Not all lighting tools are equal, as anyone who's taken so much as a camera phone photo can attest. If the lighting is too bright, it creates a blown-out, unnatural effect. If it’s too weak, the resulting image is grainy, leaving a picture that that looks like something out of a shaky-cam horror film.
But there is no shortage of lighting options out there, and in the quest for a perfect stream light, a person is bound to get lost in a myriad of options. Should a livestreamer consider a large, stationary light that they can position high above them in an effort to avoid shadows? Or should they stick to something smaller that’s also more practical and portable?
The Lume Cube Panel, a simple yet elegant LED light, takes on competing options by proving bigger and brighter isn’t necessarily better. To be clear, the smallish light (151 x 80 x 9.8mm) can get very bright. But with several easy-to-use setting options, the lightweight panel (180 grams) contains effective mechanisms to control both brightness and warmth. It's more than enough to turn a normal facecam into a professional-looking video image.
While the most popular streamers and YouTubers eventually turn their stream rooms into mini-production studios, most smaller content creators don’t require that type of advanced setup. Early in a person’s career, there’s no need for top tier tech enhancements.
Creators need reasonably-priced items they can easily adjust as they acquire new equipment and rearrange their setups over time. But they also need items that are made to last. Due to long days in front of the camera, they require lighting products that offer professional quality and won't burn out or overheat. Any battery-operated products should last a long time, as it's a headache for a content creator to deal with lighting issues in the middle of a recording. A light should allow for customizable settings as creators encounter all types of situations where they need to adjust their lighting to create better pictures.
The Lume Cube Panel does all of these things. But it also does much more.
Bells And Whistles Creators Actually Want
This product has a number of useful features. It comes in a small, velvety bag, which is useful to ensure it doesn’t scratch when transporting it. It also comes with an attachable diffuser, something necessary to balance against potentially harsh lighting. The product can run via a wired input or its battery, so it's extremely handy for anything from long days at the stream desk or IRL content creation.
The panel itself contains both a micro USB charging port and a USB-C charging port, allowing multiple options for charging. It won’t charge if it is attached to both, which seems rational as this could overload the product. It takes about two to two-and-a-half hours to fully charge the device and purports to last 800 charging cycles. It comes with a micro USB charging cable and a mini-USB to USB adapter, which makes it easy to charge and plug into different devices that use these universal formats. For those that have complicated stream or video setups, features like these can be vital to organization.
The instruction manual recommends not using the product while it’s charging, as that causes rapid heat generation and may cause it to power off or malfunction. However, using keeping it plugged into a power source when it’s fully charged and using it that way appears to be fine, as it lasts hours without complication.
As a secondary function, the light itself acts as a charger. It includes a mini-USB output port, meaning the device itself can be used to charge other products such as headsets or smartphones. It doesn’t need to be on in order to charge these external devices, which makes it a convenient source of power even when it’s not in use.
Easy Light Customization And Adjustment
The panel's real magic is in its display interface. There, a user can not only control the brightness and color temperature, but they can also see the estimated battery life remaining. This adjusts to account for changes based on brightness and warmth settings. The interface also shows how much battery life is left and has high and low temperature warnings, though a creator who has the light facing them while recording may fail to notice the warnings as they occur.
It's unlikely that a person using the product indoors for gaming streams or videos would have trouble with overheating or cooling issues anyway. An IRL streamer, however, may face some challenges if they spend time recording outside. For anyone who plans to use it for these purposes, it’s helpful to know that the product isn’t waterproof but is water-resistant.
Few Downsides
For gaming streams and recordings in particular, one challenge involves figuring out where to place it. Pointing it directly at the user’s face means the person is unable to look into the monitor (and doing so could cause damage to that person's eyesight). Putting it off to the side results in shadows. However, these are common challenges with lights anyway. While one solution might be to invest in two of these lights to position on either side, it's ultimately a matter of trial and error to get a clean video look.
While the device comes with a cold shoe mount, those using USB webcams for facecam video will want to invest in a tripod or other stand for the Lume Cube Panel. Typical external USB cameras don't allow for easy ways to attach the light via cold shoe mount.
A Great Value
The Lume Cube Panel may not be a gaming content creator's ultimate lighting choice as there are better, but much more expensive, options available. But it's an excellent value for its price and it comes with several special features to enhance a video recording in seconds. With a long self life, a 30-day money-back guarantee and a one-year warranty, it's a worthwhile investment.
Lume Cube provided TheGamer a Lume Cube Panel for this review. The light panel is available on Lume Cube's website and retails for $149.95.