda stay away from them.
There's a lightening setting,
which is essentially a strobe light.
It's too bright for me to look at
too intense for me to look at.
Don't wanna see it.
Don't wanna see lightning.
There we go.
There's a party. I don't know I guess it's a party.
You know how parties are.
There's a cop car setting,
which actually is probably one of the more useful ones.
(police siren)
There's a fire setting, which is fire.
Cause it actually works really, really well.
So you have a lot of versatility.
I'm not a narrative filmmaker,
but I think that if you are like an indie filmmaker
especially those little effects could really come in handy
and might be one of the reasons why
it could be a good idea
to actually have a couple of these lights in your kit.
Now, as I mentioned, there is an app
which unlocks some of the functionality on here.
The functions of the app, I think are terrific.
You can do some super cool stuff with it.
The app is called Sidus links.
So if you go to the app store
and you search for Aperture, you're not gonna find much.
You have to create an account to be able to use it,
which is kind of annoying to me.
I don't want to create an account
just to make my light blue.
But regardless, once you get into it, it kind of works.
You can set up different scenes.
If you've ever used like Phillips hue bulbs,
and you've set up your scenes and stuff with that,
it kind of works the same way.
So you can preprogram stuff,
which just speeds things up when you need it.
If you want to add a light,
you can just click on your scene,
tap the green plus sign,
and once your light is turned on,
it should show up
and then it pairs in just a few seconds.
So it's a pretty simple process.
And then once you've got your light paired,
you have full control over everything.
You can change the color temperature,
right from within the app,
you can turn it on full brightness,
half brightness, quarter brightness.
And of course anything in between that you want.
You can do quick changes for color temperature.
You can even go in and dial things in
a little more finely than you can just on the light itself.
You can even add gels like CTB and CTO from within here
and full, quarter, half.
So there's a lot of flexibility built right into this app.
You can play of course, with the colors.
So if you just quickly want to see your colors,
you can just decide, I want whichever color
and put the light right there and change the intensity.
My favorite part of the app though,
which I think is actually pretty helpful
is this picker.
So if you go into the color picker,
you can actually use the camera on your phone
to choose which color the light is going to be.
So I have like the little Aperture pouch.
If I go to this red and I wanna pick up Aperture red.
Now the light has aperture red.
It's a little overexposed in this shot,
but in person they actually match really, really well.
If I like the blue on my watch band,
there we go.
Now it matches my watch.
So if you think of lighting design,
set design, product photography,
there's a lot of really cool flexibility built in here.
If this were the product that I were filming,
being able to match this red is awesome.
If someone was doing an interview with me
and they wanted to pull all the blue
that I normally wear
and put that in the background as a color splash,
they could get the exact shade of blue
that matches what I like.
And that is pretty darn cool.
It's also pretty cool for effects and more creative design.
So for example, I've been experimenting lately
with using a computer display
as a background for some product photography.
So having the product in front of the display,
the display kinda showing some colors and textures,
and then using that just as a really dynamic background.
What's fun ,is to use colored accent lighting
for that product.
But instead of just a random color,
if I have kind of a yellowish background
and then I can select
that exact shade of yellow on the light,
and have that reflecting on the product from the other side,
it works really well.
I use this a lot.
And of course, if you're somebody who is individual effects,
this can be a really fun tool
because if you're doing green screen work
and someone is watching a fire or looking at something,
having that same color,
actually reflecting on them in person
while you're filming,
is a great way to merge the digital
and the practical together
and create a more realistic, final result.
So in the end, who is this light for?
Well, like I said, it's for somebody
who wants to build up their video lighting kit
and already has a main key light.
If you're looking for a second, third, 10th light,
this is definitely the way to go.
In fact, you could probably get a bunch of these
and not even notice the extra weight in your bag
because it's pretty light.
It's a pretty light.
That was my attempt at a terrible pun.
It probably was not delightful.
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