This is the Rotolight Titan X1 and it might just be
the best all-around light I’ve ever used. Let’s get undone!
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What’s happening, everybody?! I’m Gerald Undone
and you miss 100% of the shots you don’t white balance.
Okay, as usual, some disclosure.
All promotional consideration for this video
was provided by Rotolight, that includes the production costs,
as well as this entire rental kit
which includes the light, the ballast,
the v-mount adapter and the batteries,
this whole massive carrying case,
as well as the wireless transmitter that I have here
for triggering this as a flash. And all said and done, this is
several thousand dollar's worth of gear and expenses.
Now, I don’t allow edits to my video and in fact,
Rotolight hasn't even seen this video
before it’s published, but I wanted you to be aware
of the financial investment they made to this video.
But it’s not going to stop me from giving them a hard time
for the things I don’t like. I’ve also enlisted the help
of Tommy Callaway for two reasons.
One, he beat me to posting a video on this light,
so, I want to give him some credit.
Go watch his video if you haven’t yet, but two,
I think a second opinion is a good thing to recruit
when doing a sponsored video.
So, I’ll be throwing to him periodically throughout.
But speaking of giving Rotolight a hard time,
I am happy to report that there are very few things
I could find to complain about with this fixture.
It’s expensive, but it’s also extremely well made.
We’re talking solid metal construction,
a perfect yoke, and attachment mechanisms
that are the best I’ve seen.
So, for example, with the barn doors
you can just push these two release buttons
and the entire thing just comes off really easily.
And it clicks back in the exact same way.
[metallic clicking]
And the power ballast can be locked
into the back of the fixture using this turn style plate.
It's strong enough to support the entire light
if you prefer just to clamp it using this Super Clamp
onto your C-Stand or something.
And then it's locked in place like that. And I know
Tommy Callaway is particularly fond of this feature.
Hey Gerald. Thanks for having me on.
I think it's extremely robust, and the only other light
that I've seen implement something like this
is the VELVET Light Evo 1. And in my review of that one
I specifically mentioned I wished that other lights
would implement a similar locking mechanism
to mount accessories.
It's so convenient that I wish other lighting manufacturers
would adopt a similar mechanism
or if this would just become the standard.
That's how much I like it.
It's one of the best implementations
of this type of mounting mechanism that I've seen.
Because not only can you mount the power supply...
very easily to the fixture,
you can also mount the Super Clamp
used to mount the power supply to a C-Stand
to the back of the power supply...
and the whole thing is robust enough
to where you can mount the entire fixture
with the Super Clamp and the power supply attached
to anything you want and you can ditch the yoke.
Alternatively, it can be run on battery power
using two v-mount batteries
via this optional v-lock adapter,
and when doing this your output remains consistent,
so you don’t lose any intensity
when switching from mains to battery power, which is great.
The cords connecting everything are robust
and definitely inspire confidence.
The only thing to be aware of is that the lead
running from the power adapter to the mains power
is not very long, so you’ll definitely need
your own extension cord or stinger to position this light
wherever you want. Where this light really shines though
in my opinion is with the control interface.
This is my favourite control scheme of any light I’ve seen.
First off it has three big dials that correspond intuitively
to the item that is displayed directly above them,
and these knobs are precise and satisfying to use.
Alternatively though, the entire display is a touch screen.
So you can just as easily swipe
to adjust your intensity, temperature, or hue.
Then there’s touch buttons on the side
for entering the different sections of the menu
or for changing operating modes.
Everything is laid out nicely and it’s very easy to operate.
If I had one complaint about the thing though
it would be that the touch d-pad on this side
doesn’t feel as responsive or intuitive
and quite frankly, probably doesn’t even need to exist.
I’m not taking too many points off here for it not working well
because you really don’t need it, but I did find it strange
how much worse these buttons were to operate
compared to the rest of the interface.
Now speaking of the interface,
let’s go over the different operations.
This light can do everything. Seriously.
It has your typical bi-colour mode,
as well as RGBW, HSI, and X&Y
for dialing in the colour you prefer
using whichever method you favour.
It has a fantastic collection of emulated filters
from all the major brands,
and a full array of lighting effects,
which can be timed or triggered manually.
Including one effect that has Tommy Callaway pretty excited.
The way they've implemented the neon sign
in the Rotolight Titan. I haven't really seen
any other light implement neon sign
as one of the special effects. And the way they've done it
just really feels like a neon sign.
Interestingly, the fireworks effect is greyed-out,
but I’m told this will be unlocked
in an upcoming firmware update,
which is easy to do on this device.
And the effects can also be triggered
via DMX or wireless DMX.
This light can also be operated as a strobe,
which can be triggered using either its native wireless
from the Rotolight Transmitter from elinchrom,
or you can use a third-party transmitter,
but you’ll have to connect the matching third-party receiver
physically to the light. Now, I’ve tested
the functionality of this a little bit, and it’s fine.
It operates reasonably well,
but as usual with continuous lights that can also flash,
it feels a bit underpowered for the money
compared to what you can get from a dedicated strobe.
It’s pretty wild that you can do full-colour flash
with high-speed sync-- I don't even know
if you guys are seeing that in the video.
And it's great that it doubles as a modelling light
in that scenario, which is very handy.
So as a value add, this functionality
is an appreciated inclusion, and it definitely saves you
from needing to gel your strobes
if you just want cool light and colour effects.
But I wouldn’t buy this if flash is the primary function.
Get this as a video light
and enjoy the flash as a side benefit.
But again, full colour high speed sync is pretty awesome.
It also features the fine control
for the dimming mode and curve,
as well as the ability to maintain consistent output
across color temperatures, and several fan profiles.
When the fan is set to auto or stealth,
I was quite pleased with the fan noise from this light.
And at lower output settings
it stayed effectively silent for long durations.
In fact, it's been on right now...
if we go back to the regular mode here.
This is it at, I dunno, 40% power, and...
[incredibly faint room noise]
It's not making any noise.
If you run it at 100% for awhile it does start
to kick the fan up, but even then, it's not too loud.
It's quieter than some other lights in the studio right now.
Alright, now let’s jump back to Tommy
so he can tell us about his favourite thing about this panel
and probably the coolest thing about this light.
Probably the most obvious favourite feature
of the Titan is the electronic diffusion.
Not only because it's beautiful to watch being used,
it also shows that we've reached a level
of technological innovation
to actually use something like this in a useful product.
I've always heard of privacy glass and seen it in TV shows
but actually having a product that uses it
in such a unique way is very interesting to me.
So this panel implements a technology
Rotolight is calling SmartSoft Diffusion
which is an advanced liquid crystal film
that is electrically charged to change how the particles
in that layer spread light,
including changing the beam angle from 65 degrees
up to around 150 degrees at full diffusion.
Now it’s important to realize
that this doesn’t change the size of the source
or your proximity to it,
so it’s not really going to change the softness
in the sense of how the shadows emerge from
or lay across your subject. What it will do though
is eliminate the multi shadowing effect
that’s created by LED panels as well as give
a slightly more diffuse glow on the edges of your subject.
Both of which are very useful accomplishments.
And most impressively, they claim that they can do this
while maintaining colour quality and neutrality
as you increase or decrease the diffusion. Very cool feature!
Lastly, let’s talk a bit about colour quality and output.
Actually, let’s start with validating Rotolight’s claim
that the diffusion doesn’t change the light quality much.
So, I busted out the Sekonic here
and I measured it at 100% diffusion, 50%, and 0%.
Now first off, the light at full power
with no diffusion, you can get about 10,000 lux.
Just over 10,000 lux,
sometimes closer to 11,000 at one meter
which is just maybe slightly above the Aputure P300c
but comparable. And because it's bi-colour
that ranges from 3000 to 10,000,
you're going to get the brightest output
around 4000 to 5000 lux.
And then obviously it tapers off at both edges
down to maybe, like, 8000 and so on.
Now, when you have the diffusion at 100%
it does cut your output quite a bit. Of course,
it also changes, sort of, the beam angle, but I was getting
maybe about half the output, a little bit more than half
than I was getting with zero diffusion.
And there was a little bit of a change in the colour quality.
Not a huge amount. I would say
that their claim is pretty close.
Like, I think my temperature only changed, like, 50K
which is within a margin of error,
but my green/magenta did change consistently about 0.2.
I was actually getting 0.0 green/magenta with no diffusion
and then when I turned the diffusion 100%
it added a 0.2 magenta. Which, again, isn't terrible
and it's not going to make that big of a difference.
However, if you put the diffusion at about 50%
which looks like this...
It's kind of like that, at about halfway in.
Then the power loss isn't near as severe.
It's not, like, half the difference,
you actually keep quite a bit of your output
and the colour quality is pretty much perfectly maintained.
So, 50% diffusion might be the sweet spot if you, kind of,
want just the best of everything in one setting.
As far as their colour temperatures
they're very consistent with what they measure,
what I got on the Sekonic was very close,
again within 50 to 100K was the farthest off, so that's great.
And the colour quality is all good as well.
96 CRI, 97 TLCI, and I got a 72 SSI for daylight,
and an 83 SSI for tungsten.
So, no issues at all when it comes to colour quality.
And most importantly, the claims that they put
in their charts are actually quite accurate.
But let me shine it on my face
so you can see how it looks on skin.
[funky dramatic music]
♪
So, to conclude, this is an excellent light.
In fact, in many ways it’s the best I’ve seen.
The build is incredible, the barn doors are excellent,
the controls, the powering options,
and the versatility are all exceptional.
I suppose the only con here is that if you do make sort of
the perfect light and cram every piece
of functionality into it, that comes at a cost premium,
and as I said in the beginning of this video,
this light is expensive-- it’s regularly $4000.
Now that is still a bit cheaper than the equivalent lights
from ARRI, and I truly do believe that you get
what you pay for here, but I’ll be the first to admit that it’s
likely going to go beyond the budget of many of my viewers.
However, it is worth noting that Rotolight
is offering a hefty $1000 launch promotion discount
until the end of April 2021,
and if you order through their website
and use the coupon code “UNDONE-TITAN”
while choosing the light and battery adapter bundle,
they’ll give you the $350 battery adapter,
this one right here, for free.
So that’s collectively $1350 in savings
if you’re interested in getting this light soon. But either way,
it was fun to look at this new panel from Rotolight.
I always enjoy tinkering with products that are best-in-class
or that bring cool new features to the space.
And the Titan X1 is a shining example of that.
Get it? Shining?
Because it’s a light...
And attachment mechanisms that are the best I've seen.
The barn doi-er-- barn dois?
The barn dois!
That's strong enough to even support the entire light
with the Super Clan-- Clam, cla, cla.
Fun coloured lights.
To even support the entire light from the Super Claaamp
if you just-- Claaa! Why do I keep saying "Super Claaamp?"
Just goes in--
Whoa! This is sketchy.
Don't put your light on a little tripod like this.
I'm only doing this to make it easy to present.
Consistent output across colour temperatures
and several p-- pan frofiles.
"Several pan frofiles." Oh, jeez.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found
this video entertaining or at least helpful. 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,
try setting the playback speed to 75%.
Alright... I'm done.