Aputure MC Pro – Compact & powerful Light for wedding filmmaking (Review)

June 20, 2023

Aputure MC Pro – Compact & powerful Light for wedding filmmaking (Review)

The Aputure MC Pro is a compact and powerful light for wedding filmmaking, and in this video I am going to review it and tell you why it is so great if you film weddings or documentaries or really anything where you need a small light with a ton of great features.

Also, for the sake of ethics, I want you to know this video is not paid or sponsored by Aputure, but as soon as I saw they announced this light I reached out to them to see if I could get one to make this review, because I could tell from the spec sheet alone that it would fill a gap a lot of filmmakers were looking for.

Aputure MC Pro light glowing blue on a wooden table — The Aputure MC Pro. Small enough for a pocket, and it fills a gap nobody else was filling.

Why Wedding Filmmakers Need This Light

Here’s the deal. The light back here, the one lighting my background with the cool lines, is the Aputure 60x, my favorite light for wedding filmmaking, and I have an entire review of that light here. That light is fantastic, but it is also pretty big, and sometimes you do not want a huge light for wedding filmmaking.

Aputure 60x light on a stand with a projection attachment — The Aputure 60x is still my favorite wedding light. It is also big.

Do not get me wrong, the 60x works great as a main key light, but sometimes you need something much smaller. Or maybe, if you are like me and you travel to film destination weddings from time to time, you do not have the space in your suitcase for a big light like the 60x, so you need something smaller.

Well, check this light out. This is the Core SWX TorchLED, and it is compact, it has a more focused beam than most LED panel lights, it is bi-color and it has great battery life. I recommended this light for years, but Core SWX randomly decided to discontinue it a while ago, so you cannot buy it anymore, and that sucks. That left a gap in the market that I have been desperately waiting for a lighting company to fill, because whenever people reach out to me asking for lighting recommendations it has been hard. Thankfully it is like Aputure read my mind whenever they announced the MC Pro.

Size, Colors, App

The first thing you notice is the size. The MC Pro is really compact and well built. It is easily small enough to slip into your pocket if you need to, but just because it is small does not mean Aputure skipped the features.

Matt Johnson holding the Aputure MC Pro in one hand to show its size — Compact, well built, and it fits in a pocket.

Just like the original MC light, this one is fully RGB, meaning you can make it not only warm or cool white but also literally any other color as well. You can dial in these settings on the light itself, but it is a much easier experience if you use Aputure’s Sidus Link app, which lets you wirelessly connect to and control any of Aputure’s lights, including the MC Pro. And yes, that means if you use the 60x and the MC Pro, you can control both of them with the same app, which is pretty awesome.

Sidus Link app color wheel controlling the MC Pro, with colored light spilling on the wall — Fully RGB, and much easier to dial in through Aputure's Sidus Link app.

Magnets, And How Do Those Work?

Aputure also included magnets on the back of this light, which will let you attach it to any metal surface. So if you have a metal wall, you can attach it very quickly. But if the wall is not metal, they also include some little metal bars with adhesive on them, so you can stick this light to pretty much anything you want.

Of course, I hear you saying, “Matt, what about mounting this light to a light stand?” I have great news there too, because this light has your typical quarter inch screw mounts to attach it to a light stand, but it also comes with a very helpful ball head mount so you can adjust the angle of whatever it is attached to.

Close up of the magnetic ball head mount that comes with the Aputure MC Pro — The base of the ball head is magnetic too, which is the part I did not expect.

I know ball head mounts are really common on LED lights, so that is not a mind blowing feature on its own, but one really great thing Aputure has included with their specific ball head mount is that the base of the mount is magnetic as well. So in the event that you are not able to get the angle you want by attaching the light using its built in magnets on the back, you can use the magnet on the ball head to get it into a better position.

Whenever I tested this out at a wedding I filmed recently with my friends from KEJ Productions, we found ourselves putting this light in all sorts of interesting positions, including using it as a key light during the rehearsal dinner, where Kaleb mounted it up really high and had it shine down toward the floor.

Aputure MC Pro clamped high on an outdoor structure at a wedding venue — Mounted up high and out of the way, where a light stand would have blocked guests.

This was a very crowded room where a traditional light on a light stand would have gotten in the way of the guests, but because the MC Pro has so much versatility whenever it comes to mounting, he was able to put it up high out of the way and still get amazing focused light for the toasts.

Wedding reception being filmed with the MC Pro lighting the scene — Focused light for the toasts, in a room too crowded for a stand.

My Favorite Feature

Speaking of focused light, we have one more feature to talk about with the MC Pro, and this is by far my favorite feature of this light.

Remember how I said earlier that one of my favorite things about the Core SWX TorchLED is that it is a really focused LED light? Unlike your typical LED panel light, the Torch has a really focused beam, which means you can set it up a fair distance away from your talent and still have light that is reasonably well focused on them, without too much spill and without needing barn doors.

Well, the MC Pro does not have as focused a beam on its own, but Aputure includes diffusion filters as well as a honeycomb grid with this light, and that grid gives it a much tighter 30 degree beam angle. What is super cool is that the grid is magnetic. Just throw it on the light and it sticks. This is very addictive and satisfying to attach and detach, by the way. I love it.

Aputure MC Pro with the magnetic honeycomb grid attached to the front — The honeycomb grid tightens the beam to 30 degrees, and it snaps on magnetically.

Without this honeycomb grid I would be significantly less excited about this light, but because it is included and it helps focus the beam so much, that is the main reason I think this light is so good for weddings.

Oh, and we have one last bonus accessory to talk about. The MC Pro comes with a protective case too, and this case will hold the light as well as the ball head mount and the lighting modifiers. It is really great, but it does add a bit of bulk, and the light is quite sturdy on its own, so if you wanted to save some space you could just throw the light and the modifiers in your case with the rest of your gear.

The Aputure MC Pro protective case open, holding the light and the ball head mount — A case is included. It holds the light, the mount and the modifiers.

Brightness

Features and accessories out of the way, let’s talk about brightness, which I am sure is something you may be concerned about, especially considering how small this light is.

To start, I will warn you that this light is definitely not as bright as the Core SWX TorchLED. If I had to estimate, it is probably about half the brightness of that light, so if you are coming from that light, do not expect quite the same experience. That said, Aputure does say this light is four times brighter than the original MC, and as long as you place it close enough to the person or object you are lighting, you should not have an issue.

In addition, especially for weddings, considering that most wedding receptions are quite dark, whenever I tested this light at a rehearsal dinner and at a wedding I found that it was easily bright enough, because the ambient lighting was so dim. So as long as you get this light with the expectation that you are not going to be able to set it up 30 feet away across the dance floor and light up a whole reception, you should be fine.

Battery Life

Now let’s talk about the second point of concern you may have for this light, considering how small it is, and that is battery life. Aputure says the MC Pro will last for 2 hours at maximum output and recharges via USB-C in 90 minutes. Whenever I tested this at a wedding reception at a lower output, anywhere from 50 to 75 percent brightness or so, I found the light easily lasted the entire reception, so I do not think you will need to worry about battery life for weddings. But if you are planning on running it at maximum output, you may want to either look into purchasing a second light to swap it out with, or use a cable to charge the light while you film with it.

The Price

Next we have got to talk pricing. Aputure has set the price for the MC Pro at $200 at the time of making this video, which is definitely more expensive than some of their competition whenever it comes to LED lights this size.

B&H product page for the Aputure MC Pro RGB LED Light Panel priced at $199 — $200. More than the competition at this size, and worth it for what is in the box.

But in my opinion, whenever you consider the amount of features Aputure has included here, things like the magnet mounts, the ball head, that incredibly satisfying honeycomb modifier, not to mention the Sidus Link app that lets you easily control the MC Pro and integrate it with all of Aputure’s other lights, I think the MC Pro is definitely worth it.

While it will not replace the 60x as the primary light I recommend for wedding filmmakers, it is a fantastic fill light, and if I was traveling to film something where I did not have the storage space for a larger light, it is incredibly easy to throw one or two of these in a bag and know you will be able to get great lighting fast in a compact, lightweight package.

You can buy the Aputure MC Pro at B&H, at Amazon or at Adorama.

Watch My Aputure 60x Review

Speaking of that Aputure 60x, if you have not watched my review of that light yet, it is right there.

Promo card for the WhoisMatt LUTs color presets — Everything here was colored with my presets.

I will also link my free YouTube Tips for Wedding Filmmakers guide. If you are a wedding filmmaker like me and you want to use YouTube to get more bookings for your wedding filmmaking business, you have got to check out this guide. It is completely free. I colored everything you see here with my color presets as well.

If you want to go deeper, I have filmmaking courses here, and here is my full list of filmmaking gear.

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great day!

I’m required to state that I’m a part of affiliate programs for Amazon, Musicbed, Artlist, Audiio, Epidemic Sound, B&H, Best Buy, Adorama, SoundStripe, Sweetwater, Filmmaker’s Academy, and Adobe and that some of the links above are affiliate links and YouTube may compensate me for using shopping tags in this video.