We're starting a new series today
featuring this beast right here,
and I want your help coming up with a name for it--
the series, not the light. The light already has a name,
it's the 300d II. Let's get Undone!
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone
and I have a beginning and a middle, but no--
So, every once in a while, I'll be making a review
for a product that starts to take on
a more conventional structure when I realize
that all I really want to do is geek out
about the build quality or some particularly clever set
of features, rather than make a typical review,
and that's exactly what I want to do
with this light here. I already know
that there's going to be several, well-explained reviews
covering this light, in fact, Curtis Judd already uploaded
one that covers the specs and technical aspects
of this light beautifully that I highly recommend
you go watch. So instead, let this be the first video
in a series where we focus on the craftsmanship,
but I do need your help coming up the name for the series,
so please put your suggestions in the comments below.
I was thinking something along the lines
of "Really Well Made", as in, like,
"Really Well Made: Part 1, the Aputure 300d Mark II",
but replace "Really Well Made" with something catchy
that might potentially work as an acronym or initialism.
Just so you're aware, this series will not contain
sponsored videos and that also goes
for the Aputure 300d Mark II,
this is not a sponsored video. I just really love this light.
Anyway, while you work on that title for me,
I'm going to switch out this light with the one
that's currently lighting me,
which is the Aputure 120d Mark II,
so we can see what the 300d Mark II looks like
on the face. Here, watch this montage while I do that.
[bombastic techno music]
♪
Okay, so here's what it looks like.
I've got it in the exact same position
that the 120d II was,
which is about 1.5 meters or 5 feet away.
Same modifier, the Light Dome II,
and I've adjusted the power settings to match
the output from the previous light in Lux.
Can you spot much of a difference
in the side-by-side comparison?
I feel like the 300d Mark II can accomplish
the same look as the 120d Mark II
and produces an equally nice and accurate light,
but with a much higher power ceiling if you need it.
Now, I did measure a slight change in temperature
between the two lights with the 300d
being about 300-400K warmer
than the 120d II, but this isn't a huge deal
and I found it still pretty easy to mix the lights together
even if you don't change the white balance,
which you saw on the side-by-side comparison.
Those are with the same white balance for the two lights,
so you can see that they're not really that different
in terms of temperature and it's easy to mix
these lights together. But, I want to expand a bit
on the 300d II's ability to become a 120d II.
Because that's one of the features about this light
that I think is worthy of the praise that
I referred to in the beginning of this video.
So, the control box has two battery slots,
one red and one black, and if you put both batteries in,
it acts just like it would on mains power,
and is a fully powered 300d II,
but if you only put one battery in and you put it in
the black V-mount slot, nothing happens.
But, if you put one battery in the red V-mount slot,
it still turns on the light but at half the power,
basically creating a 120d II.
This adds so much flexibility to this light
and makes it much easier to calculate your run-times
when you're pairing it with an actual 120d II,
because you have similar battery life expectations
if you only run one battery on the 300,
and one battery on the 120d.
Plus, it makes it for a leaner build and load
if you're only going to be using the 300d
up to the 120d's capabilities, you don't have to strap
two batteries on and drain both of them
if you're not going to be needing that extra 50% power
that you would get out of the 300d.
And so, I measured the different output combinations
just to make sure you actually were getting
a 120d II, and you are. If you do the 120d II
at the 1.5 meters or 5 feet away with no Light Dome,
but just the reflector that came with it on,
you get about 2800 lux and if you do 300d II
with a single battery at 100% power
at the same distance, I got 2795 lux.
So, it's pretty much exactly the same
which is also very similar to putting
both batteries in the 300d
and running it only at 50% power linear.
But, there is a caveat to this and it depends on
which reflector you use. For this test,
I used the same reflector that came
with the 120d II on both lights,
because if you use the new reflector
that comes with the 300d, you actually get
quite a bit more output and we'll talk about that
a bit more when we talk about the new reflector.
But the gist of it is that it's great
that you can just put one battery in it rather than two
and then turning it down, and with the one battery
you get a 120d II, so you get both lights in one.
Now, just a second ago I said 50% power linear,
and that's because on the 300d II,
you can actually adjust the curve shape
of the dimmer response, which is a fantastic feature
and something that I've complained about a lot
on previous lights. Other lights can be unpredictable
in this regard, because maybe you're adjusting
the dimmer up and the first 80% seems to do very little,
but then the last 20% really increases the power
of the light. Well, on the 300d II,
you can actually customize that curve
and choose between an exponential curve,
an S curve, a log curve or a linear one,
which is fantastic when you want each percentage
to scale evenly and represent
an equal 1% of output
as you work your way up from 0 to 100.
Now, also in that menu, you can change the fans
to two different settings, either Forced On,
so that they're always running, or Auto,
so they only run when necessary
based on the temperature of the light.
I found that at lower power percentages,
the fans never really come on
and even if you force the fans on, it's still very quiet,
and the unit as a whole is a lot more quiet
than the previous edition,
because the control box is now completely silent.
But, here's a little sample of the audio
with the fans forced on and, again,
the microphone is about 1.5 meters away
from the light and this is what it sounds like
with the fans on full-blast.
[negligent humming]
That control box, by the way, is brilliantly designed
and not just because of the balanced
left and right battery slots, but the distribution
of the weight, the shape and the size for better gripping,
and this terrific paracord-esque lanyard,
but you don't need to hang it from the lanyard
because it also has a shoe on the back
that allows you to quick clip it
to the included super clamp that attaches to your stand.
This keeps it from dangling and allows you
much more precise height adjustments
when it comes to cable management,
and both of the included cords are pretty long as well.
The one that goes from the control box to the light
will allow you to get this, at least, 4 meters or 13 feet
in the air if you attach the control box to the stand
in a position that supports that,
and the cable that runs from the control box
to the wall outlet is about 6 meters or nearly 20 feet long,
and uses a Neutrik connector for safe and secure attachment.
The control box also has four metal bars on the side
which can be used as feet when placing the unit
on the floor or a shelf, which keep it stable
while still providing access to the interface.
And speaking of that interface, the controls are laid out
intuitively and carry the same channel and group settings
from before, which means you can use your old remotes
when you set it to the 2.4 G wireless mode,
but now it also supports Bluetooth,
so you can connect this to the upcoming SidusLink app,
which will allow you to control this light with your phone.
But where Aputure nailed it again is by providing
a solution for their previous lights as well.
You'll be able to get an accessory
for all of your old lights
to get them up and running on the same app.
I'll cover the app in more detail
once I get that accessory for the older lights
and once Android support is available for the app,
but this is another brilliant move by Aputure
to not exclude customers who bought your previous lights.
Stuff like that makes it so much easier to recommend
and invest in a company's products.
The 300d II also has a series of lighting effects
that can have their intensity and interval adjusted,
as well as the ability to trigger some of them
with the push of a button. Overall, this is easily
the best control box I've ever seen for a light
and it's definitely deserving of praise.
Moving on to the light itself, it's a thing of beauty.
The prominent red accents
and the immaculate honeycomb grill
punched from a solid aluminum chassis,
and the perfectly rounded edges near the rear handle
make this the best-looking light in Aputure's lineup.
The yoke is much stronger with an easy to use brake
that has no issues supporting the Light Dome II,
and the Bowens mount release lever
has a smooth action and a satisfying click.
As I was saying earlier, the light comes with a reflector
which will actually improve your output more
than the previous editions due to a new incremental grid design
that is very pleasing to the eyes
and captivating to look at, and teetering on
an optical illusion. And, it's a lot more rugged
than some of the competitors foil reflectors
that tend to crumble under any side pressure.
Now, if you remember a moment ago,
I said that both the 120d II and the 300d II,
with just a single battery, got to about 2800 lux
when using the 120d II's reflector,
but if you switch that reflector out
to the new 300d II's reflector,
that power pretty much doubles up to about 5500 Lux
on either light, and that improvement is even more
dramatic when you put the second battery in the 300d II
and push this light to its full potential.
This new reflector design actually has
a rather impressive impact on the total output,
and that reflector, as well as the other components,
come safely packaged in a carrying case
that's not only pleasing to look at and touch,
thanks to high quality fabrics,
and great colour coordination, but it's incredibly robust.
You might have seen my Instagram story
where I was able to stand end-to-end on this thing
without any issue and I'm well over 200 lbs
or over 90 kg, so this can easily double as a stool
or even a table base on set.
If you didn't see my story on Instagram,
that means you probably aren't following me
and you should fix that immediately.
Alright, so I think those are all the features
that I wanted to gush about,
but obviously I'm going to have to address the fact
that while this is easily Aputure's best light to date,
it's also their most expensive,
but I wouldn't let the price dissuade you.
You're getting top quality here and in many ways,
better quality than some of the industry standards
that can cost up to three times as much.
Aputure is still a terrific value brand
and so when a product of theirs reaches $1,100,
you know you must be getting something special,
and you definitely are, with a 300d II,
and now that Aputure has proven their longevity,
and now legacy support with this new app,
I have no issues recommending this light to anyone
that has the budget for it.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found this video
helpful or at least entertaining and if you did make sure
you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already,
but if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
feel free to hit the dislike button twice.
Alright...I'm done!