LED lighting is becoming increasingly popular among photographers and film makers and technology is helping make it a viable and accessible option for everyone. Manfrotto's range of portable LED panels has the Lumimuse 8 at the top of the pile.
The size of the Lumimuse 8 is the first thing you'll notice; 8.5cm x 5.5cm qualifies as 'pocket-sized' in anyone's book. Which immediately makes it attractive for travellers, outdoors folk, and anyone on the go. And given that more and more of us are becoming content creators - whether professional or not - there is a growing market for accessories to augment our output. The Lumimuse 8 is small and powerful enough to be useful to selfie-takers and vloggers alike.
It won't light a whole scene. The light of 8 LEDs will naturally be lost in a big room, but what it will do for example, is help to expose a presenter's face in a low-light piece to camera, or help pick out a small subject in a macro scene.
And while light panels are often reserved for video use, amateur photographers will find the Lumimuse 8 much easier to get to grips with than using a flash gun.
There are also some nice little design features here, most obvious being the included colour temperature filters, but also the ball-head/tripod mount, which allows use with all manner of tripods and stands. The latter is very tough to remove though.
The price point and portability are what sets apart the Lumimuse 8 and those are the aspects that should make this an attractive proposition to any budding creative.
