I just took delivery of the Socanland LED Foton Panel Light which I ordered from ‘e-tailer’ Backdropsource.
The unit is rated at 5600K and 2100lux at 1.5m. While I haven’t yet confirmed that with a light meter, but it eyeballs about right – definitely a clean white light and strong enough for indoor and outdoor work.
The dimmer is fabulous, in fact the light is SO strong you need it where you’re blowing out exposure on high contrast shots.
What I like about it
- the quality of construction seems decent
- the price is excellent, less than half what my friends paid elsewhere for what looks like the same product
- the option of choosing between power pack (included) and Sony style battery (not included) is really helpful for studio/field gigs
What I think could be improved
This is all minor, nothing to do with the product but with the website at Backdropsource;
- it doesn’t come with a stand, you need to either have one or order one separately (which you can’t do on the Backdropsource website 🙁
- you can’t order the battery from Backdropsource directly, so you need to double-check before you order elsewhere
- the website is a little hard to understand; better translation would help.
They say people buy from people and after my initial success buying a backdrop kit from them, I took the plunge on this $600 light panel. I always deal with Bernie Flynn there, who’s been really wonderful to work with.
I found these guys totally by chance when setting up my home studio and have been really impressed with the democratising effect their pricing has had on my ability to offer a pro studio feel in terms of output without killing me financially.
Here’s the last video i shot using this setup:
Where to buy
The Socanland LED Foton Panel is available from Backdropsource Australia for A$599.99 excluding GST. Backdropsource also have operations in the USA, UK, France, UAEÂ and Germany.