Review: SmallRig SP Air Spotlight
- Stephen Knight
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
The SmallRig SP Air Spotlight is a focusable, 36 degree, gobo projecting accessory for the excellent RF 10C and RF 20C portable zoom lights. This review takes a look at what creative features the SP Air Spotlight adds to these lights.
Disclaimer
The SmallRig SP Air Spotlight was sent to me for an honest and impartial review.
Design and Construction
Whilst the SmallRig RF 10C and RF 20C portable zoom lights are excellent for creators, there are a few limitations of their PVC gobos. Firstly, they aren't focusable, so tend to appear increasingly blurry beyond 2.5m source to object distance. Secondly, whilst the RF 10C can use the PVC gobos across the entire zoom range, the RF 20C can only use the PVC gobos at wide/flood end of the zoom range. The SmallRig SP Air spotlight/optical snoot helps fix these limitations, with added features including barn doors. The SP Air has the following features:
36 degree beam angle.
Focus - 0.25m to infinity.
10 gobos.
4 leaf barn doors.
4x increase in illuminance.
The SP Air is of a metallic construction (mainly aluminium), weighs 320g, and is 50x115mm in size. It can be attached to the RF 10C and RF 20C by unscrewing the front lens element on these lights, and screwing on the SP Air.
The SP Air package includes the spotlight, gobo holder, 10 metal gobos (40mm diameter), storage pouch, and the user manual. The gobos are placed in a "tray" and inserted into the light. This works well, and the tray stays in place. I would like to see more gobos to be available, as 10 is a bit limiting. The 4 barndoors can be moved individually and are very useful for beam shaping creativity.
Optics and Brightness
The SmallRig SP Air has a 36 degree beam angle. Whilst this is reasonably narrow, it is much wider, and more useable than the "too narrow" spotlight tube on the Photoolex 12W. It is useable for upper body and head illumination, but needs to moved back some distance for whole body projections. I would love to see a similar style spotlight with both zoom and focusing, though this could add to the size and weight. The SP Air can be focussed between 0.25m and infinity, and my testing showed this to be correct.
The optics are claimed to increase the illuminance. Illuminance is how bright an object is illuminated at a specified distance. I put this to the test:
SmallRig RF 20C 5600K flood - 1552 lux/1m
SmallRig RF 20C 5600K with SP Air - 2,736 lux/1m
SmallRig RF 10C 5600K flood - 250 lux/1m.
SmallRig RF10C 5600K with SP Air - 784 lux/1m
Photoolex 12W Hard Light Lens flood: 592 lux/1m
Photoolex 12W Spotlight Tube - 796 lux/1m
There were significant increases in illuminance measurements compared to the flood/wide end of the zoom range (the light needs to be in flood to maximise lumens entering the SP Air). The RF 20C is already very bright, and due to this, the SP Air allows for projections with relatively large light source to subject distances. It also allows for narrower gobo projections, which the RF 20C cannot do with its PVC gobos. The SP Air makes the RF 10C much more useable for narrower projections due to the increase in illuminance brightness.
As the SP Air is an optical module, and not a light source, please refer to my SmallRig RF 10C and RF 20C reviews for information on correlated colour temperature (CCT), tint, and colour rendering index (CRI).
Examples of gobo projections, and barn doors (bottom right) using the SmallRig SP Air Spotlight and RF 20C Portable Zoom Light.
Photos using the SmallRig SP Air for portraits will be added soon!
Conclusion
Positives:
Useful 36 degree angle.
Good construction and useability.
Gobo tray stays in place.
Barndoors are useful.
Focusable over a wide range.
Increase in illuminance brightness.
Negatives:
Zoom would add more versatility.
More gobos should be made available.
The SmallRig SP Air adds more creative options to the useful SmallRig RF10C and RF20C portable zoom lights. The SP Air allows for sharp, focusable gobo projections and beam shaping at a useful 36 degree angle, as well as an increase in brightness. I would love to see more gobos offered for the SP Air, even if they are an optional extra.