Aputure B7c 8-Bulb Kit – Hands On Review

Light Review

by Graham SheldonMarch 23^rd, 2021

We covered the launch of the Aputure B7c Bulb HERE and the manufacturer has since launched their integrated 8-bulb kit aimed at professional users. My first impressions are below:

Again, for a more in-depth look at the B7c bulb itself I encourage you to visit the previous first look article, but let’s explore if the 8-bulb kit might make the most sense for your workflow in this article.

The 8-bulb kit is clearly aimed at professional users looking for an all-in-one turnkey solution for transporting and charging a group of eight internal battery powered B7c fixtures – it’s as simple as that. If you were previously worried about damaging your 7W RGBWW B7c bulbs then you’ll love the custom made hard shell charging case that stores eight bulbs and a power cable all in one tidy spot.

Aputure B7c 8-Bulb Kit

Rental houses, gaffers and other owner/operators will also find the B7c 8-bulb kit useful. Charging the full kit at once is easily done through one included power cable using the exterior power input (pictured below).

There’s been some debate online about the size of the B7c bulb and if it’ll work for “most light fixtures”. Keep in mind that you’ll want to work with your art department to test these fixtures before showing up for filming. There had to be room in the bulb to allow for an internal battery and that is a worthy tradeoff in my opinion that allows for increased flexibility.

Sidus Link App

As usual, pairing all eight bulbs over Bluetooth mesh took about a minute from opening the Sidus Link App on my iOS device. I keep coming back to how flexible this setup is – I’m already forgetting the days of placing gel on a hot bulb or struggling to find color temperature accurate bulbs that are easy to transport from set to set without breaking.

Charging

Using the charging case is as simple as making sure the bulbs are each threaded into their places and hitting the on button (pictured below). I also didn’t find that the B7c bulbs would get quite as hot during charging as some of my other MC wireless charging kits.

If you’ve already invested in a few B7c bulbs and aren’t interested in purchasing another eight then I’m told Aputure will provide the charging kit in the future for separate purchase if you’d prefer to acquire the bulbs a la carte.

Only you can decide if you’ll need more than B7c eight bulbs for your uses, but eight in the perfect number for me for commercial, digital, scripted and documentary shoots. I find that I tend to use anywhere between 3-4 bulbs in a given setup and that leaves a few charging in reserve that I can throw into the shot if a battery dies. Of course the bulbs will also charge (while powered on) in most household E26/E27 sockets, so you may not need to use internal battery power often.

Conclusion

Aputure is continuing to show a strong focus on the “other stuff” here – keeping the accessory ecosystem around their lights useful for different types of users has paid dividends over the past few generations for professionals in my opinion. The usefulness of a given LED Lighting fixture doesn’t end with the product itself and it has been nice to see Aputure and other manufacturers embrace that idea. The B7c 8-bulb kit also feels like it was creating with professional users in mind and wasn’t created in an engineering vacuum.

The B7c 8-Bulb kit is the perfect package for rental houses and owner operators looking to protect their $799.00 investment from getting banged around on-location, while keeping their bulbs charged. If you already like the B7c bulb then eight will feel like the perfect number to have in your kit to swap out a few practicals from location to location in a matter of minutes. Two thumbs up.

What do you think? Will you be adding the B7c 8-bulb kit to your projects in the future? Comment below!