The Light Dome is the perfect modifier to illuminate your subject with a soft light that wraps around them, making it ideal for corporate shots, tutorial videos, conversation scenes, product shots, and even portrait photography. With an approximate brightness equivalent to a 1,000-watt tungsten light, the 120d MK2 is nearly 25% brighter than the 1st generation C120D, making it competitive with some of the highest-grade studio lights on the market. The Aputure Light Storm COB 120D LED studio light is a fantastic addition to my regular portrait and food photography kit. Speaking of photometrics, I used the Sekonic C-700 to measure the lights output and colour rendering performance.

The Aputure Light Storm COB 120D kit comes with its own semi-rigid case complete with a small reflector, power supply, cables and a remote control with a working distance of 100 meters. To adapt the output and beam angle of the Light Storm 1200d Pro to your shooting scenario, the 1200d Pro kit includes 3 different Hyper Reflectors optimized for the size of it's COB.

While all of these incredible upgrades are worthy of note, the C120D II still has many of the same features as the 1st Generation C120D, including the universal Bowens mount, ultra-silent temperature control system, wireless remote, and the same crowd-favorite carrying bag.

I haven’t been able to independently verify this, but Aputure claims the light intensity on the wide side is 14000lux, and goes up to a blinding 67000lux at a distance of 0. Although I irregularly use the Aputure Light Dome (say once or twice every month), if I could, I’d leave it assembled all the time, as it’s a pain to set up (as are most softboxes) and leaving no light leaks can take a few minutes. Our colleague, Nino Leitner, originally went hands-on with the Aputure 120d MK II back in April of 2018 at NAB and since then the light has shipped and we’ve even reviewed the 300D MK II, but it’s time to circle back and put the 120d MK II to the test. It’s a great unit, but I wanted to try out a constant light source and see how that worked for what I was shooting.If you need to get in close, and find the light has become a touch too hard or that there are visible lines from the diffusion fabric being folded, the Light Dome also ships with an internal diffuser that will significantly soften the light again. As a longtime user of the first generation 120D, I was particularly interested in the design updates in the second generation. I have reviewed several lights from Aputure on this site and they have always consistently impressed me with their high performance and relatively low cost. The most notable of these upgrades is its power unit – the C120D II is now powered by a single, all-in-one power box. The Light Dome II is a significant upgrade from the original Light Dome, featuring even higher quality diffusion fabric, a rapid build and breakdown system, an included honeycomb egg crate, and several more new additions.

Please note though that you’ll need considerable space to use the 19 degree lens and you may be better served with a 36 degree lens in tighter spaces. Using this same protocol, the Sidus Link Bridge is able to receive commands from the Sidus Link mobile app, and transmit them to any Aputure fixture compatible with Aputure's 2.

If you already own another Aputure light, that same remote control will work across all of the company’s lights. First, the Aputure Lantern is omnidirectional, which means precisely what you might think — light emits from all directions (except for the back of the light, of course). Being offered as the cheapest soft light diffusion addition, many looking to keep their production budget low may opt for the lantern over the light dome. Its products are used in studio and on location film sets along with in photography and live production. It comes in its own carrying case that doesn’t feel quite as sturdy as a Pelican or HPRC case, but it should hold up to most heavy travel.