You might have noticed my extreme lack of posts on LED camera mount lights. That’s mainly because most of the low priced camera mount LED units don’t output very much light and the color temp is hard to match. But there are always cases were it can be very handy to have a few on camera lights to brighten up a shot.

I continued my search until I finally came across the TorchLED BOLT by Switronix. The BOLT camera mount light appears to be the brightest LED light (for it’s size) in this price range. The only other LED panel on the market I’ve found with this much equivalent light output is the Litepanel SolaENG 3″ Fresnel Led. But it’s about twice the price, doesn’t come with a battery and requires a power cable rather then a snap on battery plate. The TorchLED BOLT outputs up to 200 watts equivalent or about 3800 lux (at 3.3 feet) that equates to a little more then 4 times the output of your average low priced camera mount LED unit.

Unfortunately that much light output in such a small package doesn’t come cheap. The retail price for the TorchLED BOLT is around $350 plus batteries, thankfully right now B&H is offer the whole kit with a free battery upgrade for $299 (pictured above). It looks like the offer lasts tell the end of the month, so if you’re interested, you might want to check it out.

The discount package that showed up contains the high intensity LED light, a cold shoe swivel adapter,  diffuser screen, and the NP-F770  battery with charger. It’s also one of the few led panels in this price range that includes a dtap power adapter.

The TorchLED BOLT, is not water proof and like most camera mount LED panels the bolt is made mostly out of plastic. Unlike some of the LED panels, Switronix did include a metal 1/4 20 adapter to give a good solid mounting point for your rig or light stand. There are also two dimmer knobs at the back of the unit that allow you to make adjustments to both the color temp and output intensity.

Nothing extremely special about the included cold shoe swivel adapter. It feels solid in the hand, tightens down easily and is made of mostly metal. It looks similar to the Bescor Swivel Hot Shoe Mount sold on B&H for $13.

I’m still waiting on the battery to charge, but I’m very interested to start testing the TorchLED BOLT. If it does well in testing, 3 of these could make up a pretty useful 600 watt equivalent 3 point portable continuous lighting kit.  I’ll post some more on this once I get a chance to play around with the unit.

UPDATE: Check out the full video review here.



Tags: , ,