I attempted the Zhiyun Fiveray M40 pocket gentle — and it’s vivid as a Star!

The Zhiyun Fiveray M40 pocket LED panel was designed as a light-weight, handheld, and tripod-mountable video gentle for Vloggers and content material creators. The mixture of 88 cool and 88 heat gentle LEDs can generate as much as 40W of energy with an adjustable coloration temperature from 2700 to 6200K.

Pocket steady lights just like the Fiveray M40 are good for taking pictures movies as a result of you may place them wherever to offer the perfect lighting in your topic. Utilizing built-in batteries and LEDs doesn’t want an influence twine and generates much less warmth than conventional bulb lights. In contrast to strobe flashes, exterior LED panels permit you to transition from images to videography seamlessly.

You might have the world’s greatest digicam, however your movies will likely be much less expressive if you happen to don’t have the suitable lighting. Utilizing dimmable white and orange LED chips, the Zhiyun Fiveray M40 LED panel enables you to exactly differ your gentle’s depth and coloration temperature, making it simple to realize the proper illumination you need within the shot.

Skilled photographers advocate that when buying lights, search these with excessive scores: 95+ for CRI (Colour Rendering Index) or 90+ for TLCI (Tv Lighting Consistency Index). The Zhiyun M40 LED panel has TLCI 97 and CRI 96; verify this article to be taught extra about these two parameters that outline the standard of synthetic gentle sources.

Zhiyun FIVERAY M40 fill gentle overview

Disclosure: I acquired this pocket fill gentle in a product overview collaboration with Zhiyun. Though the product was free, all of the opinions on this overview stay mine.

ZHIYUN Tech is a world chief in digicam stabilizers (gimbals) for everybody, from social media content material creators to skilled filmmakers. The corporate additionally has three video gentle collection, the FIVERAY (M20C/M20, M40, V60, F100, and FR100C), MOLUS (G200, X100, and X60), and the most recent CINEPEER (CX100 and CM25).

The Fiveray M40 comes packed in a pleasant foam-padded storage field with a magnetic flap. Solely a guaranty card and a USB Sort-C charging cable are supplied with the fill gentle. No diffuser, bouncer, or different gentle manipulation equipment are included.

The smartphone-size LED panel measures 136*78*29 cm and weighs 320 grams. It matches completely in any images backpack and even into your pocket. It adopts a chic white coloration scheme, just like the Crane M3 gimbal.

A clear white plastic protect is in entrance of the 176 LEDs, making the sunshine softer. The black battery bay and the massive cooling fan are on reverse sides. 4 charging degree indicator LEDs are between the 2 management dials on the unit’s base. The USB Sort-C charging port of the sunshine is hidden by the 360-degree rotational mounting bracket.

As a substitute of built-in tripod mounts, the Fiveray M40 has a foldable extension bracket with two 1/4″ screw holes. The bracket permits vertical and horizontal set up on a tripod and doubles as a self-stand. You may connect the sunshine to the highest of your digicam utilizing a chilly shoe adapter. With a mini tripod, you should utilize it as a fill gentle for video conferences.

For enjoyable, I mounted the M40 on my iFlight Chimera 9 drone and did a take a look at flight. It gave me the sunshine to fly FPV in utterly darkish circumstances. Flying via smoke, it seemed like a flying OZN. My solely drawback was that the bracket couldn’t be secured able and rotated mid-flight.

Zhiyun Fiveray M40: Controls & Changes

The management interface on the underside of the sunshine is about as primary as you’ll get. It has solely two dials for adjusting CCT (coloration temperature) and Dimming (depth from off to 100%). You may alter the CCT from 2700-6200K by balancingmixing between heat and funky LEDs. The unit has 16 columns (eight heat and eight cool) of 11 LEDs. At 2700K, solely the orange LEDs gentle up, and at 6200K, solely white ones -the most gentle depth (1050 Lux at 1 m) can obtained round 3500K.

Sadly, the M40 doesn’t have built-in Bluetooth connectivity for distant management and inventive gentle modes just like the way more versatile Fiveray M20C.

Zhiyun Fiveray M40: Battery and dealing time

Two built-in 2600 mAh batteries energy the Fiveray M40. The producer’s technical specs on the product web page say it makes use of a 6S battery LiION pack, which is improper!

The 2S 18650 battery pack lasts about half-hour at full energy and, linked to a 10W energy adapter, can work for greater than 90 minutes. Utilizing a 15W PD quick charger, the M40 could be absolutely charged in lower than 2 hours.

Zhiyun Fiveray M40: How does it keep cool?

The 176 LEDs generate plenty of warmth and should be cooled to function appropriately and final lengthy. The M40 Fiveray encompasses a built-in cooling fan to stop overheating. There are additionally air flow holes on 4 sides of the unit. The fan begins solely when the panel heats up and is fairly quiet even when working at 100% output for lengthy durations. It adopts the DynaVort Cooling System, consisting of a gyroscope modeling warmth sink, FOC followers, and an attitude-control algorithm to stop overheating. This superior cooling expertise applies fluid dynamics and improves cooling effectivity by considerably enhancing airflow emissions via clever management.

Fiveray M40 pocket gentle: Key options

• [Wide Color Temperature – Excellent Color Rendition] 176 LED chips carry an unbelievable illuminance that rivals the important thing gentle supplied by larger gear. Each cool and heat colours allow the utmost energy output at 40W with no strobes. CRI≥96, TLCI≥97.
• [Dual Wheels For Accurate Dimming] Exact dimming of coloration temperature and brightness is on the market through two separate wheels, supplying you with easy management at your fingertips.
• [Variable-Frequency Cooling Via Algorithm Control] M40 adopts the DynaVort Cooling System with a gyroscope modeling warmth sink, FOC followers, and attitude-control algorithm to stop overheating. The DynaVort expertise that applies fluid dynamics raises the cooling effectivity by considerably enhancing the airflow emissions via clever management.
• [360° Rotational Stand] The rotational stand of the M40 extends potentialities for numerous events. On the similar time, two 1/4″ screw holes enable the M40 to be mounted on a tripod or gentle stand, providing a quick lighting setup than ever.
• [Adaptive Charging Technology] With 4 LED indicator lights that show battery degree and two 18650 batteries in-built, the M40 helps PD quick cost protocol that permits real-time charging. Continuous work at 10W can final for 97min.

Pricing, availability, and elective equipment

The Fiveray M40 pocket fill gentle panel has been accessible for orders since final spring (March 2023) with a retail worth of $99 / €119. You may decorate the M40 with a silicone diffuser for $9.90 and an extension rod with a 1/4″ thread mount for $29.00. The M40 and different Zhiyun Tech lights will also be bought from Amazon and different platforms.

Zhiyun Fiveray M40: Technical parameters

Fiveray M40 vs CINEPEER CM25

Whereas I used to be engaged on the Fiveray M40 overview, Zhiyun launched a brand new collection of images lights referred to as CINEPEER. With its 25W energy, the brand new CinePeer CM25 delivers distinctive portrait and ambient lighting results, making it superb for portrait and object images on a finances. Whereas the M40 has 176 LEDs, the CinePeer CM25 has solely 112. The 2 fill lights have comparable designs and are about the identical measurement. Virtually, the CM25 is the “lite” model of the M40. The one building distinction between these two fill lights is that the M40 has a foldable extension bracket, and the CM25 solely has a built-in tripod mount.

Comparability Desk