amaran 60x S

Just buy one, I've got two of the daylight only and now I have one of the bicolor versions and I use one as a key light, one is a fill light and one is a hair light or sometimes I might use that as a room light depending on what I'm doing but I've got a little 10x15-ft room, throw one of these in a regular size softbox or a tiny soft box, or a lantern softbox to light yourself, and that's all you need in a small space, now if you've got room for two of them for a fill and a key light that's awesome if not just one of these and something to light your room is all you need so you could really get away with one of these as a key light and something for a room light, preferably two of these but the truth is even just one of these is amazing and having two or three of these is super amazing for a small room I currently have one as a key light in a lantern softbox, I've got one in a light dome mini 3 which is a super small soft box as my fill light, both are attached to extending poles that are clamped my tiny desk, and the desk is pretty much pushed up right against the wall so honestly, I never thought I would have room for a real lighting setup in my tiny space I mean the portion of the room I'm using for my studio is like a 5-ft by 6 ft area, I have a 32-in wide desk and my computer and everything else has to sit on that desk and I can easily attach one or two of these and a couple of small soft boxes or lanterns and have plenty of room for a full lighting setup in a tiny space. I love the fact that since all of my lights are from this company I can either use my stream deck or my phone to turn all the lights on and off and adjust the brightness, these little things are perfect and I've had the first two for several years now and they get ran for several hours per day I mean probably at least a good 4 to 6 hours per day and my little YouTube studio. I can't see any reason to even think about getting some other lights I mean they're tiny, they put out more than enough light for a small room and they seem to be very reliable Now I will say this I can hear the fans running but even recording on one of my very sensitive condenser microphones that pick up every little teeny tiny thing I don't know just the sound of the fans being a problem which I was a little bit worried about because I can definitely hear them with my ears but I don't notice them being picked up in the recordings, now if I had the microphone a little further away and I had the microphone gain turned up higher that fan sound from these might start getting a little bit noticeable but it wouldn't be anything more than some light white noise in the background that a noise removal plug in could knock out easily but I like these little lights a lot, if you can pick up one or two or three or four of these things you can have an amazing lighting setup in a tiny space

As an experienced professional filmmaker, I’m accustomed to having the latest and greatest high-end gear on set (often the most expensive). In building out my own personal production kit I knew I couldn’t invest the thousands of dollars per fixture like I use in my day to day, and needed to find the right cost effective and capable system to get me as close to what I’m used to. Enter Aputure lighting. The build quality and quality of light that Aputure fixtures and modifiers provide is really great. I’d had opportunities to use some of their larger fixtures prior to purchasing the 60xs and was excited to see what this little light could do. After a few days of testing it out I can officially say “WOW!!!” What an amazing little light! Lots of punch, super portable, and fast and convenient to work with when “running and gunning”. The app controllability is HUGE too! I find that to be a big time saver, and I love not having to step out from behind the camera and step over cables/set pieces to go adjust a light in 5-10% increments. The built in effects in the app will definitely come in handy too. Just a couple of things to be aware of when considering these 60xs fixtures: 1) the light beam has a pretty significant hot spot in the center when using just the provided reflector. The provided diffuser helps even this out pretty well, and can be further adjusted with any other typical light modifier. The Aputure 4545 light box is giving me great results. 2) provided case can be difficult fitting all cables/adapters back in. It’s a super tight fit, and I personally wouldn’t mind a slightly bigger case that could also accommodate a couple of batteries to power the lights. 3) If you’re considering purchasing the add-on handle grip, be aware that it has some minor design flaws…read the reviews on that first so you know what to expect. All in all, amazing light for the money. I will be purchasing additional units.

As a filmmaker, the Aputure Amaran COB 60xS has quickly become one of my go-to lighting tools for video shoots. The upgraded bi-color functionality offers incredible versatility, allowing me to shift between warm and cool tones seamlessly, which is perfect for adapting to different lighting environments. The Bowens mount is a game-changer, giving me the flexibility to use various light modifiers with ease. The build quality is solid yet lightweight, making it easy to transport and set up on location. Despite its compact size, the 60xS packs a punch with impressive brightness, capable of lighting both small studio spaces and larger areas with equal efficiency. What really stands out is how well the color rendering performs—skin tones look natural, and overall, the lighting quality adds a professional polish to my projects. The point-source design ensures a more focused beam, which can be shaped to suit any creative needs, from soft fills to hard key lighting. The app control is intuitive and makes adjusting the settings mid-shoot a breeze, especially when working solo or in small crews. For anyone looking to step up their lighting game without breaking the bank, the Amaran COB 60xS is a top-tier option. It’s an affordable yet powerful lighting solution that I highly recommend to filmmakers and content creators alike.

I struggled with 3 vs. 4 stars for this light. I've been a working videographer/photographer for 20+ years (30+ for stills, film era), so this isn't an "amazing light for youtube and TikTok!!!" take. So far I've used this on a corporate location shoot for stills, and a video interview shoot. The pro's are many - it's TINY. You could get three of these in a 15-series Pelican case. It's easy to control (don't have the app yet). You'll get very second nature with temp vs. output, and click vs. turn, right away. It's definitely in the output range of my other 60 watt LEDs, and the little reflector makes the most out of the LED (though how often you just want a blazing hard light is up to you - this is not going to be an optimum keylight with a softbox unless you don't need a lot of power). It has an integrated v-mount connector (but with some cons to that), so no separate clamp needed. It doesn't use a proprietary power connector (I only use V-mounts, they're life-changing, haven't tried the adapter at all). The fan is near-silent - imagine someone just breathing out, a low-intensity "ahhhhhhhhh" that's barely audible and well-away from human voice tonal range. It's metal and not plastic. The cons - first off, the total-crap of an umbrella-mount vs. some kind of spud or yoke. You have to take care to tighten the daylights out of the thing. Eventually the rubber pad is gonna fail. It might make sense to just permanently screw the stud in with thread-locker, but it's... janky. And while the v-mount clip is nice to have, you're not sticking a 190 on this thing, the weight will really encourage the mount to loosen. The v-mount clip? When you install a battery, the battery blocks the accessory lock. So if you want to swap out a reflector or a softbox, you have to remove the battery. This is a big design oversight - that nobody noticed this is pretty weird, since the lock could go in two other places easily. Not a huge deal, but pretty silly. But in most use-cases, you'll want a v-mount clamp on the stand (many batteries will be larger/heavier than the light itself), especially if you fly this out on a boom. Without a battery attached, it would be a really nice overhead due to its size/weight. And the standard power input means you could use any-old v-mount or barrel extension cable for flying this way up. My strobes are all Speedotron, but I did have a 7" Bowens grid reflector lying around. It didn't fit the accessory mount, and I had to grind the three mounting points down to get it to fit. Maybe my reflector is oddball, I'll be getting a popup softbox. But - the 7" with a 30° grid is **really** sweet with this light, and a cool trick is putting mylar behind the grid, to get a soft yet directional light. I'd say another potential con is: where are the small reflector accessories? No grid I can find, and no mounting contour for one. Another big oversight, since the mini reflector would be a nice little ecosystem. Would be cool to have one case with 2 or 3 of these and accessories and batteries. The styrofoam case is kinda weird - I can't imagine this holding up long, but I think most of us will be packing these in larger cases. But for two hundred bucks? It's a lot of light in a tiny package, with a lot of versatility. Will I get another? Hmmm, not sure...

Super portable, flexible, and easy to use. This is are great light for interviews and we were able to use it on our first shoot immediately. It’s a cute light and we love that it’s light weight and battery powered capable. Paired with a soft box this is a super flexible light.

This light is the perfect travel light for a portable kit. I have a few Aputure lights but I always wanted to build a kit of lights that could fit inside a Pelican 1510 case. I bought 2 of these for that reason. They are about the size of a cube tissue box, pack a good punch when it comes to light output, can be powered via V-mount and being bi-color is the icing on the cake. Color accuracy is what you would expect from Aputure. The LCD on the side is bright and easy to read but if you put it out of reach the bluetooth connectivity with the Amaran App make this the kind of light you can set up and never have to move it. Also it's a native bowens mount so you don't have to worry about adapters. This has to be one of my favorite lights to use. Simply because of it's size and ease of use.

Very nice light and does the job well for what I use it for.

Awesome light! I love the little light and the case it comes in. It’s very bright with options of warm light to cool light which is nice. I bought a battery’s to accompany the light to make it portable and easy to use when I’m not near an outlet. I will say I do struggle putting the light back into the case but other than that it is perfect.