First Look: Litepanels Astra 6X Daylight LED Panel

Stjepan: I'm here with Joe from LitePanels. We're talking about the new Astra Light Panel 6X model. Joe, tell us a little bit about it.

Joe: Well, the 6X is six times the brightness of the original 1 x 1, and this is a unique light. The surface-mount LEDs that we use, the technology is getting better and better every time. So from the original 1 x 1, which was a domed 5mm LED to here, it's just night and day. Six times the brightness. Six times the punch, so when you're out there in the sunlight and it's really blaring, you can crank it all the way up and you have that intensity to get to your shot, but a lot of times you're not going to need that 6X. You're going to be able to turn it way down. That's going to help with the battery power, because as you turn the light down you decrease the amount of pull on the battery. All the lights that we make, the panels ... Even the fresnels that we make LEDs are all going to be battery powered, which is very good especially if you're running and gunning and you got to be places, you don't have power you can just use the battery and run all day.

Stjepan: Tell us again, what's the color range in these panels.

Joe: These lights can go anywhere from 3200 Kelvin all up to 5600 Kelvin. And you can go anywhere in between. So if you’re using a 4400 or a 3200 fluorescent, you can match to that exactly. So you can dial that in and be anywhere in between there.

Stjepan: Talk to us a little bit more about the softbox.

Joe: Well, the softbox, you can get at just the regular softbox that can go on there. It just really cuts it down probably two F-stops. The one you see behind us is called an oversized softbox, and it has the unique little triangle shaped in the center. It's almost like a double softbox. It takes the internal light where you have a hotspot always in your center, and it takes that hotspot and bounces it into the back of the light and it comes back out at you. So you don't lose any light, but it just makes it so smooth.

Stjepan: Just a really nice diffused look. What, typically, with the 6X and the 3X, are the differences? Who are they geared at?

Joe: Well, your 3X probably is going to be your YouTube, your livestream; your run-and-gun guys that are doing different shows, different web shows. The 6X, is really going to be geared towards your television, for your news, your ENG guys, EFP guys that are outdoor doing film production. It does matter, they can cross all boundaries. A lot of times, you'll have maybe two of the 6X in your package and one 3X, because you want to backlight and you don't need it as strong. So save yourself a couple of hundred bucks and do it that way. But there's not really much of a difference now. Keep in mind, the 6X replaces the original Astra we used to have, but it's six times the brightness of the original and the old one was four times the brightness. So we're 50% more light, but they didn't change the cost, which is huge to everybody out there that needs a light.

Stjepan: Joe, thank you for your time. Where can people go to learn more?

Joe: Go to litepanels.com. A really great resource. Have a lot of information on there, and you can really figure out what kind of light you want and what color you want.