review: aputure infinibar pb12 4-light kit
What’s up my fellow light lover!
Today’s review is going to cover the Infinibar PB12 4-light kit from Aputure!
First, I’ll cover the 4-light kit itself; talk about the features and it’s list of accessories, the things that I like about it, and mention a few things that I wish were different.
Then, I’ll dive into the output quality of the Infinibar PB12’s in both CCT and HSI mode. Even if you’ve seen my previous Infinibar review, it’s worth sticking around for this section because I’ll be taking a much more in-depth look at their performance than last time.
Next, I’ll cover the hardware and software support that Aputure has given the infinibars in the year or so since their release.
And finally, after having used the Aputure Infinibars for the last year as a commercial gaffer, I’ll wrap things up and tell you my thoughts about the lights themselves, and if the 4-light kit is right for you!
youtube video
product overview
The Aputure Infinibar PB12 4-light kit comes with, you guessed it, four lights, and a long list of accessories to help us users make the most from having all four of those bars at once.
My favorite included accessory is the 4 grids, which help control the beam angle of the bars, and are pretty much a must have item when using any linear LED.
To rig each of the bars anywhere, there’s 4 mounting brackets with a baby pin attached on the back. These slip on easily anywhere to the back of the bar, and we’ll talk a little more about these in a second. If the mounting bracket won’t do the trick, the kit features 8 eyehole hangers which can be attached to either end of each bar for overhead or hanging rigging.
Four Straight Connectors enable a square, line, or some other snake shape to be made. And a 330watt power supply provides power to all four of the PB12’s when they’re connected at once. This power supply can also be used with the provided 4-way splitter to charge all 4 of the Infinibar PB12’s individually while in the case. There’s two cables for this power brick as well, which can help extend the cable length.
Two 48watt power supplies enable charging of two of the bars when in use. And there’s 4x connector cables in the kit.
Lastly, three power cables help provide power to the three power supplies.
what I like
I’m going to split this section into two parts: what I like about the entire kit, and then what I like specifically about the infinibars themselves.
First, a 4-bar kit is the perfect number for so many of us. I can charge two of the lights from 0-100% before the other two will die from being used at 100% intensity. Or, with provided power, all four can be used simultaneously for a full day on set.
Including grids is the best decision they could’ve made for a kit like this. They’re the single most-used accessory for any linear LED so I’m very happy to see *four* of them included. Taping the backs of 4′ bars like I have been goes through a lot of gaff tape after awhile.
The precision-cut foam inside the *hard shell case* is definitely going to keep everything inside safe during transport. And the foam has been designed to allow easy access to everything. I don’t find that grabbing anything out of this case is awkward or is going to cause me to break the foam or tweak a finger.
The 330watt power supply being included doesn’t just enable charging of all 4 bars while in the case. It also makes it actually possible to use the 4 provided Straight Connectors simultaneously since the 48watt power supply can’t power 4 bars at once. I’m glad that the 330 watt power supply isn’t a separate purchase.
As for the Infinibar PB12’s themselves, they have the best CCT scores out of any light I’ve reviewed thus far. These things are mind-blowingly accurate in this regard. We’ll dive further into that in a second.
The rear rail system for clamping and rigging the bars is the best system for a linear LED that’s been designed so far. No other manufacturer still comes even close.
The estimated run time that will update depending on intensity level has been reliable to within a few minutes. I love this over a four-bar icon indicator like other manufacturers use.
The built-in magnets on the back make placing the bars on-location super easy. I can just gaff tape a magnet under a shelf and the bar will stick nearly flush underneath. Or I can stick the bar itself to a door, or an overhead beam, anywhere magnetic. It really opens up possibilities for hiding the bars and making them look like a feature of the set decoration.
Lastly, as someone who is perpetually online, I know Aputure has been getting some pushback in forums on the hardiness of their lights lately. But, I have dropped the two PB12s and two PB6’s that I’ve owned for the last year onto concrete, cement, hardwood flooring, whatever, I’ve smacked them into everything you could think of, and generally abused the shit out of them. All four of mine continue to hold the same level of charge and output with the same quality as they started with and I haven’t heard anything weird from other owner/operators in town about their infinibars breaking either.
what I don't like
This kit is great, and it’s nice to see Aputure listening to their user base by releasing this 4-light kit after so many of us were asking, but it’s not perfect.
And really, there’s only two things that I don’t like about this kit, but for some users they could be really big pain points.
First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, or should I say the kit in the room. It’s huge. The dimensions are 54 by 16 by 8, meaning it’s almost the same size as the 8-light kit for some reason. I’m glad we’re protecting these lights from nuclear fallout, but as someone who works out of his Outback and still wants to bring this kit on every set, I’d also be pretty happy to downgrade to a relatively slim cloth-style case that would let me just throw four tubes, four chargers, four grids, and four mounting brackets into a long tube-shaped bag.
Second, only coming with two 48 watt power supplies is a… weird decision. Especially since it’s a four-light kit. And, I’m probably bringing this out since we’re intending to use all four lights. So, now I have to buy two more power supplies at $60 a pop just to gain access to one of the main reasons I’d buy a four light kit in the first place – to use four bars at once on a set.
As for the Infinibars themselves, I genuinely have no complaints about their hardiness, build quality, or output, except for the things we’ll cover in the most important section of any light review, testing the output quality.
light metrics
In this section I’ll cover the Aputure Infinibar PB12’s output quality in CCT mode and HSI mode, examine their relationship between intensity and output, and review SSI and TM-30 scores at both 5600 and 3200 Kelvin.
GRAPH 1
This first graph visualizes how well the Infinibar PB12 is able to stay at 5600 kelvin throughout the intensity range. I couldn’t be happier with this result, I think this may be the best result I’ve seen yet. It measures within 40 Kelvin throughout the entire intensity range, with a duv value that never moves further than 0.0005 above 0. Not only is this not a noticeable shift, it’s basically negligible.
The light performs similarly well at 3200 Kelvin. Throughout the entire intensity range, we can see the light is within just 30 Kelvin of the target, except at 20% intensity where it’s 45 Kelvin away. The light does even better with duv here, if that’s possible, measuring just 0.0003 away from 0 the entire range.
GRAPH 2
This diagram shows us how well the Aputure Infinibar PB12 is able to track the TM-30 Reference curve, which is the most current standard for color temperature in filmmaking.
The light trends towards 1/8 green beginning around 4,000 Kelvin. And that’s because the Infinibars were engineered to track the Planckian Curve, which is a slightly older color temperature standard. When I overlay the blackbody standard onto this graph, we can see how flawlessly the Infinibar PB12 stays near the Planckian Curve.
In fact, along the entire color temperature range only one measurement was beyond 50 Kelvin away from the target. We can see this more clearly if I graph the expected vs actual CCT graph from 2,700K to 7,000K. The ideal line isn’t even visible because the data lies so precisely over it.
This light also stayed relatively consistent as intensity was lowered from 100 percent to 75, 50, and then down to 25%, and this can equally be seen in the expected vs actual CCT graph at these intensities as well.
GRAPH 3
Time to test the Infinibar PB12 in HSI mode! And, not to give away the next several minutes of this video, but I do hope that this is an area that we will see improvement over the coming years from Aputure as they release lights containing their newest color engine.
This first graph shows us the relationship between hue selection and color output.
The tight grouping in the red, blue, and particularly green corners indicates that this light won’t perceptibly change much around these hue values.
The tight spacing to the corners also means that there is fidelity lost in other sections, particularly in the oranges and cyan to blue region.
Overall, this diagram suggests that there isn’t a very strong linear correlation between color output and hue selection.
GRAPH 4
This next diagram is a visualization of the relationship between hue selection, saturation level, and color output when in HSI mode.
Uh…. this graph is pretty bad for multiple reasons.
First, the light doesn’t actually desaturate between 100% and 75% for any of the tested hues. The light stays near 100% saturated output, but just changes hue. Purple and reds move towards pink, blue moves towards cyan, orange moves towards yellow and greens barely move at all.
Second, the tested white point at 0% saturation comes out to be 6500Kelvin instead of 5600 Kelvin, which is noticeably cooler.
It appears to me that Aputure tried to make some mathematical model to cover the gamut of the Infinibars, which is why the desaturated white point lies where it does. It looks perfectly in between the 120 and 300 degree points. And also this may explain why the graph looks perfectly mirrorred along this axis.
The color output from the Infinibar PB12 did stay relatively consistent as intensity was reduced, from 100 to 75 to 50 to 25 percent saturation at least.
I do want to put this graph into some context though. If we look at some other lights in the Aputure lineup, like the MC Pro, 600c, and 600c II, we can see this same pattern over and over. So if you stay within the Aputure ecosystem, then this is actually kind of nice because all of Aputure’s lights work well together.
And this cohesiveness between units is also why I think we’re going to see a really big change to this result in the next year as Aputure rolls out their new full-color LED chipset. This would be the perfect time to “reset the ecosystem” since they won’t need to match their new lights with ones that were released several years ago.
GRAPH 5
If we group the previous data by saturation level instead of intensity, we can visualize the relationship between intensity and color output of the Aputure Infinibar PB12 in HSI mode.
Like the last few graphs suggested, the groupings for each hue are super tight, and at each saturation level.
If we combine these results and the previous ones, we can infer that even if it takes some time and fine-tuning to dial the exact color a user would want, at least they can be sure it’ll stay the same as the intensity is adjusted.
Graph 6
This graph showcases the relationship between intensity and output as measured in lux at both 5600 kelvin and 3200 kelvin.
This relationship for the Infinibar PB12 could not be more linear. An R value of 1 here means perfectly linear correlation. And this can be seen on the left in the raw data. Notice how perfectly the light doubles in measured output when intensity is doubled. Absolutely flawless.
SSI / TM-30
At 5600 Kelvin, the Aputure Infinibar PB12 has an SSI score of 74 and a TM-30 Rf average value of 95.
At 3200 Kelvin, the Aputure Infinibar PB12 has an SSI score of 85 and a TM-30 Rf average value of 95.
one-year support
After a year of being on the market, has Aputure done anything to continue supporting the Infinibars?
On the hardware side, there’s new connectors for shapes, and new connecting brackets with an empty power connection to make connecting and powering large shapes much easier.
On the software side, they’ve added a DMX profile screen which displays the essentials like address, mode, and battery life. They’ve also patched in DMX smoothing which is a very welcome addition so they can be used in sync with their other RGB-enabled lights.
conclusion
The Aputure Infinibar PB12’s and PB6’s in my kit have been total workhorses over the last year. They are easy to work with and have taken an absolute beating. The PB12’s in this review are absolutely the correlated color temperature *KINGS* of my testing so far, and I’m honestly okay with their sub-par HSI performance since I’m a mostly commercial and corporate gaffer, and, frankly, we’ve all kind of gotten used to how Aputure performs in this regard.
If you’re able to make due with the case being on the larger side, and purchasing a couple extra power supplies doesn’t break the bank for you, then I highly recommend the Infinibar PB12 or PB6 4-light kit. The Infinibars are definitely the easiest linear LED on the market to work with currently, and for the majority of users, having 4 of them to work with is like having the middle porridge, it’s gonna be just right.
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disclaimers
Aputure provided the Infinibar PB12 4-light kit for review
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This blog post contains only Tyler’s opinions about G&E, gaffing, and LED lighting, and was not reviewed or paid for by outside persons or manufacturers
Tyler Trepod is a freelance owner/operator gaffer of a 1-Ton Grip & Electric truck based in Denver, Colorado and serves the Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, & Fort Collins markets