The Aputure MC

This tiny light is the size of a credit card and as thick as a YA book but it packs a punch for its miniature scale. The MC has an onboard battery and can be charged either by USB-C or by wireless charging (any charger should work, but my Samsung wireless charger worked well). It also outputs around 1100 lux, enough to serve as a key light in a small room. You’ll get about 2 hours on a full charge at max brightness.

Not only is it bright at the max brightness, but the light can be adjusted down to 100lux as a minimum brightness. This allows you to get the light close to your subject and provide a kicker in a three-point lighting setup.

The RGB light allows you to change color based either on your selection with the jog wheel, or by pairing the light with Aputure’s Sidus Link App. From there you can adjust saturation, intensity and hue (360 degrees of it) and even match the light to a specific color in your room. In fact, if you have other newer Aputure lights, you will be able to pair all those lights and control them from the app via Bluetooth.

The Aputure MC has a CRI (color rendering index: basically the color reproduction of the light is nearly perfect) of 96+ and SSI (spectral similarity index: meaning the score based on the camera’s ability to reproduce colors) scores of 84 in tungsten and 74 in daylight.

Did I mention that it’s magnetic? Pretty sweet. I tried it on my fridge and oven and it latched on perfectly.

I’m excited to try these lights out in a Zoom meeting setup currently but plan to use them in the field as well.