If you’re looking to improve the quality of your content, improving your lighting is one of the best steps you can take. Great lighting will not only make your photos and videos look more professional, it can also add visual interest and open new doors for your creativity. The FIVERAY M20C is the latest RGB video light from ZHIYUN, a company that has been producing some of the best gimbals you can buy for years, and has made a splash with its new lighting products.
The M20C is bright, exceptionally accurate, has long battery life, and comes with an array of effects, customizations, and, if you buy the combo kit, accessories to help you direct and shape your light in a way most of its competition simply cannot. Enhanced with clever magnets, this is a light that doesn’t exactly come cheap at $139.99 for the base kit and $169.99 with its accessory Combo Pack, but it’s more than a little impressive if you can utilize its design and features.
Specifications
- Current Price:
- Power: 20W
- Battery Capacity: 4500mAh
- Charging Time: 2H
- Color Temperature Range: 2500k~10000k
- Dimming Range: 0~100%
- Illuminance (4300K/100%): 539 (1 meter)
- Illuminance (4300K/100%): 1950 (0.5 meter)
- Illuminance (4300K/100%): 5300 (0.3 meter)
- TLCI Index: ≥96
- CRI Index: ≥94
- Light Chip: 100
- R Illuminance (LUX): 255(1 meter)
- G Illuminance (LUX): 280 (1 meter)
- B Illuminance (LUX): 103 (1 meter)
- Operation Temperature: -10°~40°
- Net Weight: 200g
- Product Size: 3.1 x 3.1 x 1.4 - 2.3 inches (7.8 x 7.8 x 3.6 centimeters)
ZHIYUN FIVERAY M20C - Design and Features
At only 3.1 inches square, the M20C is small but mighty. It is, in fact, the smallest video light that ZHIYUN has produced yet. One of the big trends we’ve seen with its lights has been pushing the envelope on performance for price or form factor. This light is certainly the latter, as it delivers more than just about any other “pocket” RGB light you’re likely to find.
The theme through all of ZHIYUN’s FIVERAY lights has been powerful brightness for the form factor. From the high performance FR100C to the F100 and M40C, each of these lights has far exceeded what you would expect in terms of brightness and each had active cooling systems to maintain that brightness despite the increased heat from putting out so many lumens.
The M20C follows suit with a maximum luminance of 539 lux at one meter and 5,300 lux at one foot with five, ten, or twenty watts of power. Though it’s tiny, it also comes with an active DynaVort cooling system to maintain its performance. A tiny fan is visible from the back and a copper heatsink from the bottom, so you won’t need to worry about it overheating and shutting off in the middle of your creative process.
ZHIYUN has managed to squeeze one hundred light chips into each panel, tucked behind a built-in diffuser. There are dedicated LEDs of cool white, warm white, red, green, and blue. Using a built-in display on the back of the unit, you can choose from multiple modes to dial in the exact hue you’re looking for. The HSI mode (hue, saturation, and intensity), let’s you choose and RGB color from 1-360 and adjust brightness and saturation so you have access to the full color spectrum. The RGB mode instead lets you input exact color values for each. There’s also a white color temperature mode that measures white balance in Kelvin from 2,500K to 10,000K, giving you the option of warm white all the way to a cold blue. This combination allows you to dial in exact color blends and make sure that multiple lights match exactly. This includes outside of the ZHIYUN ecosystem. Dial in these same settings on other video lights and they should match exactly. It’s made to fit into an ecosystem of products that you may be using or to provide you confidence that your colors are exact.
The M20C might look like a hobbyist's tool, and certainly can be, but make not mistake that it’s also fully capable of being utilized by professionals. Unlike your average lights by Philips Hue or Nanoleaf, ZHIYUN rates these lights with professional metrics: the Color Rendering Index (CRI) and the Television Lighting Consistency Index (TCLI). These measurements rate the lights based on how consistent they are with industry standards, so you can be confident that your colors and whites will be exact and blend seamlessly with what you’re shooting. Scored out of 100 for each, the M20C features a CRI rating of 94 and a TCLI score of 96. It’s a performer.
There are also some built-in lighting effects for mimicking certain kinds of light, such as fireworks or a flickering light bulb. If you’re producing narrative content, even if it’s a skit, or perhaps want to make your background extra interesting on stream, these can be an effective tool. Altogether, you have modes that mimic fireworks, police cars, camera flashes, a television, a dying lightbulb, lighting, a strobe light, and flickering flames for a candle or fireplace. There are also modes for looping, flashing, and pulsing colors and different temperatures of whites. Given their small size, it’s easy to hide these lights in a shot to create a convincing lighting effect for your viewer.
All of this is easily controlled using two knobs on the back of the light and the screen. The power knob cycles and modes and options while the opposing knob adjusts the levels for each. That’s all there is to it.
Despite its high light output and power draw, it also has impressive battery life. It comes with a 4,500 mAh battery that’s housed behind the light panel. At full brightness, it can run for up to 40 minutes consistently. At half power, that jumps to an hour and twenty minutes. Dropping to 25% extends that to three hours. Sadly, the battery is not replaceable.
While 25% brightness might seem like quite a reduction, I actually found that in most indoor situations, there was hardly ever a reason to shoot above this brightness. It’s certainly possible that someone else might (I mainly shoot product photography and create video content in my office), but it’s worth remembering that these lights are very, very, bright. In fact, using it to light my face as a key light for a video, I ran it at 20% or less. Shooting products on a desk, I would only turn it above 5% if I was directing that light away from the actual target.
Minimum Brightness
Maximum Brightness (overwhelming the camera it's so bright)
The M20C is a bit of a magnetic marvel, too. There are magnets built into both the front and back of the unit, allowing you to mount it on anything metal, which is more than a little convenient. There are also four magnets in the corners of the light panel that are used for mounting accessories, and this is where things get really interesting.
unboxed
The M20C is available as a standalone light for $139.99 or in a combo kit with mountable accessories for $169.99. The combo kit is expensive but worth it as the add-ons provide you unprecedented control over the shape and presentation of your light for a panel this size.
Both kits include a metal frame (extension bracket) with not one, not two, but three cold shoe mounts. This allows you to connect them with other devices for an on-camera setup (mounting a mic on one side, for example) or even with other lights on a tripod. On the bottom of the light is a ¼-20 thread for tripod mounting.
The combo kit adds three key accessories. It comes with a second lighting diffusers to soften the light even more than the built-in diffuser is able to. This is important if you’re using it as a key light because it’s a small light source and can easily create a hot-spot. There’s a honeycomb grid, which diffuses your lighting in a different way. Finally, my personal favorite, you have a four-leaf barn door to direct the light exactly where you want it to go.
Pocket lights, as this type of light is called, almost never have more than a simple diffuser. The barn door accessory is especially interesting because it allows you to mount the light where you need it and make quick adjustments to exactly where that light is falling. With others, you’re stuck moving the whole light or tripod. Here, you can be highly directional if you need to be. These accessories make the M20C a much more versatile and capable light.
Finally, the last key thing to know about this light is that it can be controlled completely wirelessly using Zhiyun’s ZY Vega app. If you have these lights mounted or hidden on set, this is a convenient option to make adjustments on the fly. I also like that it allows you to control more than one light at a time. I was sent two to test for this review and adding both for controls was easy. Using the app, in my experience, was also a bit faster than clicking through the menus.
ZHIYUN FIVERAY M20C - Performance and Where You Might Use Them
With the design and features done, let’s get into why you might choose a light like this. If you’re a content creator, I don’t need to tell you how important lighting is. If you haven’t already purchased a lighting kit and you’re serious about your video quality, you’ll definitely be considering it at some point. Or perhaps and Elgato key light or one of its many copycats.
The M20C can be very useful in this situation. Key lights and lighting kits take up a lot of space and once they’re mounted in the corners of your desk, they can be a bit of a pain to manage. I control mine through my Stream Deck, for example, because reaching up to hit the power buttons on the back of each panel is a stretch and inconvenient every single time. They also require bulky power bricks and, well, bulky panels that don’t look great.
The M20C, on the other hand, is small enough that it’s completely unobtrusive. Using the cold shoe mount, I popped it on top of my camera and was done. If you don’t have a full-size camera at your desk, you can get a small ¼-20 mount for the top of your monitor and do the same. Since it’s so small, grabbing it and turning it on is much easier and popping it off to charge is too.
Its small size does make it more prone to creating hot-spots. I had to turn the brightness down quite a bit and use both diffusers and the honeycomb. It takes time to dial it in for your space and conditions. But, all on its own, it’s able to provide an effective key light for streaming and video, as well as an accent light in the background.
Here’s an example of how it looked in my room with a usual, low-light streaming setup. I had the camera set to underexpose a touch for The brightness was set to 10% and it was positioned about two feet away. There was a lamp in the opposite corner of the room to help light up the background a little bit — which is an important consideration because the M20C is all about targeting your lighting. Not lighting up an entire room the way two full-size Elgato Key Lights might.
I positioned the second M20C behind me for accent lighting and to help separate me from the background. Their small size is perfect for this application, and since it’s static, I would just plug it in with an PD adapter and call it a day.
For a video, in this space, I wouldn’t use the M20C all on its own. When you try to light up more than just your subject, the brightness quickly becomes too pointed for a single face. The picture above is as close as I could come at a two foot distance. More space would open up more possibilities, though.
With that in mind, its performance in this scenario is impressive. This kind of close-up key light scenario is extremely challenging for pocket lights because the light source is so small, which makes lighting appear more harsh by default. A typical key light is much, much larger. These softboxes are common to what you’ll find in introductory kits and are nine times the length and width (729 square inches). The Elgato Key Light has four times the length and three times the width (135.2 square inches).
The M20C is 9.6 square inches. A literal fraction of the size of a “true” key light and this is what the diffusion accessories can achieve. It’s outstanding and much easier to manage than a traditional key light.
And if you’re worried about the battery running dry during your stream, don’t be. It accepts PD power and a small power bank can provide you with plenty of extra power, even while the light is being used. In a key light scenario like the one above, you could even run it directly to an outlet with a PD charger and remove battery life as a concern entirely.
Here’s a product that will be coming up soon on the site. It’s the new wireless mouse from Gravatar, the M2 Wireless Pro. It has this science fiction, spaceship theme, so I thought I would hit it with some color blending for the lights. Both lights were at 1% brightness, positioned 12 to 18 inches away, and directed using the barn doors. It clearly has a lot of utility for close-up shots like this and I’ll absolutely be using it in the future for similar shots and warm, ambery washes on wood backgrounds.
Here are two more, one with blended lighting and another with the usual warm wash. Elevating the lights slightly would have helped fill it out more but I wanted to demonstrate the change just switching to the white mode at 2500K has. It’s a big difference.
The other major benefit this light has is shooting on top of a camera. Just like I had it positioned on the camera on my desk, you can mount it to any coldshoe mount (standard on most mirrorless and DSLR cameras) to a camera and take it on the go, supplementing natural lighting or providing color anywhere you may go. If your content takes you out of the house, the M20C’s portability makes it an easy companion to take and won’t weigh you down and add extra fatigue to your shoot.
The M20C is surprisingly powerful, versatile, and feature rich. It’s expensive but the results speak for themselves. It’s brightness, light-shaping, and ease of us set it apart, even from other premiere pocket lights.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a content creator, lighting is one of the easiest ways to make your videos and streams look more professional. But, if you’re a hobbyist, there’s a good chance you’re space limited, and that’s where lights like the FIVERAY M20C really come in handy. Between its tiny size and high output, magnetic mounting of the light itself and its accessories, it’s outstanding ability to diffuse and shape light, and its exceptional portability, it’s a pricey but outstanding choice. If you don’t want to pick up a full key light or need one light that can work for all of your shooting needs, this is absolutely a light you should be considering.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes. Some articles may contain affiliate links and purchases made through this will result in a small commission for the site. Commissions are not directed to the author or related to compensation in any way.
