Product of the Year 2015: Yuji VTC LED Lights

By Sareesh Sudhakaran

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The product of the year has to be something special. In fact, it should pass three main criteria:

 
As far as I’m concerned, the product that really impressed me in 2015 is not even a filmmaking product, but just a humble LED light:

Comparison with other fixtures

I compared the light to three other fixtures (No diffusion on any light):

 
All were white balanced accurately using a grey card. No color corrections were done. I overexposed the Yongnuo a bit by mistake.

The Yuji light is with its diffusion (I shattered it later to look inside).

Here are the results (click to enlarge):

What do you think?

Tungsten still has the most natural color and skin tone, but the Yuji isn’t bad at all. It’s a ‘look’ that’s for sure, but not accurate skin tone.

The Yongnuo and Philips both have green casts that are just ugly to look at.

Features of the Yuji LED lighting VTC series 5600K LED bulb

How it can be improved

 
In other words, give me an Arri L7-C for $500, or a Dedolight DLED for $200!

Final word

I mean it when I say no other product impressed and inspired me so much as the Yuji VTC LED line, especially the 5600K daylight version.

I’m not saying it is perfect, and there’s lots of room for improvement. But I’m pretty sure there are designers, engineers and film enthusiasts out there right now designing better LED fixtures for the rest of us. Encourage them!