We got our hands on it to see how it stacks up the competition.
All we've wanted for a while now was a powerful LED we could afford. Able to slot in the spot we usually spec with something like an Arri M18, but that we could actually buy, or at least rent on the regular. With spot and flood capability, along with the ability to easily and quickly mount a softbox.
We've known it was going to come from somewere, and in the last few years, as Aputure inched up the output scale from 300 to 600, we started to think that it would be Aputure that would finally do it.
Well, they did. With the Aputure 1200d Pro.
High-Output, Budget-Friendly
It's exciting to be getting this kind of output from a unit that costs around $4,000. This light is really designed to compete against something like an Arri M18.
The greater efficiency of LEDs means that we're getting more light for less power, hence a 1200 competing with an 1800. But the M18, which is an absolute workhorse (in fact, walking home last night I passed a shoot by my house that had M18s on road runners for their night exterior work), comes in over $10,000 once set up with balast, or even $15,000 for a high-speed capable unit without flicker. The head alone is over $5,000.
In addition, HMI, while wonderful for power output, hasn't always been the best for color spectrum. LED has struggled with that in the beginning but has come a long way, and we're seeing some really nice color reproduction here, both in measured numbers with a color meter, and also on skintones.
And since it's LED, flicker isn't a major worry for the 1200d Pro.
Hot and Heavy
The big thing most users will have to get used to is that this is a big, beefy head unit. Not as heavy as a 5K, but way heavier than anything Aputure has made before. It's only going to work on an actual junior stand.
If you've been thinking you could mount this on a C-stand arm, you'll be disappointed. The pin at the bottom is junior only, and you'll need to be sure you have the grippage to support it. It's not an S360, you don't need a road runner stand, but something beefier is required.
The 1200d is also going to get hot, but despite that, we never had any issues with the massive fan on the back kicking up too much noise. Aputure has done some fancy engineering to keep it as quiet as it is.
I remember once after reviewing the original 300D, I was at a rental house and the rental tech said, "Oh, I saw that review of the 300D. You know what we call that around here? We call it a doorstop!"
This is a familiar refrain you hear from folks who don't like something. I've been known to call the original Sony F900 a doorstop—and I stand by it, that camera sucked. But I felt in that moment that folks were missing the point. We were getting real output from a light that didn't have to weigh so much.
Yes, it wasn't made in a massive metal cage that was designed to bounce around a truck for the next 70 years like vintage incandescents, but that was okay. It was efficient enough in power output, and light enough, that you could use it in a different way. There was some plastic, but who cares when you could just grab it and go. It was a light that was super useable that you could still carry with you on the subway or mount to your bike rack.
The 1200d is a slight change in that model. You can still pack it in a soft case, but it's beefier, there's more metal and more durability built in. It's got wheels too. Lights like the 1200d are getting robust enough that you can imagine seeing a few on a truck.
On the Issue of Batteries
The other thing that will be a change for previous Aputure users is that the battery mount is no longer built into the ballast or included by default. Battery support is a feature many had gotten used to (or even addicted to) with units like the LS 600d. There are probably a lot of reasons for leaving this piece off, but our guess is that when Aputure took a look at the light it felt like it was mostly going to be used on wall power.
If you can lose something in a design, you should, so that's likely why it went. We largely agree. This pulls down so much power it's absolutely going to drain batteries like greased lightning, so battery use is a special case, not a regular feature.
You can still use external battery boxes to get this fired up for the situations where it's required. 2x 48V batteries will give you the full output, but that's a lot of juice and you are going to blow through that power pretty quickly.
It's more likely that you are going to find a dedicated outlet for this thing to keep it going at max power without constantly worrying when the batteries are going to cut out. Add on top of that that when no battery is mounted, battery plates are actually somewhat vulnerable to wear and tear, so it makes sense to not see it here.
Light OctaDome 120Credit: Aputure
Usability and Features
There is no built-in flood/spot in order to control the spread of the light. But the light does come with different reflectors in their own case. If you are used to working with the 600, where everything fits into one case, having things in two cases is a change, but not a dramatic one, and the reflector case is exceptionally lightweight.
This is only if you are going to be using the unit in its raw format, or with traditional diffusion like 4x4 or 6x6 frames.
We think it's more likely you're going to be pairing this light with one of the softboxes Aputure has been rolling out over the last few years. The new Light OctaDome 120 is also being released at the same time as the 1200d.
For our testing, we mostly used the Light Dome 150 (a good-sized 5' unit) and found it a really wonderful pairing. The 1200d gives plenty of output to give your light some punch, even when using a softbox.
Final Thoughts
Full disclosure—I've never been a massive fan of HMIs, primarily for the color reproduction issues and the discontinuous spectrum, and have been excited for LEDs to bring in more powerful tools to start to replace HMIs, since I'm happier with how they reproduce skintones.
I still shoot tungsten from time to time when it fits the job (though that's been rare lately), but LED might finally get me to put incandescent to bed.
We're now at a place where the combination of output, price, and color are coming together to make for some really dynamite units. Where this gets complicated is when you're mixing light sources. If you are out on a job with 4K HMIs off a generator giving you your big outdoor backlights, you'll want to test how you feel about mixing them with LED units on the ground. You may want to stick with little HMI units for matching.
Where this light is going to take off like a rocket is those jobs where you just don't have the budget, time, or space for 4Ks and a generator. Where you need to light up a street or an alleyway without any big units, or when you're going on location at bars and houses asking to plug stuff in. These units output a ton of light from a simple everyday wall circuit.
In fact, the 1200d is only taking up around half a wall circuit, so you aren't even asking your location to make sure they turn off everything else on that circuit, which they might not understand how to do. If you accidentally plug this into the same socket as the bar's fridge, you aren't going to trip the breaker and leave their beer getting warm. Creatives will have some overhead on a 20-amp circuit with a 1200d Pro.
Aputure LS 1200d Pro LED Light
- Color: 5600K, CRI/TLCI: 95
- 15, 30, 55° Beam Angle w/ Reflector
- Wireless DMX, Bluetooth Control
- 4 Dimming Modes, Comparable to 1200W HMI
- 8 Lighting Effects, AC 100-240V, 50/60Hz
We're now in a space where when you see "EXT. LOCATION - NIGHT" in the script, there is a chance to do some interesting things on set, especially in the low-budget arena.
Even if you don't buy one of these, they will be around for rental and with a $4,000 purchase price, then rental will be affordable. You can get five or six units and light up a pretty big outside space that just wouldn't be possible on a little job before. Stick them on top of some mambo combo stands, and you are off to the races.
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