The Italian lighting company Maxima is starting to roll out its two fixtures.
When we saw the Maxima 7 in development last year, there was a lot to be excited about. It's now finally available for pre-order, while the smaller, more indie-friendly Maxima 3 has started shipping.
Maxima 7
Video is no longer available: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRUooqV9O7s
Maxima 7 is a powerful 10" 5600K LED that punches 45,000 lux at 1m, and with the fresnel reflector, you get 470,000 lux at 1m. It's a 1200W HMI equivalent, has a separate ballast, high CRI/TLCI, a full copper heat sink to keep it cool, an adjustable beam angle, flicker-free dimming, a controllable app available for iOS and Android. It can be your go-to hard light or you can put a softbox in front of it to diffuse the source. Plus, it's light enough to carry around (approximately 20 lbs) and draws only 750W. If you want to read more about it, check it out here.
The one thing we didn't know was the price—until today. The Maxima 7 is priced at €3,990 (approximately $4,772 USD) for the carbon-kevlar body and €4,990 ($5,968) for the all-metal body, and is expected to ship this December.
Video is no longer available: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKutew9Y5iA
The cost puts it higher than the ARRI True Blue D12 and Molpar 1200W HMI Par, which isn't great news, but somewhat understandable as a new company. There's going to be some R&D costs attached to early models until the company stretches their legs.
For most independent creators, especially those working with Aputure, Hive, Nanlite, and others, the Maxima 3 is going to be more your speed. The Maxima 3 is a 300W LED available in 5600K or 3200K options. It's an 8" fresnel with all the same bells and whistles as Maxima 7 but as a lower light source. At 15° with the fresnel reflector, it offers 153,000 lux at 1m and 19,700 lux at 3m.
The fixture is focusable, offers flicker-free dimming is 10-100%, high CRI/TLCI, has an integrated mobile app, and weighs about 12 lbs with the fresnel. The cost? €1,899 (approximately $2,272 USD) without the fresnel and €2,499 ($2,995) with the fresnel. The cost is for either 5600K or 3200K, and Maxima offers three different stand mounts: a male 28mm, a male 16mm, and a female 16mm.
Both fixtures come in higher than their competitors. The Aputure LS 600 Pro is only $1,890 and offers similar power to the Maxima 7. The Aputure LS 300d II with the fresnel 2x can produce up to 90,000 lux at 1m and it only costs $1,099.
What it's going to boil down to is the quality of light you're getting with Maxima and how much noise there is. If it's significantly better than the competitors, then the extra cost might be warranted.
It doesn’t seem too extremely priced to me. The ARRI is roughly $10k for the head and a ballast. Aputure is cheaper but feels plastic to me (which is fine for personal use) and not something you’d want handled roughly plus the Maxima has the built in ballast and the fresnel. I’d say this is more in line with the joker LED, pro grade build level, assuming that’s the case here.
Your Comment
1 Comment
Too expensive by far, nice but compared to the 600D not well priced.
April 17, 2021 at 7:14PM
It doesn’t seem too extremely priced to me. The ARRI is roughly $10k for the head and a ballast. Aputure is cheaper but feels plastic to me (which is fine for personal use) and not something you’d want handled roughly plus the Maxima has the built in ballast and the fresnel. I’d say this is more in line with the joker LED, pro grade build level, assuming that’s the case here.
April 18, 2021 at 10:23AM