Joby Beamo

£80/$90 (Beamo), £60/$70 (Beamo Mini) www.joby.com

Looking for ultra small yet ultra powerful lights? Meet the Joby Beamo and Joby Beamo Mini – a pair of new products that promise professional lighting that fits right into your pocket.

While their ultra-compact size makes them perfect for content creation, our experience with a certain similar rival product attests that Joby Beamo will also provide useful all-purpose lighting for stills as well.

Yes, the Beamo and Beamo Mini are quite similar to Lume Cube 2.0 and Lume Cube Air, but there are a few key differences, though… namely that the full-size Beamo offers wireless charging capability and the Mini is actually brighter than the Air – both products are also a little more affordable than their Lume Cube counterparts.

Let’s start with the Beamo, which is positively pocket-sized at 47x51x51mm and 134g. It boasts 1500 Lumen output, for 750 Lux at 1m, with a 95+/- colour rendition index (all the same as the Lume Cube). It’s waterproof to

30ft/100m, lasts up to 40 minutes at 100% power, or 100 minutes at 50%, and can charges either wirelessly or via USB-C.

The Beamo Mini is a tad tinier, at 39x51x51mm, and is magnetic, making it absolutely perfect for travel, so you can always stick a light somewhere, even if you haven’t brought a stand. As noted, it delivers more light than the Lume Cube Air (they’re both 1000 Lumens, but the Mini achieves 470 Lux at 1m compared to the Air’s 400) and features the same waterproofing as its big brother.

Both products have been optimized to work with Joby’s Gorillapod and feature dual cold shoes, so you can assemble a ‘Beamo Wall’ to create an LED panel with quadruple the output.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

We love Lume Cubes, but this lower-cost competition from Joby could give them a run for their money, especially with their ability to easily connect together for increased lighting power output.