ZHIYUNMOLUS X100 Combo [Official] Video Light 100W with 2600mAh Battery, COB LED Portable Video Lighting 17317 Lux/ 2700~6500K/ CRI≥95/ TLCI≥97, APP Control/Bowens Mount Bi-Color

The media could not be loaded. I've attached an unboxing and video review of my thoughts on the zhiyun molus x100 video light and recommend you watching that but I will summarize the talking points here.So I'll start by saying this light is a lot smaller out of the box than I expected. I'm so used to video panel lights being a certain size that when I opened and saw this is smaller than my handspan closed (I have big hands) it was really quite impressive.I got the Black Combo version, which includes the battery and bowens mount adapter - I strongly advise you get this version because those accessories are a must in my eyes - If you're just going to run it in studio on power you're wasting its specialty use case and if you'll probably spend about the same on a 100wh capable battery and cable from another place.It's really bright for it's size. Like seriously. I have other "compact" lights or led panels which are bigger than this and output nowhere near as much light. There's one youtube channel that claims it has similar brightness to an amaran 60d but this simply isn't the case, it's brighter and lights up a softbox much more than that one does from my experience.Do note that it is bicolour, and 100W Bicolour lights will always be weaker output than 100W Daylight, but this is a given, you sacrifice a little bit of power for the flexibility of matching colour temperatures, and that is a far more useful feature for portable kits and documentary style film-making because you never really know what the lighting conditions are going to be like. However it does match very well with output of other 100w bicolour lights I own, and doing so in a much smaller package - which is impressive.The only flaw I witnessed, is that there is a bit of a colour shift on warmer temperatures at around 4-5% power output, it's only at these percentages so I don't see it as much of an issue and have seen other lights exhibit weird colour shifting at lower voltages also so it's not a trait unique to this light, just worth mentioning.The included Battery is great - 57wh powers it for about 30 mins at full power, but I think 50-60% output is plenty for softbox setups or even lower with just the reflector dish so it's a pretty good solution. You can also power it via USB-C from another battery, just be weary that your battery and cable are rated for 100wh power delivery or you won't be able to use the light completely at maximum. It is cool however that it lets you power it to a certain extent when using a lower power delivery it will just cap the brightness up to a certain percentage that your battery/cable can handle.The Bowens mount is a great must if you want to put on bigger attachments, and it's an industry standard mount. It is plastic, but a very strong and solid plastic, and has teeth to help the friction of heavier attachments stay in position which works surprisingly well. Pleasantly surprised that it's implemented better than some of my more expensive bigger lights that don't have the teeth and you really need to crank up the tension instead. It also has an umbrella mount.The pros of it being so small is that you can really pick up 3 or 4 of these and stack these into your backpack side by side very easily. It takes up extremely little space which is exactly what makes them perfect for travel film-making. I could fit these, my camera rig, and batteries all into one backpack, and have a second bag for travelstands/umbrella's. It cuts down a full 3+ lighting kit from around 5-6 bags to just two which is game changing.You can also get superclamps and be confident that this could attach to any kind of railing or wall and not fall down - if you have a look at my video I have it attached to a cheap blinder railing and it sustains the full weight of the light and battery just fine, giving you unique options of mounting lighting solutions.It's even small enough to shove on top of your camera for like an event rig, I'd probably grab their miniature softbox if you plan on doing this though to soften it up.It's honestly companies like this that make gear that just make life easier for us photographers and videographers that I can really get behind and make me excited. It might not be the cheapest light, but at its size the zhiyun molus x100 cob light is probably the best travel documentary or photography light you can get so far in 2023.

*further update*I contacted customer support and they replaced the battery for me right way.*UPDATE*The battery failed on me today. Only a few months after buying. It won’t charge at all or power on. I can only use it plugged in now. Such a shame. It was half the reason for buying it!And as someone who shoots a lot of events, I need small lightweight kit that I can keep on me and set up quickly. I have tried all sorts of mini LED panels to try and throw it a bit of light back into the audience but none of them really looked that great to me and the quality of light sucked.I thought I would give this one a go, and I am absolutely amazed at the quality of light It produces, and how cinematic it looks for something that is about the size of a compact camera. I can clamp it easily to a stand or a speaker or rail in a venue either plug-in the including battery or into a nearby wall outlet and get amazing looking shots with Crisp edges and stunning flares with zero fuss. It can easily throw out in a flight to fill a 200 to 400 person venue.I wish they sold more external batteries as half an hour at full. Power isn’t very long, but that would be my only minor gripe with this. It is otherwise absolutely amazing.

I loved this light - It was bright, portable and does everything - I only used it 3 maybe 4 times however and now the battery has stopped working - it does not charge -I am not happy about this - I have tried contacting Zhyun, but cannot get through to them.

Great LED unit. Amazingly small and lightweight for the 100W power it kicks out. Essentially it works as advertised - so in all a really excellent lighting tool for stills and video location work. The battery lasts about 30mins (?) at full 100w power but this is rather to be expected for the size compromise and 100w output you can get. I have only used it in short bursts for stills photography and at lower power settings; mainly as a fill light or to grade light into a background. Balancing the colour temperature is easy: 2700-6500k with not much, if any, perceivable variation of power at each end of this k scale. I had a charging issue with the original battery grip - which suddenly failed to take on any charge. Got onto ZHIYUN customer service - found email on their site. Was pleasantly surprised to get a near instant reply back and I have to say (which is rare these days) a truly excellent after sales service. Yilia (@ Zhiyun), thank you for checking that I had received the replacement battery so promptly! In all very happy (again) hence the 5 stars. “

There have been many comments on forums about the batteries for this product. I ignored these and bought the lights with the batteries as I needed the added mobility to use them on location. And the lights are great. Unfortunately the complaints about the batteries proved to be correct. One of the two batteries that (I bought 2 light kits) no longer charges after just one use, and is now just a brick. Customer service in China wants me to send the light and the battery together - which would involve customs duties from the UK as the combined price goes above the tariff free limit and takes a long time to check and fix. So it costs quite a bit and leaves one without light for maybe 6 weeks.UPDATE: After my review above Zhiyun reached out and offered to send me a new battery which they did the next day, so that was good but only after the poor customer service from Hong Kong prompted me to write about my bad experience.

I had the light only for a couple of months when suddenly the battery died. (Other people have had the same issue!) It wouldn't power on the light nor take charge. I got in touch with customer support and they sent a replacement very quickly.I like how portable and bright the Molus X100 is even though I was let down by the quality of the battery. I do have to say that at least ZHIYUN customer support is superb, within a couple of hours I got in touch with the right people and a replacement battery was on the way!