As I built my mobile paint station, one of the most pressing issues was a decent light, I think this might be due to my age but without a harsh white light, I have a devil of a trouble picking out details, I have tried a load of lights and by and large found the modelling ones to not work for me, they simply are not bright enough.
My solution was found in the movie industry who not surprisingly have amazing kit, and the one that turned out perfect for me was from Aputure in particular the MX series
This mini beast has 120 LEDs rather than the 8 or so you get on hobby or normal USB lamps
and also has a full set of controls where you can alter the hue and brightness
So good and powerful is it that in combination with a normal desk lamp arm (with a standard camera screw attachment) that it has become my desk lamp.
and for travel I use a “JAWS” flex clamp (you can get these under a number of brands including GOPRO
I hate rambling reviews so lets go with pro’s and cons.
PRO’s
- Amazing bright
- Highly portable, on battery power it lasts between 1 and 3.5 hours of painting, and you can just take any USB power bank and recharge it on the go with no outage.
- Uses a standard camera mount so you can find a wide variety of stands and mounts to suit your personal taste.
- Looks so Cool.
CONS
- Far more expensive than a normal hobby light.
- The front feels very fragile, the LEDS are exposed and the magnetic plastic filters don’t feel like they can take much grief, so a good travel case is essential.
- The included case feel very cheap, I opted for a small neoprene camera case as an alternative.
- Buttons are small and not what you would consider “Everyday use”, but this feeling soon wears off and you get used to them.
All in all the perfect hobby and desk lamp, I now use it for everything, but I do have to be careful and sooner or later I just know I’m going to damage the fragile front.