Best review of these two lights that I've seen and a refreshing, practical and down to earth "pro" attitude presentation - most impressive!

I've hired Lock as a gaffer before and picked up lights from that very shed! Great bloke, great channel and great to see you finding a way to share you knowledge mate! Awesome stuff

this channel is so incredibly informative, thank you!!!

I'm a pro but I always learn something from your shows. Your channel is fantastic. Thank you!

When real pros do reviews. Thank you!

THIS IS THE BEST TUTORIAL ON APUTURE LIGHT DOMES THE REST ARE NO WHERE NEAR THIS DESCRIPTIVE

20:08 boy can I relate! Great channel my friend. So refreshing to see someone who has experience rather than YouBoobers fumbling through it. I saw a video yesterday where some kid was talking about Chimera softboxes and he kept pronouncing it "chi-merra" rather than "sha-mirrah". Had had to turn it off lol

19:20 Lol. I absolutely love the sauce here. "I'm like: did you *use* it?!" RIP producer.

@studiojohnny

Жыл бұрын

25:47 More sauce! lol "If you don't believe me: have a look at the sun. It's a circle."

As far as the Apeture light dome, my mentor has a unique way of setting it up. He grabs 2 opposing rods, and clicks them into place, then works his way around. Takes half the time of doing it rod by rod, but doesn't risk the damage of putting it on the ground (we tend to shoot in locations where nice smooth warehouse floors don't exist)

@MrSesseLind

2 жыл бұрын

That is a fine method. I have done this for 30 years with most softboxes.

@andrewmason8691

2 жыл бұрын

I have large hands and can open two adjacent rods. Not sure how that goes for people with smaller hands.

When you picked up the Light Dome II I worked out that you might be a bit smaller than I am... You are amazing by the way. I'm a solo cam op from Tassie, and your videos have really helped with my purchases.

Thank you for the demo of Aputure Light Dome Mini II. After watching it, it's clear to me that it's absolutely perfect for my "limited space" studio.

Excellent videos! Thank you for making these!

That was a brilliant comparison and review! Full of great information. Very well done! 👏

Incredibly valuable resource you're supplying here. Keep up the good work.

Man keep them coming 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 great stuff!

What a GREAT teacher / fantastic demos, with absolute clarity!

AMAZING! So much useful information!

Awesome in depth review, learn a lots from your video

Thanks. You insights are invaluable. Please keep 'em coming.

So glad I found this channel.

A great discussion about how light domes work. Great gaffer tips and tricks. Good food for thought. Thanks!

Thanks for posting this up, Andrew. It’s really useful practical advice and you communicate extremely well. You’ve educated me and saved me a fair bit of money! Thanks

Thank you so much for your great reviews!) Love it so much!)

Informative and answering questions I didn't even realize I had. Awesome!

no matter how many times I thank you it'll never be enough, thank you for all your videos.. Keep it up mate..

Thanks so much for covering why you would use the dome vs other diffusers. Exactly the question I had!

Thanks for this professional view on all this!

Very nice presentation my friend. Thank you for being so thorough. 👍

Great episode, thank you for the wealth of information! The mini dome looks a lot like a beauty dish, especially with the center reflector, and no outer diffusion. I'm guessing the fashion/glamour crowd is its real target audience.

That was so nice and in-depth, great job! Just ordered the Aputure Light Dome Mini II due to the small size of the home studio I'll use it in.

so satisfying watching this... enjoyable watching an expert in their area of expertise do their thing...

just stumbled across this channel tonight and i am very excited. great content and looks like a cool dude

Thank you for your time!

Great info. Thank you so much!

Thank you very much for your great reviews!

To the point, helpful, lots of behind the scene info. Subbed!

@gaffergear

3 жыл бұрын

Have you watched the DoP choice episode

Wonderful info! Thanks!

Good stuff. I like the inner baffle delete tip for more output without sacrificing output on the LightDome II.

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

It might still be useful with other lights

you do incredible reviews

Thanks for the baffle part :D. Saved me 1h of testing ;D ... ok, maybe 15 minutes but still :D

Great episode. learned a lot. thank you.

I learned a ton, thank you!!

nice demo works great

Awesome video. Thank you 🙏🏽

Great review, nice channel - subscribed!

@29:50 great review! but you can make a soft light hard by backing it further away, therefor it becomes "smaller" from the subjects perspective ;)

Great job

Thank you so much for this. In one video you've answered so many questions and joined up many dots - if you know what I mean. Thanks :)

OMG somebody who talks like a professional. I thought Curtis Judd was the only one. 🙂

@gaffergear

3 жыл бұрын

Huge fan of Curtis myself

@RaquelFoster

3 жыл бұрын

@@gaffergear He's great! He seems like more of an expert on microphone/sound details than lighting, though. His lighting stuff is much less into the geeky details.

Dude you are the best!

So great, thank you, really.

I've used the Elinchrom deep octa for years photography and video soft beautiful light. Its quick to setup also however the perfect dome circle and gel holder along with the even quicker setup time, is enough to get me interested.

Thanks for great help!!!

Great review

Excellent

this channel is great

Great info. Quick setup is really a plus for most setups especially with one man band shooting. I really don't want to be hauling around a ton of stuff. I also like the edge lit lights out there by Dracast but those are vastly lower output compared to the 300D. I have quite a few Godox lights that are extremely cheap but will certainly be adding at least one decent light and the Light Dome II. always good to buy the second generation of anything. I'll see if I can swing a package deal with the light and the Dome. I do like the new Aputure lantern for speed and in an audience setting they are presentable. The aputure space light softbox is far too crinkly and do look a bit cheap in an audience setting though the light is quite good. Totally laughed at your comment about being closer to 50 than 40.... Well there's alot of us out there for sure. The DP from Enders Game was Don McAlpine (also an Aussie I think) and he was 79 when he did that movie. SO you are pretty young !! Wondering if you have ever done a comparison between 300DII and the Forza 300.

Thanks so much mate, your channel is awesome, subscribed. I'm looking to learn more about lighting, working in commercials. I think I will buy a 120D mk2 and light dome 2. Cheers.

How pro are you ! hats off !

I wish I had seen this video a month ago, I do small stop motion projects and have been switching my light kit slowly over to LEDs and wanted to grab a softbox for my Aputure 120D MKII, I ended up going with a softbox that was half the cost the Aputure box (I went with a 36" Angler BoomBox which is fine for my scale) Overall I am really happy with it except it would be an utter pain to gel the fixture to match my tungsten lights (I'm still using some Mini-Mole Fresnel lights which aren't economical for me to replace at this point) That inner gel holder for the Aputure Light dome would have been 100% worth the extra cost, that way I wouldn't have to gel the already pretty low powered 200w mole tungsten lights just to match color.

The silver inner reflector would be good with the larger dome as well. I’ve used these inner reflectors, over the inner diffusers, for years, they are definitely softer and more even. Even used a silver one with a Canon speedlite and a metre softbox and light flash was incredible even and soft. C

Now basically.... that's a ton of info that i wished for... thank you..🥰😍🤩

@gaffergear

2 жыл бұрын

Yep I did say Basically a lot back then.

@tonigeorge4270

2 жыл бұрын

@@gaffergear but the knowledge you shared and the way you dealt with the equipments 😘👌🏽 there's got to be some discipline and care.... expecting more contents 🥰

@tonigeorge4270

2 жыл бұрын

Also I'm planning to get a light dome 2 from aputure after watching this

great content.

😂 that speed up 7:06 was so short looking like a nervous tick more than anything else, so I started giggling, than a couple of seconds later you couldn't hold it and laugh back hahaha priceless :D Great video btw !

thank you so much .. that was helpful

Genius !

dude....thank you so much.

Nice!

You're a genius

Perfect

I think the DOP choice is much brighter because of the larger light surface of the skypanal than any bonus mount light !

The GOAT

Thank you for great demo.

Awesome info, thank you so much for doing this! As far as the 300dmk2 vs the forza 500, I'd love to know which you prefer and why?

29:50 You CAN make a soft light harder, by backing it up further away from the subject, as long as its powerful enough.

@bradsmith9241

4 жыл бұрын

kinda playing on words a bit, harder, yes, but not actually hard

@mickkennedy1853

4 жыл бұрын

People often confuse diffuse light with soft light. “Softness” or “hardness” of light is determined by the size of the light source in comparison to the subject.

"Have a look at the sun, it's a circle" 😂

great channel with amazing reviews and explanation, however people goes for info to Potato Jet and Peter McBurguer for some reason 0_o Keep up the good work!!!

Hello. Very thorough and deep dive in those domes. I am a Canon Speedlite user, and I use the 600EX-RT, with a guide number of 60. Do you think that this can be used with good result together with the Aputure Light Dome II?

Have you tried any of the Nanlite softboxes? Their Para 150 Softbox looks interesting and it's quite a bit larger than the Aputure light dome.

I hope you will be able to review the new Aputure Light Dome 150 with an LS300x light. I wonder if the bigger dome will increase the light output a bit. And how it compares to shooting through a circular fold up diffuser. I have been shooting through the diffuser, then bouncing it off the ceiling in a small 8 x 10 office to light a speaker behind a desk. But the light from the diffuser bothers his eyes. Thank you for your wonderful instruction.

@gaffergear

2 жыл бұрын

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one

Thanks again for all of your helpful reviews and tips. I've purchased a Forza 300 thanks to your reviews, and wanted to ask: Do you have any recommendations on a light dome for the Forza 300? Ideally I'd like to gel my light to tungsten from time to time, and I've been considering the Light Dome II, but am a little worried about heat from the COB. I'd also be curious if you had any gels that you recommend for gelling down to tungsten properly. Thank you again so much. I've been telling everyone I know about your thoughtful reviews.

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

Should be fine, I gell the 500 with CTB using the holder in the dome ii and don't get an issue, dark gels melt fast though

Seeing as you need the inner reflector for the light dome mini to evenly distribute it's light due to the smaller depth, would that imply that other similarly sized soft boxes do not evenly distribute their light? For example the 60cm softbox for the forza is one i can think of as well as many others that don't include the small inner reflector, as far as i'm aware anyway. Also, great content! :)

For the light dome mini. The gold on the inner reflector - you can flip it around to get a yellower light?

Whoa, at 7:50 I thought you just slammed the Skypanel face-front lol due to the fast-forward.

Do you think it's possible to use a reflective baffle with the Chimera pancake lantern?

Great as always! Thanks for sharing your knowledge! At the moment I'm looking for a 8x8 or 10x10 frame diffuser. Found lastolite skylite and westcott scrim jim. Which one you suggest?

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

I haven't used either

@JADURCA

4 жыл бұрын

@@gaffergear Thanks sir, ike your vídeos, so professional! Just looking for an apropied frame diffuser for my Forza 300 and soon a Forza 500 . Would be great a video of you regarding diffusers (advantages and disadvantages) of using different stops of fabric. And even what light modifier is better when using frame modifiers. Is fresnel an option in this case or it is to narrow.

Always taught when coming up through ranks, don’t touch other department kit, especially cameras and gaffer, exactly for the accident you said happened. C

Fantastic work. I just bought the Mini II for close range work and find that at close range the output in the centre using it's reflector is quite dulled down as a result. It was interesting to see how you compared to the diffusion paper using the gel sheet, but like you mentioned thegel sheet blocks a lot of output. I'm thinking of makiing my own diffusion layer like in the regular light dome. What do you think? ....also great to see a fellow Aussie doing such an incredible job. Thanks very much

@gaffergear

3 жыл бұрын

May not be as soft as the reflector, I would try and keep it a fairly light diffuser

@KristianDowling

3 жыл бұрын

@@gaffergear @Gaffer & Gear actually I was using this on my Forza 60 and due to the recessed COB, there wasn't enough light output as probably 25% was immediately lost in the metal fitting plate. I've since changed to the Forza 60 Softbox and the output is so much better. Not to mention you get a softer milky cover that produces a nicer output than the light domes cover....which also comes with the Forza softbox.

If you can, do. If you can't teach!

Would it improve the softness of the LightDome II to put aluminum foil on the inner baffle to make it reflect light on to the back of the dome like the silver panel does in the LightDome Mini II?

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

I don't think that will work because the dome is a different shape. But hey, it will only cost you sine tin foil to try it

I’m a starting filmmaker looking at getting prosumer level lighting equipment with a budget of about sub 1k USD what is a good 1 light option and what is a good 2 light option?

The light dome mini is more controlled and directional with far less spill than 2x2 panel. Also worth the added grid there is even more directional control perfect as a hair or kicker light.

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

I have grids for all my panels

I really been enjoying your videos thank you for making them. I have a question I am a pro photographer moving into video with my first mirrorless Nikon Z6 camera so I was interested in video lighting I am fully stocked out with Profoto gear as a photographer and wondering if I can use any of my soft boxes on video lights or if that’s not a good idea (heat, shape such as square) do you have any thoughts? I’m mostly thinking about doing corporate interview type shooting three point lighting, light weight for easier travel. I’d love to hear your recommendations or perhaps you have another video discussing this type of set up?

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

I saw somewhere a Bowen's to prophoto adaptor for just this. The only reason video lights are Bowen mount is because Bowen went broke so no one has to pay loyalties on the design. As long as you are not running anything hot, you should be fine with your soft boxes

Have you found the gel holder on the light dome2 to work with the forza 500 og does it trap the heat and damage the gel and cob?

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

It seems OK with light coloured gels, as for trapping heat from the COB I don't know, I may drill some holes in it for ventilation.

are the more quiet nanlite boxes out yet also how does the 500 perform outdoors

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

Boxes working quieter now, so I've got 5. Work nice

anyone tried to put the gel holder on another brand dome like nanlite for example ?

Hey there, just want to ask if you tried the Octa 5 from DoP with bowens mount adaptor (i believe it is the SBRRO 5). Is it a bigger hassle to set up in comparison to rabbit ears? Thanks!

@gaffergear

3 жыл бұрын

I haven't tried that combo

Hey Andrew. I'm cycling through your videos looking for what you recommend as menace arm solution to support a light dome at full extension. I'm in Tasmania, Australia so if you know of gear locally you recommend, feel free to link it up!

@gaffergear

3 жыл бұрын

Send me an email to andrewlock@tpg.com.au Let me know the light and how fare you want to boom out And I'll give you my recommendations for a local manufacturer or distributor.

I picked up the 300x along with LightDome II. Great combo but knowing the 300x does not match the 300D for output. Does anyone care to add if the 300D would be leaps and bounds with the output?

@gaffergear

2 жыл бұрын

My X are about 60% the brightness of the D

Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge! What about Nanlite Softboxes? I think they're called Para. Any good?

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

In terms of build quality they honestly look like they come out of the same factory.. I found the Nanlite mini dome to be very tight when setting up.

@JADURCA

4 жыл бұрын

@@gaffergear thanks! True, these days almost all products are like the same. China? They just change the name of the product and some cosmetics. I'm going to buy a Forza 300 tomorrow in internet. Just not decided witch sotfbox, but seeing your video think that the Aperture Dome II is the way to go for such a light. Any suggestions? Does the Forza 300 COB goes sufficiently outside the Dome II?

@gaffergear

4 жыл бұрын

@@JADURCA I use Aputure Domes in my Forza 500s, no problem