Having a built-in tripod mount is already an improvement! :)

So, fast preliminary testing

• 199 LUX at 1 meter
• CRI - 95.85
• TLCI - 97.6
• Color temperature - 5474

The Sokani X21 LED Video Light is a nicely built rechargeable light than is not expensive at $50. It is machined out of metal unlike a lot of other inexpensive lights which are made out of plastic or composites. It is light weight at 100 grams and comes with 2 magnetic filters. One is a diffuser filter and the other is a 3200k diffuser filter for the 21 daylight LED’s. It also comes with 12 color gels for sandwiching in-between the magnetic filters and the unit, a universal cold shoe mount, a USB charging cable and nice carrying case.

After charging, you turn on the light with the left side power switch by pressing in for 2 seconds. The OLED display on the back comes on and it displays the battery usage and brightness percentage. Hit the power button again on the LED’s come on. There are 2 buttons on the top to vary the brightness of the LED’s. Looking at the back, the left button is for lowering the brightness and the right one for increasing the brightness. Simple. There is a 1/4 inch thread for mounting on the cold shoe mount.

This light feel very durable and the magnets are a nice touch for mounting filters. Also it is very small because of built-in rechargeable batteries. A really nice little video light.

Alan's opinion

One bummer is that the included color gels aren't cut to a size that will fit in the carry pouch (the ones included with the other lights are). Not a big deal - I own scissors, but it would be a nice touch to have the filters fit better in the case.

Yep, you can see it on photos above. I'll tell manufacturer.

@Energy80s

We'll add this to the tests list, thanks.

And here is Sokani X21 - proper good behavior

note that initial small intensity drop is not due to controller, but due to leds heating up

Is that lux rating from 0.35m as well? Very nice results in consistency

Didn't know about the brightness dropoff over time. Does the GVBPL12 experience this? The Sokani is rated at only 50 mins which is shorter than both the GVB and Aputure, but I really do like that it comes with the color gels.

Spectrum and CRI

Sokani X21 (Daylight), Measurement using CV600, Russian Lab processing

We cover spectrum, color temperature, and all modern color quality standards, including latest 2016 and 2017 years ones.

Never select light based on just CRI number.

Focus on TM30 and CIE 224 and look for color distortion and Rf values.

Sokani X21 is good light with light quality suitable for videos.

Color temperature

CRI color quality

CQS color quality

TLCI 2012

TM30 color quality

TM30 details

All TM30 color samples Rf values

CIE 224 2017

Support us to see more info like this - https://www.patreon.com/personal_view

@mee - 99 or 100, I suppose. The screen on the back shows the current power as a percentage (though I haven't tried going lower than 50% so it might not go all the way to 0 - and I wouldn't be surprised if the lights showed some flicker at lower percentages).

Sokani PWM at around 50%

PWM Frequency is 10Khz

Sokani PWM at 100% (battery at not at full fresh charge)

You can see that controller drives leds at maximum always.

See above that controller CAN keep output level properly.

Sokani PWM at around 10%

Thermal photos

Hottest part is board inside and OLED screen

@Firworks

If you leave it plugged into USB and just turn it on it will eventually run dead even while plugged in.

Useful input, will need to add to such light tests list. They really need to slightly change controller board behavior. One of reasons can be that it requires more power for leds compared to M9.