By Jay Holben, February 19, 2008
At first glance, the tiny Litepanels Micro (just 3.75"x2.75"x1.5") looks more like a toy than a professional tool, but looks can be deceiving. Once you get past the rather chintzy feel of the plastic construction, this is a very flexible little tool. The construction is my biggest complaint. The body of the light itself is robust enough — although I don’t believe it’ll survive a good fall on a hard surface — but the hot-shoe connection and tilt articulation are a little too cheap to be effective.
The flip-down filter holder is a clever idea but poorly designed. The thin plastic diffusion and 85 correction filters slip into the holder and are held in place by tabs at the bottoms and sides. But the plastic of the flip-down frame will not withstand the rigors of production for long. The filters themselves are easily dislodged and popped out.
However, the function of the Micro, as one would expect from Litepanels, is exceptional. The fixture has six rows of eight bright “white” (5600°K) LEDs. The face of the fixture is about 3.25"x2.5" and provides a pleasing, soft fill light. The diffusion filter looks to be somewhat similar to Lee 250 and cuts down the light by about one stop. The LED array itself is pretty soft, so the diffusion only serves to take a little off the crispness by better blending the transitions between the LEDs.
The power switch is a knob on the top of the fixture that has a built-in dimmer. With fresh batteries, you have an incredible dimming range of nearly 100 percent. Even at such a low intensity as to be unreadable by my meter, there was no flicker. As with all LED fixtures, this dimming has very little effect on the color temperature, so you can easily dial in your output as needed.
The Micro runs off four standard AA 1.5-volt batteries
. In my tests, the fixture ran for over 75 minutes at nearly 100 percent on four fresh AAs. After that, the light output began to drop. With four fresh batteries (all reading at 1.6 volts), at a distance of about 18", I measured an intensity of 73 footcandles. Within five minutes that dropped to 68 footcandles, but it held there for more than 30 minutes of constant burn. At a little over 45 minutes, I measured 59 footcandles, and at one hour I measured 52 footcandles. By the time I measured at 90 minutes of constant operation, the fixture was down to a measly 9.8 footcandles. The fixture was still quite cool to the touch with no areas of it uncomfortable to bare hands.
At an ISO of 320 (typical of many DV cameras) at 24 frames per second (assuming a 180° or 1/48 shutter), 48 footcandles is the equivalent of an f2.8.
In addition to the hot-shoe connector, Litepanels offers an available base plate for use off the camera.
This Micro is designed for use with small camcorders, but it’s functional enough to work in the professional realm as well. It may not withstand the tortures of production for very long, but, while it lasts, it’s a great little fixture, especially for the price.
Litepanels Micro
$349
DV Score:
Pros:
Versatile, bright, small, lightweight, great dimming, runs on standard AA batteries.
Cons:
Plastic construction.
Bottom Line:
A great little fixture.
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