A company called Soonwell has taken another stab
at the flexible LED light, and today we're going
to evaluate if their efforts have made this peculiar category
of products a more compelling purchase.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What is happening, everybody? I am Gerald Undone
and here I've got Soonwell's new
FB-21 Bi-Color Flexible LED light.
Now, flexible LEDs themselves aren't new.
In fact, back in 2017 we've already
been through this whole cycle where the premium more expensive
brands released their products, and then the more
cost-effective brands produced their follow-ups.
And after the dust settled back then,
it seemed like the Falcon Eyes was probably
the best value option for flexible LEDs,
but it wasn't without its cons.
In fact, Caleb from DSLR Video Shooter
made a fantastic round-up of these products
back in June 2017 that I highly recommend you watch,
and I'll put a link to that video in the description below.
Now, fast-forward a year and a half later,
and here's Soonwell making remarkably similar products
to those Falcon Eyes models I just mentioned.
They're similarly priced, come with the same accessories;
hell, even the LCD screen on the control box
looks identical to the one on the Falcon Eyes.
So, today I'm hoping to answer two questions.
One: are flexible LED lights worth it?
And two: has Soonwell done anything with
their new FB-21 to make them more worth it?
So, let's start answering question one
by doing a general overview of the FB-21.
So, it's 12 inches by 24 inches, or one foot by two feet.
And it has 504 LEDs.
It's a bi-colour light, so half of the diodes
are cool, and half of the diodes are warm,
and it's about 10,000 lux
at half a meter in terms of output.
So, that puts it at about 70% of the power
of the Aputure 120D and about 1.5x brighter
than my old recommendation, the Aputure 672.
It has a colour-accuracy rating of 95+ on CRI
and the colour temperatures range
from 3,000 to 5,600 kelvin.
Its beam angle is essentially wide open,
so without a modifier,
expect the light to span the full 180°
when you have it stretched out on the included frame.
It's also incredibly light and weighs only about 500 grams,
so just over a pound.
It attaches to a control box, which can be powered
by either the included AC adapter,
or by V-Mount batteries, which are sold separately.
Regardless of the power option, though,
there's no discernible noise generated, which is good.
And you can use the included V-Mount strap adapter
to attach the power supply to the control box,
which is really convenient. It comes in a little bit cheaper
than some of the other brands, but we're still talking
a little bit over $300 US
depending on the model and whether you buy directly
from their store at Soonwell, or from Amazon.
To use it more traditionally on a light stand,
you put it in this folding frame,
and then you use an adapter that goes from spigot to spigot.
This mechanism is again lifted from older designs,
and I wish it would've been improved upon, because the way
it currently is with the spigot-to-spigot adapter,
it's at a 90° max, so there's no real way
to tilt the light on a downward angle.
There's also an included softbox attachment
which is good for controlling the angle of the beam,
and for providing a little bit of diffusion
to break up the diodes, but it's not too impressive
because I could still see
the individual diodes through the fabric.
So, if we just stop here and compare it as it is,
let's see if we're getting decent value.
My old value recommendation, which is the Aputure 672
behind an umbrella, would cost you around $320 US.
That will be $300 for the light,
and then $10 to $20 for an umbrella.
And with that you get a high-quality light
with great colours, a good remote control,
multiple power options and the batteries are included.
Now, if you're willing to step down the quality a little bit,
and fuss with some dials, and give up some conveniences,
you can get a similarly-powered Amazon brand light
for about $100 US and still put
that behind a $10 or $20 umbrella
and save close to $200 total.
And that might be the best option
for somebody just starting out.
But if we compare the Soonwell directly with the Aputure,
I think it's reasonable that the Soonwell
costs 10 to 15% more,
since it does provide 50% more output.
You also get a larger light source with the Soonwell,
and it's lighter and easier to move around,
but you don't get the included batteries
or the remote control like you do with the Aputure.
You also get a different distribution
of light and different shadows.
But I'll let you decide which one you like better.
So, right now, this is the Aputure 672
through an umbrella at about 30% power.
And here's the Soonwell FB-21 in the same position
using their included softbox, also at 30% power.
And here it is at 9% power
to try and match the output of the Aputure
through an umbrella at 30%.
Make sure you let me know in the comments
which light you preferred the look of.
So, it's at this point that I've always found flexible LEDs
difficult to broadly recommend.
Because if you're just gonna stick it on a light stand
and use it that way, you might be better off
saving some money, getting a cheaper traditional panel
and simpler diffusion options.
However, if you can take advantage of the fact
that it is flexible,
then it becomes a more compelling purchase option.
Now, I can't tell you every possible idea
one could have for positioning this light
in interesting ways, but we can cover some of the basics.
So, if we ditch the frame, we're left with Velcro and D-rings.
The Velcro's great for inconspicuously attaching this
light to fabrics, or to attach to the roof of the car, when
you want to light from within, but you don't have enough space.
The D-rings allow you to basically hang it from anything
without having to take up floor space with a light stand.
And because it's so lightweight,
the number of objects that can support it
is nearly infinite. But even if you just wanted to stick it to
a wall where the hooks and the Velcro aren't going to help,
you can just tape it to whatever surface you want as well.
It's also flexible, which means that
it can be curled or rolled as well.
Now, it's not going to stay in this shape on its own,
but again, you could use the Velcro to hold it in that way
or use it to roll it up and create a 360° light source.
You could put it in cupboards, closets, under desks--
♪ On the bed, on the floor, on a towel by the door ♪
♪ In the tub, in the car, up against the minibar ♪
Again, it would be completely up to
whatever you needed on your shoot.
But the light is impressively accommodating
when you have a space restriction.
And if that's the kind of thing you're going to be using it for,
then it's totally worth the money.
And that's my answer to our first question:
Are flexible LED lights worth it?
Only if you will definitely be taking advantage
of the flexible aspects of the light.
Otherwise, I think traditional panels are better options.
Now with that, I wanted to give a quick note
on one of the commonly talked about aspects
of flexible LED lights, which is the compact storage and set-up.
Now, while it's true that these lights
can pack up rather compactly,
I don't find that it's that much different
compared to the bag that comes with a traditional panel.
But more importantly, I find them to be a pain to set up,
especially if you attach the optional softbox.
Trying to bend and wedge the frame into the sockets
and then line up the Velcro from the softbox
along the lines without having it stick to everything that
you don't want it to along the way was a time-consuming pain.
Compared to my current method of just screwing a spigot into
the thread on my panel and then popping an umbrella open,
I found this to be much more annoying.
So, I don't think that factor adds
much of a positive for purchasing.
If anything, I'd say it goes to support
my claim that these lights are worse lights when
it comes to light stands because they're easier
to set up and use in strange places,
but harder to set up and give you worse tilt options
when putting them on a light stand.
But one aspect that I feel that I might have underplayed
is the value of having a larger light source.
You definitely would not want a 12x24"
traditional panel, because that would be
very heavy and very difficult to modify in the same way.
So, if having a larger light source is important to you,
but you don't have the space for a COB and dome combination
like the Aputure 120D, then this might be
the only appropriate middle ground.
And with that, that's one thing that this new light
from Soonwell has improved upon.
The FB-21 offers another new size
to go along with their line-up.
I like the 2x1 dimensionality of this light
and find that aspect ratio to be quite useful.
Often more so than a square light.
So, that's my first point directed at question two,
which is: Has Soonwell done anything
with their light to make flexible LEDs more worth it?
And they have, but they've also improved the control box.
First up, I like the inclusion of the twin controls.
You've got this touch panel here like we talked about
that looks just like the ones on the Falcon Eyes,
and you can use that to adjust
the colour temperature or the brightness.
But we also have controls on this end
that you can use as well, which are much easier to use
and see when you have this hanging from a light stand
with the included sling.
And the best part is that the adjustments aren't in
5% jumps anymore, but they're in 1% increments
all the way down to 0%.
This is something I always love to see
and really appreciate it when companies implement this.
Another improvement is the accuracy
of the colour temperatures.
Lights that are bi-colour that are configured
to have 5,600 K as their coolest temperature
often have an issue where, at lower brightnesses,
the temperature jumps too much
when changing the Kelvin by a small degree.
For example, if you're at 10% power
and you change the Kelvin from 5,600 K to 5,500 K,
you'll see something more like
a 700 to 800 Kelvin difference instead
of the 100 K that you were expecting.
It's because when the lights are dim,
the act of switching on the warm diodes
has a huge impact on the temperature,
because the mix was optimized for brighter outputs.
I'm happy to report, however, that on the FB-21
this problem subsides rather quickly
as you increase brightness,
better than I've seen in some of the competition.
The difference was reduced to a mere 200 K discrepancy
at 25% power and was completely gone
and perfectly accurate at 50% brightness.
Another improvement over the competition
is the consistency in output over those temperatures.
Usually with bi-colour lights you have to go somewhere
in the middle like 4,200 K to get full power.
But on this light, I measured very little difference
in terms of brightness throughout the temperature range
once you get past that first little bump at 5,600 K,
and then it's pretty consistent all the way through.
Lastly, the flexing of the light produces
much less noise than its competition.
Some lights in this category sound like you're
crumpling wrapping paper when you flex the light.
But this light, while not silent,
is much more reasonable.
[plastic rippling smoothly]
I think that these improvements make the FB-21
one of the best value flexible LED light options available.
But the same considerations about usage
and if you're going to be taking advantage
of the flexible aspects of the light
still need to be applied when deciding if a flexible LED light
is the right call for you.
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.
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feel free to hit the dislike button twice.
Alright... I'm done.