Back in December, we wrote about Relio, and the response was fantastic, even despite the fact that the company had already run out of its initial stock of lights. Since that time, the fine folks at Relio have been hunkered away, figuring out how to not only manufacture the lights more efficiently and in a more cost effective way for buyers (the original batch was made by hand), but they've also been improving the design. Yesterday, they launched a Kickstarter campaign for the new and improved Relio. Here's the video:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pinocchiobarrique/relio-your-little-personal-sun
The Relio still comes in three different models, each with a different color temperature. There are 3000K, 3500K, and 4500K models, each of which outputs roughly 500 lux at a meter away. These lights are also extremely color accurate, with a CRI of 92 for the 3000K model, and a CRI of 96 for the other two. This puts the Relio in a class all its own in terms of color accuracy, at least compared to LEDs in this price range and at this size.
Here are a few of the other technical features of the Relio:
A Brief Review
I've had the opportunity to play around with a Relio for the past few months, and I can say without any hesitation that it has become one of my favorite lights. In fact, if I'm out shooting, I always have it with me because it takes up no room in my bag and there are plenty of ways to power it given the micro USB connection on back. I've used standard USB cables running from things like my computer and my TV to power it, and I've also used an old phone charger. If you wanted to power it wirelessly, I'm sure you could use any of the thousands of wireless charging devices for phones and tablets and such.
Outside of the basics of getting it powered, the Relio produces a lot of light, especially for something so small. My basic measurements had it at about 50 footcandles at 5 feet. It's by no means a replacement for larger lights, but given how sensitive our cameras are getting these days, there's quite a lot that you can accomplish with a Relio (or several), especially in terms of adding accent lights into your scene.
My only beef with Relio is that the light is incredibly hard, even when there's a sheet of diffusion in front of it. That's to be expected with a light this small, but it means that you probably wouldn't want to use it for lighting people's faces unless you want to see some super gnarly nose shadows. It also produces a relatively narrow beam of light, which makes it great for spotlighting objects at a close distance and for creating little pools of light in the background of your scenes (this is my favorite use). Overall, however, I think the Relio is a great tool to have with you on set because of its size and versatility.
With that out of the way, here are the Relio prices through their Kickstarter campaign.
If you're interested in learning more about Relio and  picking up a light of your own, head on over to their Kickstarter campaign.
Source: Relio Kickstarter Campaign
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