Lume Cube Panel MINI Review

Teasel Weed lit with two Lume Cube Panel MINIs @ 1% power on the left side and 5% power on the right side (cloth filters were used to reduce intensity) with an out of focus Milky Way background.

Lume Cube sent me their new Lume Cube Panel MINI light a few weeks ago to review. It definitely is small! At 3.58 x 2.18 inches, it's only about the size of a credit card, and 0.45" thick. Weighing in at only 3 ounces, its less than half the weight of their original Lume Cube Panel and about one-half the size.

The Lume Cube Panel MINI's performance is what impressed me most. For such a small package, it puts out a lot of light. The specs say the 60 bi-color LEDs (30 @ 5600K and 30 @ 3200K) will put out 138 LUX @ 1 meter (although my light meter measurement came in slightly under that, at 120 LUX), which is a little more than one-third the output of its big brother, who comes in at 400 LUX (and my meter confirmed that), using 120 bi-color LEDs.

You might think that 138 LUX is not a lot for serious photography lighting, but in my specialty of Low Level Landscape Lighting, that's plenty of power for most of my work. For many years, I've used the F&V Z96 panel lights at 10% power (about 50 LUX) for landscape foreground features that average about 150 to 200 feet away. The Panel MINI can easily do the same at about 30% power, and with its ability to go down to as low as 1% power for close-distance accent lighting, this makes it a very versatile light for what I do. And, at only $59.95, the Lume Cube Panel MINI is almost one-third the price of the larger Lume Cube Panel ($149.95).

Out of the box, the Panel MINI has everything you need to get started: a slip-on silicon light softening diffuser, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, a 1/4"/20 DSLR camera mount, and the MINI with a built-in rechargeable 1200mA Li-Polymer battery, housed in a strong aluminum body.

Using the Panel MINI in the field makes you appreciate its built-in intelligent LCD display features. Unlike most of the other panel lights I've used in the past, both the Panel MINI and the original Panel show you its available battery power and run time at any power setting.

Holding down the top power button on the side for 3-seconds turns on the light. Depressing the power button momentarily toggles between power/light intensity and the color temperature. A side wheel-lever (located between the "+" and "-") allows you to change the light intensity between 100% and 1%, in 5% increments. When the light brightness is set to 100%, the run time on a fully charged battery is 1.2 hours, 50% brightness run time is 2.2 hours, 20% brightness is 5.0 hours (shown), and 1% brightness (great for reading in your tent) is 18 hours!  Full recharge time is 1.8 hours. Color Temperature is adjustable by the same side wheel-lever from 5600K to 3200K in 100K unit increments. Depressing the top power button for 3-seconds turns off the panel light.

Mounted or hand-held: I found a lot light painting uses for the Panel MINI, just using the unit in my hand (more examples later this week...). However, most will want to mount the panel in the horizontal or vertical position, using one of the two 1/4" 20 tripod threaded mounting holes. Mounting the panel to the top of your DSLR is easy with the included 1/4"/20 camera mount. This simple setup allows for quick, on-the-move portrait fill lighting, whether you're doing stills or video. For more serious portrait or product lighting, you can use those same threaded mounting holes to secure the panel to a tripod or light stand (that has a male 1/4"/20 threaded screw). For additional light adjustability, you may wish to consider Lume Cube's ball head camera and light stand adapter.

Video Conferencing Light: Many are also using the Panel Mini as a video conferencing light when working remotely. You can purchase the suction cup mount separately to attach to your computer laptop or monitor, or as a package with the Panel MINI.

MORE EXAMPLES IN THE FIELD...

The top image in this foot bridge scene is an evening twilight exposure of 30 seconds, f/8, ISO 320. In the bottom image, just a few minutes later, there's a campfire at the end of the path, and I've walked through the bridge, holding my Panel MINI. I did this about a dozen times, until I got the perfect image. As the twilight began to darken and change color temperature, I had to increase my ISO and change my color temperature. The beauty of the Panel MINI is that I was able to quickly make adjustments to my light in order to naturally match my camera settings.

"Pixie Dust Trail" ~ Both of the images above are 50-second exposures. The top image was taken during the Blue Hour twilight. The bottom image is a blend of that image and this 50-second light painted image, taken about 20 minutes later. During this exposure, I walked the trail holding a Panel MINI that was in a homemade "lamp shade." My lamp shade was made using a styrofoam faucet protector, but you could also use an empty steel soup can. Raising and lowering the lamp shade will change the size of the light coverage. The following photos illustrate how my shade was made and used.

Bokeh Magic: My final photo comparison was to do some street photography, "portrait" style. I employed a technique many cinematographers use: a very "fast," large aperture, medium telephoto lens for an amazing bokeh effect. I used my inexpensive 85mm Rokinon f/1.4 lens (which also has great coma correction for star photography). It's inexpensive because it has no auto focus (true cinematographers often use the cine version of this lens, because it has geared focus). Canon and Nikon versions of this lens have auto focus, but you'll pay about five times the price. Either way, the out of focus highlights you get in the background are truly magical! You can get nice bokeh by shooting wide open with an f/2.8 lens, but the out of focus highlights at f/1.4 are about twice as large and dreamy.

Focusing wide open, with an f/1.4 aperture can be a little tricky at first, even with auto focus. Your depth of focus at portrait distances is often only about a 1/4 inch! Focus on the eyes and the end of the eyelashes are starting to go out of focus. If the head is turned too much, one eye will be considerably out of focus. Despite these challenges, the flattering effect it has on the face is extraordinary, and worth the effort.

Panel MINI portrait lighting: Combine bokeh magic with portrait-style lighting from the Panel MINI, and you have an amazing combination! The only difference between the two photos below is that the bottom image has lighting from the Lume Cube Panel MINI. I've placed the MINI only about 3 feet to my left (to the right of the model), and I've used the silicon diffuser that comes with the unit to soften the light. I was able to dial down the power to 20% and adjust the color temperature to balance with the existing street lighting in this downtown shopping center. EXIF for both images: f/1.4, 1/160 second, ISO 1600 • Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 lens on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III • hand held, manual focus.

Z96 LED Light Panel for Night Photography

The Z96 LED Video Light can be used as both a main (key) light and a fill light by adjusting
the dimmer switch. The key light is on a stationary light stand 100 feet to the left, and the fill
light is on a light stand 40 feet to the right.
(Single exposure of Zion's "Little Tree" - Zion N.P. ~ © Royce Bair)

The versatile Z96 LED Light Panel was designed as both a video light for camcorders and as a light for DSLR photography, where it is placed above the camera on the hot shoe. However, I have found it to be an excellent light for stationary light painting in my astro-landscape night photography. I've used it at distances up to 500 feet to light many landscape features.

Stationary Light Painting. Flashlights and spotlights are often used in light painting, but their narrow beams require considerable "painting" skill to overlap each stroke of the light "brush", in order to make the light even. The Z96 has nine rows of 16 LED lights (96 total), producing more of a flood light pattern (about 65º beam angle). This broader light source allows me to place the light on a light stand, tripod, or more often than not, just on the ground, leaning against a rock —pointing towards a landscape feature, and leaving it unattended.

The Z96's broad angle of coverage makes a great unattended fill light, to soften or lighten the harsh shadows created by a stronger main light. Often, that main light will be a handheld, moving spotlight. Sometimes, I'll use two Z96's —one set on full power, and the other dimmed as the fill light, similar the the top photo in Zion National Park. In other cases, I'll use it as the only artificial light source, like I did in the Temple of the Moon photo, below.

The top photo has no light painting. The bottom photo is lit with one Z96, placed 500 feet
to the left of the 270 feet high monument. (Single exposure of the Temple of the Moon,
Cathedral Valley, Capital Reef N.P., Utah ~ © Royce Bair)

The advantage of unattended lighting (or "stationary light sculpting", as I like to call it), is that you can concentrate on making other adjustments to your image, such as composition. Stationary lighting also allows one to do time lapse photography, where every frame must have the same lighting, or the video will flickr. It is also useful in panoramic night scenes where all the images must have the same foreground lighting, if they are to match when stitched together.

The Z96 LED Video Light Panel is very compact. It come with a screw-on adjustable
mounting head/bracket and two magnetic snap-on filters (dollar bill not included)

Compact and Adjustable: The Z96 is extremely compact (5 x 1.8 x 3") and adaptable. It comes with an adjustable mounting head or bracket that allows slide-on mounting to a DSLR hot shot or to any 1/4" treaded device, i.e. a tripod or a light stand. It also comes with two magnetic snap-on filters —one is for diffusion and the other is an orange filler that converts the 5600º Kelvin LED lights to 3200º K. I usually leave both the diffusion and the orange filter on the Z96 for my NightScape photos. That's because I typically shoot my images with a 4000º K White Balance. This gives my skies a slightly bluish hue and the 3200º K light sources gives my foreground subjects and slightly warmer hue that contrasts nicely with the night sky.

Back and front view of the Z96 (pocket tripod no included)

Variable Light Intensity: The Z96 has a maximum light output of 800 Lux (at 1 meter). The dimmer switch on the back of the Z96 allows 0-100% light intensity. This is probably my most used feature. Except for long-distance landscape features, I rarely us this light panel at full power. For features that are less than 100 feet away, the light intensity is usually dimmed to less that one-half or one-quarter strength. That's because it doesn't take much light when you are using high ISO's in the range of 3200 to 6400 to photograph stars as points of light.

Power and light duration: Because LEDs are low consumers of electrical power, the manufacturer claims the Z96 can run for about 70 minutes at full power, using five AA batteries as a power source.  

Low Power Warning: If you have the Z96 dimmer switch set to full power and the batteries do not have enough strength to power the lights at that intensity, the lights will begin to flicker (go on and off), giving you notice that you must dim to a lower intensity. This annoying feature is actually a benefit to maintaining consistent exposure control . It lets you know that you don't have enough power to maintain that light intensity and camera exposure (very important in video recording and time lapse photography). If you are doing a time lapse, you'll want to read below and make sure you have the proper power source in order to maintain a consistent light intensity and avoid the flicker warning.

Alkaline vs. NiMH: In my tests, fresh AA alkalines typically last about 20 minutes, at full power, before the Z96 started to flicker. If one sets dimmer at 1/2 power, the lights will run for about 45 minutes before the unit starts to flickr. Set the dimmer at 1/4 power and it will run for about 1.5-hours before you get a flicker.

7.4 volt NP-F770 Lithium-ion battery

To avoid the flicker or constant re-adjustment of the light intensity via the dimmer switch, I use rechargeable NiMH batteries. I have found that NiMH batteries give me a more consistent power source than alkaline batteries (I use the 2300 mAh Energizer rechargeable). Alkaline batteries start out strong, but slowly weaken over a two hour period. The NiMH AA's start strong and remain at peak output for about 45 minutes (three times longer than alkaline), then quickly weaken near the end of their power. If you set the dimmer stitch at 1/2 power, you can get about 2-hours of consistent (flicker-less) light using NiMH batteries.

Lithium-ion Batteries: A Sony style 7.4 volt NP-F770 lithium-ion battery can be snapped on to the outside of battery compartment door and give you full (non-flicker) power for about 3-hours. At 1/2 power, the light will remain consistent for about six hours. This is a great option for long time lapse sequences.

Various LED Light Panel Brands: Litepanels was the original company that started making LED panel lights back in 2001. Their original 96 LED design sold for $400. Today's 96 LED Litepanels Micropro design sells for $350.

F&V Lighting is another quality manufacturer of panel lights. F&V makes the Z96 LED Video Light. Over the last 10 years, F&V has invested heavily in applying the advancements of LED technology to photographic and video applications, i.e. LUX/mAh efficiency and color rendering (CRI). I bought my first F&V Z96 Video Light through Calumet (labeled as their model CF9020) for $199. It has been a very reliable unit. Until recently, F&V has continued to sell the original Z96 ($169). This unit is currently being replaced by the Z96 UltraColor ($199), which has a higher color consistency (a CRI of 95).

BUYER BEWARE! These two units look exactly the same, except for the Calumet branding label
on the left unit. The Calumet was made by F&V, but the unit on the right is a Chinese counterfeit!

Both have the same "HDV-Z96" model number in the top left and the "Made by F&V"
molded into the bottom right of the units.

BEST Chinese Knock-off for less than $100: There are many Chinese panel light knock-offs at much lower prices, some even at the $20-$40 price range, and you might be tempted to buy one of these units. I even found a high-quality knock-off for about $95 that looks exactly like the F&V Z96 (I have two of these, in addition to my Calumet branded original). It even says that it is made by F&V, but the unit does NOT have the low power warning circuitry (light flickering), nor is its light color temperature the same as the authentic product. I contacted F&V and found out that their Z96 is one of the most counterfeited lighting products on the market because of its popularity and length of time that it has been in the photo marketplace!

NOTE: You might think that not having the power warning circuitry (light flickering) may be a plus, because the annoying flicker (on and off) would ruin a time lapse sequence, and you'd be right. But, having your foreground feature become darker (as the light intensity diminishes) would be just as annoying in your final time lapse video. However, if you never plan to do time lapse (or star trails), nor do you need exact color rendering (not as important for night landscape as it is for portrait and wedding photography), then this high-quality $95 counterfeit might still be a good fit for you. (The two I have do an excellent job for night photography, albeit their light color rendition just a touch more pink or magenta than the original unit.)