Switronix Torch LED BOLT Review

The new Torch LED BOLT

The BOLT is my cup of tea.

Switronix Torch LED BOLT. This is the newest member of the Switronix Torch LED family. It’s called the BOLT.
It’s 1/6th the size of a 12 inch LED Panel and it’s 2 times as bright. No kidding.

Side by side test with Litepanels Micro

Using the BOLT for daylight outdoor fill.

Dialing daylight with tungsten.

It has two dimmers – one for the 32K set of LEDS and one for the 56K LEDS. You can control them
separately or blend both the tungsten and daylight LEDs together to deliver a very bright light with a color temperature of around 41K.

Interview using the BOLT

Diffusion panel slides into place.

The BOLT draws 22 watts and has 200 watts of light output and a brightness throw of between 40 and 50 feet.
You can also slide the diffusion filter into the included filter tray to soften the light.

BOLT mounted on Canon C300
Photo by Donald Berube

BOLTS for interview an setup.

Interview using two BOLTS dialed to 56K.

Cold shoe mounting on camera.

It can be mounted on the included ¼ 20 swivel cold shoe mount or it can be configured with an articulating arm on standard 15mm rods. It can also be mounted on a light stand with an adapter for typical a interview setup or  for outdoor use.

Using BOLTS to light Heajee

Heajee on the Boston Streets

Here’s a few screen grabs from a short film collaboration called “Wonder No More” in which we used two BOLTs on our actress Heajee Leah Kim to highlight her hair and fill shadows on her face. Being totally portable using the BOLT’s long lasting battery power made it easy to light Heajee as we shot around Boston at night.

Long lasting batteries.

Aaron Strader rim lights Heajee with a BOLT
Photo by Paul Antico

The BOLT battery.

The TL-F970 battery that was specifically designed for the BOLT is BIG. I’ve run the light on a recent job on a fully charged battery and it lasted a good 3 hours. And it still had juice left at the end of the gig.

BOLT power tap cable.

The unit also comes with a power tap output on the back so you can power the BOLT with a standard 14.4 volt DC brick battery by plugging in the included power tap cable.

Charge batteries on flat power strip.

Now the bad news. The battery is BIG. The battery is actually too heavy for the charger to stay plugged into a wall outlet. So plan on charging this battery on a flat power strip.

BOLT back view.

It can also be easily knocked off the back of the light. In my opinion the battery receiver was poorly designed and the battery does not really lock into place. However I will say that it never fell off while I was using it.

Contact Switronix or an authorized dealer for pricing.

Using the BOLT for nice outdoor fill.

Model: Taylor Macomber
Soundtrack: “AcidJazz” by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com