I want to talk about my favorite new light for wedding receptions, the Kinotehnik Practilite 602. This light is incredible and it has got me a lot of awesome shots at weddings this year. But arriving at the decision to buy it has been a journey.
Before I start, I want you to know this is not a paid review by Kinotehnik. They do not even know I’m making it. I bought this light with my own money.
Why I Wanted To Leave The Arri 150
If you’ve watched any of my wedding behind the scenes videos or my how to film amazing wedding dancing video, you’ll know I love lighting a reception dance floor with an Arri 150 watt fresnel spotlight. Heads up: you can't buy the Arri 150 on Amazon, so this link goes to an equivalent, the Aputure LS 60x. It’s lightweight, built like a tank, retails around $340, flares beautifully, works with a dimmer, and most importantly it’s discrete. I can set it up at the side of a dance floor and light every dancer without worrying about spill hitting irritated family members sitting along the edges who might complain about glare.
Sounds awesome, right? So what would make me want to upgrade?
Well, the Arri 150 has a few problems that it shares with most non-LED lights. First, it only takes AC power, which means it has to be plugged into a wall. That’s an issue, because if there’s no outlet near the dance floor I have to turn the light up and shine it across the room, and I also have to worry about a guest tripping over the cord and knocking the thing over.
Which leads to the next problem. It gets hot. Crack an egg and fry it on top of it hot. Hot enough that there was always a worry in the back of my mind that it could get knocked over and somebody could get burned. I realize that’s a very low chance scenario, but can you imagine the news reporting local bearded videographer burns down wedding venue, more at ten, Jan.
I joke, but my last issue with the Arri is real: it’s a single color temperature light. It puts out 3200 Kelvin and that’s all you get. So if you’re in a venue lit with daylight balanced lights, you are not going to match them.
With that in mind, I started looking. I knew I wanted an LED, and I knew I wanted a spotlight. I’ve lit receptions with LED panels, including the Ikan panel I’m using to light myself as I talk to you, and they work in certain scenarios. What I don’t like is that you don’t get the control of a beam the way you do from a spotlight, so spill is much harder to manage, and you don’t get the beautiful flaring a fresnel gives you. J.J. Abrams and I love our flares.
After a lot of research back in February I found the Kinotehnik Practilite 602 and I fell in love. It doesn’t just fix the Arri’s shortcomings, it adds things that make filming a reception easier.
Battery Power
First off, it takes power over four pin XLR, which means it takes battery power.
I run mine off a V-mount battery. I’ve run this light for four hours at around 60% brightness at a reception on a 150 watt hour battery and finished the night with 75% left.
I love not having to plug a light into a wall at a reception. I’ve also built a custom rig with a super clamp and a V-lock mounting plate to hang the battery off a light stand, connected with a D-tap to four pin XLR cable, and the whole setup is super portable. I can also strip it down to just the light and the battery, which is how I ended up backlighting a couple in the dark in the rain. That turns out pretty dang magical. As long as it keeps raining at my receptions, I’m sure I’ll keep doing it. There’s a case for the light and accessories too, and my full Practilite kit is all in one place if you want to build the same thing.
All that battery power also means no cord for a guest to trip over. And because it’s an LED, I don’t have to worry about it getting hot either, even turned right up.
Dimming And Color Temperature
Speaking of turning it up, yes, this light is dimmable, from five to 100 percent, by spinning a dial on the side. Lighting a dance floor I usually sit around 55 percent, and it has plenty of room to go brighter if I need it. It is plenty bright enough for a dance floor. One of them is plenty. You do not need to buy two.
You may have noticed a second dial. That one is one of the main reasons I bought this light, because the color balance is adjustable from 3000 to 6000 Kelvin. Which is amazing for matching the ambient temperature of whatever else is lighting the room.
The App
The last thing, and one of the things that made me fall in love with it most, is that this light has an app.
I realize that’s one of the most overhyped statements possible, in an age where every piece of video gear has an app and they’re usually horrible. Hear me out. I have never found an app more usable on a wedding day than the Practilite app. Which is also an overhyped statement, but it just works.
While you’re here, take a look at Practilite 632 – A Legendary Light Upgraded For Wedding Filmmakers (Review).
You open it and your phone connects over Bluetooth within seconds, and you don’t have to be near the light. You can be across a big room. Like, say, a wedding dance floor.
Here’s why that’s a big deal. At one of the first weddings I shot with this light, we were filming the couple’s last dance in the reception hall. All the guests were already lined up outside for the sparkler exit and it was just us, the photographer and the couple. Things happen fast at weddings, and that dance lasted maybe one to two minutes. As it started I realized my light on the floor was too dim. With the Arri I’d have had to run over, adjust it, and lose about 30 seconds of filming. With the Practilite I pulled out my phone, unlocked it, opened the app, connected, and made it brighter in under ten seconds. I’m missing fewer shots because of this app.
One more. Earlier this year I filmed a reception at a venue with a big glass garage door letting in a lot of bright sunlight. As the dancing went on and the sun set, the color in the room shifted from 5500 Kelvin daylight to the venue’s 3200 Kelvin tungsten overheads. Instead of walking over and turning the knob, I opened the app and adjusted temperature and brightness through the whole sunset. It was so easy.
The Price
We do need to talk about price, because this light is not cheap. I paid $967 for it, and I completely understand if you can’t afford that. You should also know that making it battery powered and buying a case to transport it cost me over another $400 on top.
All that said, as somebody who has spent a lot of money over the years on dubious video gear that may or may not have turned out useful, I have never regretted investing in a high quality light.
And don’t worry. If you can’t afford this one, I’m considering putting together a piece on lights at various price points that I’d still recommend for a reception. Let me know if you’d like that.
Overall
Between the solid build quality, the battery life, the adjustable brightness, the adjustable white balance and the app, I’m a big fan of the Practilite 602, and it has made filming weddings easier. I don’t see myself going back to the Arri 150.
So if you’re a wedding filmmaker, or really any filmmaker, looking for a high quality fresnel spotlight, I think this is a fantastic choice. I know that I love mine.
Everything I mentioned is linked above. And if you want to book more couples and film more weddings, there’s a free guide for that, or if you’d rather go deeper on editing, that’s what I teach inside Wedding Film Framework.