Smallrig RF 20C 5 Color LED flashlight

A useful accessory for both the photo and video area 🙂

SmallRig offers a lot of accessories, including the RF 20C, an LED flashlight that can be used to illuminate small objects or create different lighting effects. The lamp has threaded holes on several sides for regular 1/4-inch tripod screws. This allows it to be attached to both a normal tripod and a lamp tripod.

The RF 20C delivers a very bright light available in five different colors. It also has a built-in battery with a capacity of 10,000 mAh.

Accessories and Gobos

The scope of delivery includes a kind of sun visor in which various gobos, i.e. effect filters, can be attached. You can choose from different motifs, such as stars, hearts or window illustrations. With these gobos, interesting light effects can be created, which are suitable as a background for video recordings, for example.

The lens in the front part of the lamp can be pulled out to focus the projected subjects at different intervals. However, this only works at relatively short distances to the lamp.

With the included gobos you can create very nice effects, which I now also use in my YouTube videos. This allows me to make my shots more varied.

Fan and operation

The lamp has a fan that runs permanently. At a certain distance and with a suitable microphone technology, however, this hardly matters or is not audible on the recordings.

A point of criticism is the operation via the rotary knob. Although this is basically simple, it also has its pitfalls. The button is used for switching on and off. After switching on, however, the lamp does not light up immediately. Instead, you first have to adjust the brightness via the button. Only then does the lamp turn on. A short blinking signals that the highest or lowest brightness value has been reached.

The display of the battery level could also be solved better. The LED that signals the charge status lights up to a battery level of about 20 percent green. Only below that she changes to red. When the battery is charged less than five percent, it starts flashing red.

This relatively coarse display is a disadvantage in practice. This has already spoiled a recording for me because I had not paid enough attention to the battery level during the recording.

The five light colors

A small disadvantage concerns the five available light colors. These are not generated by a single LED, but by five different LEDs in the lamp head.

As a result, the position of a projection can change slightly depending on the chosen color. For example, if you project a figure onto a background, it is noticeable that the individual LEDs are not exactly in the same position. As a result, the projected subject shifts slightly depending on the light color used.

You can live with it in need, but this solution is not optimal.

The 36-degree spotlight

A 36-degree spotlight is also available as an accessory. This allows the light to be concentrated more strongly and projected at a narrower angle. You can also adjust the extension of the originally round light cone via appropriate sliders.

A holder is also integrated into this unit, in which small metal gobos can be inserted. The adjustable metal panels can be used to additionally influence the shape and extent of the projected light.

The attachment is screwed into the front lens opening of the lamp. This allows sharp images of the corresponding gobos to be obtained even at slightly larger distances.

Conclusion

I am quite satisfied with the SmallRig RF 20C overall. However, the running fan could have been controlled depending on the temperature. In addition, a clearer warning display for the battery level would have been desirable, so that you are not surprised by an empty battery during a recording.

The set, whose components can also be purchased individually, costs a total of about 110 euros. For this price, I think it’s worth its money.

ciao tuxoche