Stylish and Practical

If you are looking for LED lighting that merges sophisticated style and function, the Hobolite bi-color 300-watt Pro and 100-watt Avant lights are right up your alley. Hobolite, now rebranded as Harlowe, is a new company, and its lights are more expensive than comparable equipment. If your only concern is how bright the light is, they’re not the choice for you. But first impressions count for something, and Hobolite’s retro design aesthetic goes a long way in making a studio set look like a warm, people-friendly space instead of a machine shop. As any good marketer will tell you, good design adds perceived value to your brand and can improve your studio’s bottom line.

Hobolites are a blend of Art Deco design, the Modernist “form follows function” philosophy, and contemporary digital interfaces. The general design aesthetic of the Avant, Pro, Mini, and Micro Hobolite lighting instruments is inspired by the look and feel of vintage Rollei twin-lens-reflex and Leica rangefinder cameras backed with a solid workhorse build quality and feel. The mix of rugged vintage vibe and functionality extends to Hobolite’s kit cases, gray fabric complemented by brown faux-leather patches covering a rigid and padded frame. They look like good quality luggage rather than typical black Cordura-covered camera equipment cases.

Built around an efficient 300-watt bi-color color-accurate (CRI and TCLI rated 96+) LED array, the Hobolite Pro is a fancooled light with output ranging from 0 lumens to 30,000 lumens. The color temperature range covers 2,700K-6,500K. At 6,500K, the LED array maxes out at 30,000 lumens, and with the standard 45-degree Fresnel lens installed, at 1 meter (3.3 feet), brightness is 20,617 Lux (lumens per square meter). Output drops by 20% to 24,000 lumens at 2,700K.

A near-silent exhaust fan vents out of the top of the Pro. While virtually inaudible in most situations, it can be turned off when absolute silence is required. The main body of the Pro is permanently fixed to a heavy gauge U-shaped yoke with a thick-walled deep 5/8” socket in its base, allowing the light to rotate a full 360 degrees with the light mounted on a stand. When you attach the power cable, the upward tilt angle is limited to 47 degrees. With the barndoor or grid that comes with the Pro Kit attached, downward tilts are also limited to 47 degrees. An easy-to-grip handle is part of the light’s cast aluminum body, and the tilt pivot is a full 360-degree scale and features a locking handle. The Pro lighting fixture measures 12.3 inches high, including the yoke, and weighs 8.1 pounds.

The Pro is powered by a sizeable external transformer brick. Energy comes from either a pair of V-mount batteries that lock to the brick’s rear panel or AC. The AC cable plugs into the bottom of the transformer. When using AC, you can use the light at up to its 300-watt maximum. When using the pair of Hobolite’s 14.8-volt 6.4 Amp-hour batteries, the maximum output is 240 watts, or 24,000 lumens.

To drive the Pro, the magnetized control panel can be mounted on the back of the light, on the front of the power supply, or operated handheld from as far away as 65 feet. The control display features large, easily readable text and numbers. Even outdoors at noon on a sunny day, I had no problems reading the panel. The controls are analog: four buttons and two knobs. Set brightness with the left knob and color temperature with the right. Pressing the right button jumps the color temperature in 1,000K steps. A row of four buttons separates the two knobs from the LCD. The first button brings up the home screen; the second brings up the mode menu (special effects flash, flame, TV screen, lightning, pulse, fireworks, shutter, and explosion); the third is for the operation menu (Bluetooth, fan, language, firmware info). The last button is a settings lock. You can also control a Hobolite from an Apple or Google mobile device with the free Hobolite app.

The Hobolite Pro is available in two kit styles. The Standard Kit, priced at $1,599, includes the Hobolite Pro and lens, remote control, two batteries, AC/DC power supply, dual battery charger, the barndoor and honeycomb grid, mount, cables, and a rigid case.

With the Creator kit, you also get the 16-sided Pro 35.4-inch diameter Hobolite Pro Softbox (soft box, removable diffusor, removable internal baffle, and eggcrate fabric grid) and Hobolite’s 10-foot model carbon fiber stand.

Any Bowens-S mount modifiers or umbrella with an 8mm shaft will work with the Pro, and additional Hobolite Pro light modifiers currently include a 25.6-inch diameter Japanese Lantern and the Pro Adjustable Lens, a nearly 7-inch-wide Fresnel lens that narrows the beam to any angle between 20 and 30 degrees. Hobolite also makes 1x4-foot and a 2x3-foot soft boxes, both of which come with interchangeable Bowens-S and Hobolite Max speedrings.

The Avant is similar to the Pro but is smaller, lighter, and less powerful. With the standard lens, the Avant’s maximum brightness tops out at 8,500 lumens at 100 watts at 6,500K. Other differences include the control panel being a part of the light, passive cooling, a tilting post type mount, and a smaller modifier mount. A Bowens-S-to-Avant adapter lets you use Bowens-S mount modifiers on Avants.

The three Avant kits available are the standard AC, Standard AC/DC, and Creator AC/DC. Included in the standard kits are the Avant, barndoor, grid, diffuser dome, RGBY filter gels, 100-watt power supply, stand clamp for either battery or power supply, and a detachable stand mount handle. The Avant Creator AC/DC kit also includes a carbon fiber stand (7.87-foot max height), and a 60cm soft box.  

Hobolite makes two other Avant-dedicated light modifiers: a 13- to 30-degree Fresnel spot and the 20.5-inch diameter Avant Lantern Softbox 52. I particularly liked the latter when working in smaller spaces.

Style is one thing, but practical functionality is another. The Hobolite Pro and Avant deliver a high-quality light that’s easy to use, including set up and take down. While they’re great for video, the constant light of LED is also helpful for still photography when the ability to see in realtime what the light is doing is more important than the sheer power of the flash.

Ellis Vener is a commercial and portrait photographer based in Atlanta, Georgia.