UK-based lighting manufacturer Rotolight has launched an ‘industry-first location LED lighting innovation’ through a new product called AEOS.

From a first look at the key features, AEOS is mouth-watering (if portable lighting is your thing). Billed as one of the most portable lights on the market, AEOS LED light panel is less than 1cm thick and weighs under 1.5kg.

The circular panel has a diameter just under 30cm and plenty of oomph, with a 5750 lux output (at three feet) and colour range of 3,150kelvin to 6,300kelvin. ‘AccuColour™’ LED technology ensures colour rendering that scores in the highest category on the Television Lighting Consistency Index (TLCI).

Rotolight claims the 95W battery used in AEOS has a lifespan of three hours at 100% power on a full charge, which is supposedly twice the industry standard.

Like other Rotolight LED panels, AEOS is more than just a continuous light. Featuring the company’s patented High Speed Sync (HSS) flash, AEOS provides a flash at 250% of the max light output, with no recycle time. Impressive stuff.

AEOS features built-in aluminium handles on the rear of the panel, which should make working the light by hand a breeze. A ‘professional-level’ ballhead comes supplied with AEOS, with full panning capability and up to 200° of tilt when mounted to a light stand. A stand is not included but available as an optional accessory, but the ballhead has both 3/8in and 1/4in threads so will mount to any tripod.

Also included with AEOS is a filter holder and filter pack which includes four filters: full diffuser, half white diffuser, ‘cosmetic peach’ diffuser and ‘minus green (magenta)’ filter.

There are further optional accessories available, including barn doors, soft box, rain cover and a custom-made soft bag that holds 2 AEOS lights, batteries and stands.

Other features of AEOS include the handy ‘True Aperture Dimming’, which calculates and displays on the rear LCD screen the F-Stop for a subject at a given distance.

With decent output, easy handling, no cables to trip over and very little weight to lug around, we can see how a couple of AEOS lights would make for a popular location lighting setup.

This is all sounds great to us, but wait for it…AEOS retails at £899.99. That is a lot to cough up for a single light panel (albeit with accessories). It will be interesting to see whether or not location photographers and videographers think it’s worth it.