Litepanels MicroPro - is it useful?

[wedding photographer]

I want to use a Lightpanel MicroPro for people still photography... Do you own one? Is it useful?

Thanks!

[zerodog]

I don't own one, but I can see where they would be very useful for lighting products and people. It is WYSIWYG lighting. Would make it very easy to see and control shadows.

[SmartWombat]

Having seen it in action, I'm not sure it's bright enough, unless you're really close.
At which point the smaller panels look too small to give soft light.
It's OK for single camera single light talking head (interview) video.

Opinion over ... now I read the spec and it confirms what I've seen of people using it.
I think that 2ft f/4.0 isn't much output.
And at two feet it's not reducing shadows much.
Better than a bare bulb though, I agree.
Like people putting a diffuser on a flash even when there's nowhere to bounce the light from.
It's still close to a point source, but better than nothing.

And looking at the price, for £330 I reckon I can get a flash and 10" softbox.
Shoot with a stand-in, and use the digital camera to preview the lighting, and I'm not sure that the LED light has that much of an advantage.

[SmartWombat]

I looked for a shot of it in action, and failed to find one.
I know one of the handheld videographers was using one.

This it the 1'x1' version in action, higher light output and it's only just filling on the orange sodium light from the ceiling.

[SmartWombat]

Found a photo of one in action on video camera, which is what I think they're best suited for.

Image from a friend's facebook page.

At headshot range with a video camera, it has enough area to soften the shadows as a single light for news gathering work.