iKan Mylo Mini MB4 mini review

[Paul Anderegg]

So I bought a new LED, to replace my trusty and very bright iKan iLED312-v2. This new light, the MB4, uses 420 LED's, instead of 312, and although the case size and exterior stacking system are identical, the user interface and battery mounting deign have been radically changed.

First things first, is it brighter? YES!! Well, at 3200k setting, it is TWICE as bright as my 312-v2 at 3200k. At 4200k, mixing both 3200k and 5600k LED's, it is the same brightness as the 312-v2. At 5600k, same thing, about twice the light output at that kelvin as the old light. Unlike the 312, the 420 does not illuminate all LED's to maximum intensity when they are mixed in the middle, so they chose to keep a general steady brightness level across the range, as opposed to the 312 which throttles up then down as you go through the color temperatures.

The controls are good, and bad, depending on how you use the light. The good, it has one multi function knob, which defaults to dimmer, but will momentarily control the color temp when pressed on, so no accidentally changing color by grabbing the wrong knob. There is no color temperature readout, just a bar graph, so returning to the same color may be challenging. The dimmer also takes a lot of spins to go from 0% to 100% output, which I am not really thrilled about....unless you like 5-6 seconds of spinning a dial to dim up or down, you might not be thrilled either. Other things I am not thrilled about, the on off switch has around a three second delay when flipped on. I shoot breaking news, so a 3 second delay is much less than desirable...be sure to throw the switch before you plan on needing the illumination.

CRI is also improved, and the white balance of the light is slightly less magenta than the old 312-v2. I am running 1/8 plus green on the MB4, and was using 1/4 plus green on the 312 to center on the vectorscope. White balance aside, the 312 never made me happy when shooting faces at 3200k, it always just looked a bit off. The MB4 looks really good at 3200k, and that setting is what I use it on full time. The new MB4 is also a bit narrower in the beam, 50 degrees...I believe the 312 is around 60 degrees? I am very pleased with this light, and given that it puts out 2x as much 3200k light as my 312-v2, I will say it was worth paying 2x the $150 asking price of the 312-v2.

Here are some generic numbers provided by iKan, comparing the light heads.

MYLO MB4 CRI-95 TLCI-95
5600K CCT: 5567K 3200K CCT: 3497K
3200K 3ft-1926.7LUX(179FC) 6ft-516.6LUX(48FC) 9ft-247.5LUX(23FC)
5600K 3ft-2002.0LUX(186FC) 6ft-527.4LUX(49FC) 9ft-247.5LUX(23FC)

iLED312-v2 CRI-89 TLCI-83
5600K CCT: 5892K 3200K CCT: 3327
3200K 3ft- 716LUX(67FC) 6ft-211LUX(20FC) 9ft-109LUX(10FC)
5600K 3ft-723LUX(67FC) 6ft-209LUX(19FC) 9ft-108LUX(10FC)

MB4: Mylo Mini Bi-Color 3200K-5600K Portable Field LED Light

Paul Anderegg

[John Nantz]

Paul - The light looks like a good bang for the buck.

It's good that it runs on the Sony L-batteries, for me at least (got several of 'em). One question, by any chance would it run on just one battery? Given the output, not likely, but I thought I'd ask it anyway. Would save a bit of weight for a short shoot.

For info, the link overview said it puts out light equivalent to 300W incandescent while the http://ikancorp.com/Downloads/MB4-OS.pdf said equivalent to 400W. They probably backed off a bit. Still, 300W is blinding enough as it is.

Nice writeup and looks like an interesting light.

[Paul Anderegg]

Yes, you can run it on one battery, unlike some of the lights at my station that require two...how lame would that be? I tested my old 312-v2 using a "claimed" 21 watt NPF550 slim battery, just one, and it ran for over an hour and still showed 1 out of 4 on the battery bar, but the battery was pretty depleted. Two SLIM COMPACT $10 eBay batteries on this new version should get you at least 2 1/2 at full 100% brightness level, pumping out 2000lux at 1m. To repeat this, the light will run off a single of the smallest cheapest NPF style eBay batteries for over an hour...many of these type of lights say they will only run on a single battery if it is the larger heavier NPF970 types. Light claims a draw of only 13 watts.

As for light equivalent, it really is meaningless. Talking light with a diffused glass like the Lowel iLight? Bare Ultralight type bulb? I just know this is the brightest 3200k NPF battery powered LED I have been able to get my hands on, that provides a satisfactory 50 degree light spread, wide enough for my PXW-X70 "29mm" lens.

Paul

[Denis Danatzko]

I bought an ikan Mylo MB8 in June to supplement 2 Ikan iLed 312's for use on stands. It's too heavy/unwieldy for on-camera work, but also takes multiple turns to achieve full brightness. So many, in fact, that when I first tested it, I was afraid I had rec'd a faulty unit.
A notable difference between the MB8 and the 312 is the barn doors. The 312 has black doors; the MB8 has reflective, mottled aluminum. I see from the photo at B&H the MB4 also has black doors.

I have two 312's, and the beam of each is different. For a while B&H was offering 2 versions:
- the V2 which iKan claimed a beam of 60 degrees, and
- the SB which iKan claimed a beam of 30 degrees. (While it's a narrower beam than the V2, I'm not sure it's as narrow as 30 degrees, and per the B&H web site, it's no longer available).

[Paul Anderegg]

One year update on this LED panel. It has begun to fail, and after paying $320 shipped with tax a year ago, the price of new units is $130 at B&H, so I feel a bit pissed.

Ikan can offer me no assistance, even considering the amount I paid.