Nanlite’s Compac series of flat LED panels offer a large, diffused light without the bulk of a softbox. Damien Demolder tests the 100B
When most photographers think about getting a continuous light, the first thing that comes to mind will probably be a single-source unit that looks like a continuous version of the studio flash heads we’ve been using for years. This made a lot of sense when the lamps used for continuous lighting were tungsten or halogen, but in these days of LED light we have many more options. We looked at the tube form-factor a while ago with the Nanlite PavoTube ll 60C which, even without its funky colour possibilities, offers a long thin source that creates a very different look.
Light panels have been a feature of the lighting scene for a decade or more, but previously they have been either expensive and large, or small and weak. In recent times, though, the sector has developed and now plenty of manufacturers are offering slim panels that are powerful and much more financially accessible for enthusiast shooters of stills and video alike.
The idea of a light panel is that instead of having to attach a softbox to your monolight, they offer much the same effect while being considerably smaller. In this review I’m going to look at the Nanlite Compac 100B, which is part of a series of panels with slightly different features and very different sizes.
Features
The Nanlite Compac 100B measures 664x400mm and is just 85mm from front to back – so it’s a pretty slim unit. While some LED panels show off their tiny light-emitting sources, the Compac units are fitted with a permanent diffuser to cover them, so the light can only deliver soft illumination. These lights are mains-power only, so they need to be rooted in the studio or somewhere regular plug sockets exist. There’s no battery option, so they aren’t quite as portable as some other light panels.
This B version of the Compac 100 offers a variable colour temperature output with the use of warm and cool LEDs. Its colour can be varied continuously between 3200K for warm light that matches domestic tungsten bulbs, to 5600K for a cloudy-day sort of balance. The colour temperature is controlled with a knob rather than a switch, so we are able to vary the colour of the light as much as we like between the two end points, rather than being limited to one temperature or the other. Brightness is also controlled by a knob, and we are able to reduce the 100W power right down to 0% in extremely small increments.
Nanlite says that the Compac 100B will deliver 2744 lux when set to 3200K and 2862 lux when set to 5600
