Aputure AL-MX, Amaran AL-M9 Upgrade Version 128 LED Bi-Color On-Camera Video Light, TLCI/CRI 95+, 2800-6500K Adjustable, [email protected] Booster Mode, Aircraft-Grade Aluminum Body

Aputure makes great products and this one when it comes to build quality doesn't fall short of excellent and what i've grown to expect from them.. However, the defusing card is a little off and the brightness just doesn't sit well with me especially since the AL-F7 i think is brighter, lighter and better all around.. The burst is awesome though but short-lived and the battery isn't as good when you need to max it out. However, with that said its tiny and is bright enough to ghet the job done. oh and its a little tank so no worries on breaking it...

Very happy with purchase. The light has various modes that makes this a pretty versatile piece of equipment. Coupled with the diffusion slides, there is no reason why one would not be able to find the perfect lighting for the situation. With it being smaller and a bit thicker than my iPhone 11, the portability is amazing.My only gripe is the thin diffusion film is a little flimsy and breaks pretty easily.And what are the rubber bands for?

I’ve tried a number of different lighting options for my video tutorials and table photography, from bulky light stands with umbrella diffusors to LumiCubes (and everything in between) but this one has replaced them all. I love the ability to go from white to warm and to boost the brilliance, all in such an incredibly small package. I also appreciate being able to mount it to any standard tripod and with a couple white boards for bouncing light I seldom need to do much in the way of post photography editing.

First, I'd like to state that I bought my light from Amazon, thought it had a defect, talked to support, they quickly sent a replacement and requested I film the issue experienced and send the old unit back. This was a pretty solid customer support experience. Second, I'd like to say that despite the positive customer support experience and getting a second unit, the problems I experienced with the first unit persisted and I won't be pursuing another RMA-style return.This light is quite an upgrade from the Aperture AL-M9 I've kept in my backpack and camera bag for the past year. It is quite bright, the density of the LEDs makes a big difference in the evenness of the lighting. The built-in color temperature features are handy and less of a hassle than the tiny gels that came with the AL-M9.I've yet to test the CRI on this light, but from what I've seen, its temperatures are pretty accurate and skin tones come out looking nice.The brightness of the light is satisfactory and the number of dimming levels is also nice.The battery life is somewhere around an hour, maybe 1.5 hours at 80% brightness, color temperature in the middle of the range (all LEDs on), in my experience.Now let's talk about the cons:This light is very specific about its power source. When charging, using 2 different fast charging USB-C chargers I have for my Google Pixel devices, the charging LEDs wouldn't turn on and no charge would take. I could leave it plugged in overnight on my phone charger (5V@3A) and it would be dead in the morning. I chatted with support about this and found that only the included cable seemed to work to charge the device for me. I'm unsure why this particular issue occurs, but it is incredibly inconvenient. While the included USB-A -> USB-C charging cable is long, it would be great to be able to use existing charging infrastructure around my apartment and in my video rigs to keep the light powered.A more minor con with the device which might be good to include in an upgraded version: The color temperature selection has only 5 different settings. Two of these settings are pure white LEDs or pure orange LEDs, so you get 3 notches in the middle to cover everything between. I'd be a lot happier if this had something like 15-16 total color settings to get more of a range between cool and warm temperatures.Finally, I have to talk about the diffusion shield. The AL-M9 had a much better design in this respect, with powerful magnets both in the light and on the diffusion shield. In the AL-MX, there are 4 small screws in the corners of the light which the diffusion shield's magnets attach to, but the connection is much weaker than on the old model and I've found it hard to get the shield aligned properly because there is no polarization guiding the plate into place.That's it for my review, it's a good pickup but a bit pricey given the few weird feature gaps. If you need something portable, it's a good pickup. If you're just looking for a general light, you may want to look at a larger LED panel with more color temperature settings and a better diffusion solution.

This light packs so much versatility in such a small package.The ability to control both brightness and color temperature on an insanely bright light that fits in your pocket it crazy.The all metal construction makes this feel very sturdy. We shall see how it stands the test of time. It also has a metal thread for tripod mounting and a hot-shoe mount.Overall this light is a very welcome addition to my camera bag!

This light is very bright and very small, but the addition of USB C charging is basically useless to the point of being a hindrance. The device absolutely won't charge with any Power Delivery charger. This means that you must use a separate cable and brick anyway to charge it if you have a laptop that charges over USB C or a phone that charges using power delivery (like a google pixel/2/xl/2xl). It also means you can't charge it from your laptop's battery with a usb C cable the way that you can charge a phone. Battery banks with usb C to C cables also will not work if they follow the Power Delivery standard. The light may as well just have a micro usb B port on it, that way I don't have to keep track of which usb C charger will and won't charge this device.

I wish the battery lasted a bit longer. I took it out for a 2hr macro photo shoot. Powered on/off several times as I framed up shots and by 90mins the light had started to fade. Great powerful light but it needs to last longer. The ability to change the color temperature is perfectly executed.

This is completely dead for me. Won't take a charge or turn on. No idea what happened, as when it worked, it was bright and a great light, but not it won't charge at all.Do not recommend this - quality is too low... especially for the price!