{"id":1399,"date":"2013-05-14T09:31:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T09:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.wordpress\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2025-04-28T00:30:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T04:30:27","slug":"adorama-flashpoint-500c-led-light-can-it-replace-a-studio-flash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/adorama-flashpoint-500c-led-light-can-it-replace-a-studio-flash\/","title":{"rendered":"Adorama Flashpoint 500C LED light: Can it replace a studio flash?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adorama sent an independent blogger a couple of Flashpoint LED lights to review. Here’s what he wrote.<\/p>\n

The following guest review comes to us from David A. Selby for the blog LightingRumors, and is reposted here with his permission. Read the original blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“Continuous lighting, like that from the Flashpoint 500C<\/a>, makes the process so much easier that it\u2019s probably lengthened my life expectancy by all the reduced stress.” \u2014David A. Selby<\/p>\n

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Adorama, the photographic superstore in New York, recently sent us one of their Flashpoint LED lights to evaluate. The retailer\u2019s in-house Flashpoint photo gear brand has been going for a while now but it is only recently that they have ventured into studio-sized, mains-powered LEDs. At the time of writing, the Flashpoint 500 FPVL500 and Flashpoint 500C<\/a> are the largest panels on offer and \u2014 priced at $160 for the normal version and $200 for the bi-color one \u2014 seem like they could be an attractive option for studio owners.<\/p>\n

We have been playing with the Flashpoint 500C<\/a>, described as \u201ca flexible tool for your video and still photography needs\u201d. As the name suggests, it has 500 individual diodes in a rectangular array. The \u201cC\u201d designation means that this one is bi-color \u2014 that is, the color temperature can be adjusted on the fly. This first review looks at using the panel for stills photography and in a later article we\u2019ll be testing it out as a video light.<\/p>\n

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Can something like the 500C replace your trusty studio flashes? Or, if you are just getting into lighting now, would you be better off to get into using LED lights rather than starting with flash?<\/p>\n

First and foremost, this isn\u2019t a small unit. If you\u2019re relying on something to mount on top of your camera vis-\u00e0-vis a speedlight then you might want to look elsewhere. Measuring 35cm by 19cm by 7cm and tipping the scales at 2kg, this is hardly a device comparable to an iPad and won\u2019t simply slip into your camera bag.<\/p>\n

Design-wise, the Flashpoint 500C<\/a> is both simple and clever. The instructions run to just one side of A4 and largely consist of \u201cput it together, plug it in, don\u2019t electrocute yourself\u201d so this unit definitely gets points for ease-of-use. That is not to say that the design of the unit hasn\u2019t been carefully thought out. The fuse, power socket and dimmer dials are all found on the back panel in sensible places. There is a carrying handle which makes shifting (or tilting) the whole thing comfortable and effortless. The built-in barndoors will protect the LEDs when folded inwards.<\/p>\n

There is also a mount for standard Flashpoint V Lock batteries<\/a>, allowing you to free yourself from the mains power. These batteries cost as much as the light itself so I\u2019d have a look for a longer power cord before shelling out the extra dosh for one. We haven\u2019t got a Flashpoint V Lock battery<\/a> on hand so we can\u2019t testify how much runtime you\u2019ll get from one.<\/p>\n

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All four sides of the panel have a groove into which you can fit the stand adapter, allowing you to mount the light in either a horizontal or vertical orientation. This is a handy feature: the LED equivalent of being able to spin a softbox on its speedring. So you can shape the light to match your subject, for example vertically to illuminate a standing portrait subject or horizontally to fill a video scene. Taking the adapter off the 500C makes packing it away neatly very painless compared to, say, all of my studio monolights which have awkwardly protruding non-removable brackets. Though you can\u2019t remove the Flashpoint\u2019s carrying handle so it\u2019s swings and roundabouts.<\/p>\n

Setting up the light presents a minimum of fuss. This product was shipped to me from America so it came with a US-style kettle plug. All I had to do was swap that out for a proper one and I was ready to go, thanks to the 500C\u2019s worldwide voltage support. There is no on\/off switch on the panel; instead you turn the dials and photons start shooting out the front.<\/p>\n

The control system is a little bit counter-intuitive at first; rather than having one dial for brightness control and another for color temperature, each knob independently controls the intensity of one type of LEDs, arranged in alternating rows in the matrix. One of them adjusts the \u201cwhite\u201d diodes and the other adjusts the \u201corange\u201d ones. But without playing around with them first, you\u2019ll never know which is which as they aren\u2019t labelled.<\/p>\n

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Furthermore, there is no way of telling with any precision what brightness level is set, or what color temperature is currently being emitted. It doesn\u2019t help that my instruction sheet says the color range is 5300\u20135900K while Adorama\u2019s listing suggests 5200\u20135800K. In the middle of a shoot the only way to find this out accurately would be to use a color meter<\/a>, but since such devices cost over $1000 it sort of defeats the point of economizing on such a budget-priced light source in the first place. From my own quick testing in Adobe Lightroom, there\u2019s a shift of 1200 Kelvin, not the 600K specified, so I\u2019d probably disregard the manufacturer\u2019s figures.<\/p>\n

In practice, if I set my camera to tungsten (light bulb) white balance and turn the Flashpoint 500C<\/a> on full orange, the result looks slightly warm with a tiny greenish tint. Conversely, if you turn the LEDs on to their \u201cbluest\u201d setting and set the camera to daylight (sun) white balance then the final image has too much of a warm tinge. Acquaint yourself with the pre-set white balance feature on your camera since you\u2019ll be using it a lot. Rather than calling this a \u201cbi-color\u201d light I\u2019d say that it is one offering a variety of shades of orange. This isn\u2019t as useless as it might sound \u2014 you can set up the 500C as your main light and then choose whether you want the ambient sky light to appear faintly blue or vividly so:<\/p>\n

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Flashpoint 500C used as main light. The background is a window covered with a white curtain<\/p>\n

In terms of raw power, with a Sekonic L-358 incident light meter from one meter away (barndoors perpendicular to array) I measured a reading of f\/3.2, Iso-200, 1\/125 second at the Flashpoint 500C\u2019s maximum output setting. At two meters I read f\/1.6. Now your mileage will vary depending on other ambient light sources, nearby reflective surfaces, the positions of the barndoors (which are reflective on the inside) and which way you are pointing the light, but with modern cameras you should be able to achieve a reasonable choice of settings. Most sensors will give clean results at Iso-800, which at one meter will offer you f\/6.3 at a very hand-holdable 1\/125 second with this kit.<\/p>\n

For portraiture, what more do you need? Use a tripod and you can slow your shutter speeds down a bit more with well-behaved subjects (and still-life subjects are the epitome of good behaviour). If you\u2019re serious about clean files and think ISO-800 is a bit risky then you can invest in another LED panel to double your light (or with any luck, Adorama will bring out a 1000-LED panel).<\/p>\n

The barndoors give a phenomenal level of control. I was surprised at how easy it is to completely black out the background, even when said background is a white wall in a tiny room. This is a definite plus for enthusiasts thinking of adding this to their home studio kit \u2014 less need for big studio spaces or to spend money on backdrops. Since we\u2019re dealing with continuous lighting you can see exactly where the light falls before any snaps are taken, making the whole experience very streamlined. Used up close, the light isn\u2019t too harsh thanks to the large size of the light source itself. You won\u2019t get the same results from a bare speedlight without adding bits and bobs to the front of the flash head.<\/p>\n

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Taken in a small white-walled room. Nikon D700, 35mm; ISO 400, f\/5.6, 1\/100 second<\/p>\n

One of the biggest disadvantages of using an LED panel versus a studio flash head is that you can\u2019t fit commonly-available lighting accessories to the front. For close-up work this is somewhat mitigated by the size of the diode matrix itself but won\u2019t really do you any favors if you\u2019re aiming for full-length shots or super-soft portraiture. The answer to this is to use off-light modifiers: that is, bounce the light off a wall or aim it through a sheet of fabric. The corresponding loss in light intensity will drive your camera to its limits, however, unless you use multiple panels at once. I only had one 500C to try out, but if you\u2019re interested in seeing setups of this kind then Kirk Tuck does a lot of good work with low-price LED panels, which you can read about on his blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a self-portrait using a DX lens on an FX camera, because that\u2019s how I roll:<\/p>\n

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500C bounced off white wall behind the camera. Nikon D700, 35mm; Iso-400, f\/2, 1\/100 second<\/p>\n

Where I really enjoy using the Flashpoint 500C<\/a> is for product shots, such as the image below from our MeYin RF-604 review http:\/\/www.lightingrumours.com\/hands-on-with-the-meyin-rf-604-wireless-flash-trigger-3686. Using flash for such tasks is a real pain because it\u2019s hard to balance the light with other less powerful sources, such as LED indicators or backlit LCD screens, which sometimes I need to highlight in the photograph. Continuous lighting, like that from the 500C, makes the process so much easier that it\u2019s probably lengthened my life expectancy by all the reduced stress.<\/p>\n

Yes, the panel\u2019s color temperature has a life of its own but that doesn\u2019t matter in a one-light setup when one can shoot in Raw format and pick the white balance in post-processing. The movable Flashpoint light stand adapter allows me to suspend the length of the LED array over a subject almost like a boomed softbox, while the barndoors keep spill light away from the background for an edgy low-key look.<\/p>\n

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Since Aputure announced that their new, competing LED light the Amaran AL-528 comes with a custom case, I rather wish that Adorama offered the same. As it stands, the Flashpoint doesn\u2019t come with anything apart from the power cable and the cardboard box it ships in. There are a number of bags and cases available from the store<\/a> but none of them is really dedicated to the 500C so you might have to take out your tape-measure and shift a few dividers around to make it fit \u2014 unwanted faff. I found that an old laptop case fits the 500C exactly, and since it\u2019s from Ikea it is the height of fashion and I can now be the envy of my peers.<\/p>\n

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The epitome of style<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s compare the relative merits of the Flashpoint 500C LED Light versus studio flashes.<\/p>\n

Advantages vs. flash<\/p>\n