A portable focusable light source for photographers and videographers.

Designed in the shape of a handheld flashlight, but has all the specs ‌required‌ for professional creative work.

A regular tactical/hiking flashlight and a photo-video light have requirements that often are opposite to each other.

The main feature of a tactical flashlight that they brag about is brightness. But LEDs with high light quality (CRI) have about 15% less brightness. Evenly diffused light beam – means a more complicated optical design and a decrease in brightness by another 5-10%. The flicker-free light and smooth brightness control make electronics more expensive and complex etc.

Regular flashlight developers won’t shoot themselves in the foot by worsening specs out of necessity. That’s why you need a specialized flashlight for photo-video shooting.

 

Why the flashlight design?

Flashlights have a sturdy and portable design with no wires or sticking out batteries. It is easy to hold with one hand and it fits well in most bags.

The main differences from a non-specialized flashlight are listed below.

Approximate representation of color quality depending on the Color Rendering Index (CRI) of the light source

1. For light accents 

With a focusable light beam and precise brightness adjustments, you can light up exactly the area that you need. Make delicate accents or bring some details out of the shadow.

2. For backlight 

With high brightness, you can easily make an impressive and precise backlight.

3. Effects and experiments 

Thanks to portability, you or your assistant can easily move and direct the light to create impressive effects. You can immediately see the result and tune it as it is continuous light.

Review of the 2nd version by Curtis Judd from learnlightandsound.com

Review of the 2nd version by Nemanja Sekulic from nemanjasekulic.com

Wedding photography

Product photography

Portraits

Videos

Portability 

bitLighter weighs only 1.1 lbs, like a small bottle of water. Therefore, you can take it on every shooting and never miss the inspiration moment.

 

Custom battery 

We know that the proprietary battery is a solution that has big flaws. It complicates our air delivery, so we suffer from that too. But we decided to make it for the comfort of use.

The custom battery is necessary in order to charge without removing it from the flashlight, to be able to work while charging, and for greater safety.

It has its own protection/balancing board and is encased in robust aluminum housing.

bitLighter has a runtime of 2 hours at maximum level (out of the “high power” mode). It’s usually a sufficient amount for the entire filming day.

Durable metal body

The entire body is made of aluminum alloy and can withstand falls from heights. This is useful because bitLighter is designed to be held in hands which increases the chance it can be dropped.

Interchangeable heads

In order to change the temperature of the light, we have developed a system of interchangeable heads. You can replace one LED pad with another. 

You can choose temperatures from this list: 3000K (tungsten, warm), 3500K, 4000K, 5000K (daylight, cold). 

Why not use color filters to change the temperature? 

The problem is that it cuts the brightness in half and degrade color accuracy.

Why not use a separate knob to change the temperature?

It’s not an easy task, to make a device that is able to focus light and change color temperature at the same time. It demands sacrificing brightness and increasing size.

 

High power mode / twice more power

We have implemented a “High Power” mode which doubles the power from 17 Watt to 35 Watt. We remade the whole internals from scratch to make this possible. Made distributed the electronics on several PCBs and added a heatsink for cooling. We also improved the components to handle the increased power and rewrote the firmware.

In this mode you can increase the brightness of the light by 60% for a limited time (about 10 minutes, depending on ambient conditions). Once the maximum heating temperature is reached, the flashlight will turn off, but once it has cooled down, you can use it again. This is useful if background lights are too bright and the basic brightness is not enough to get the shot you want. If you put the knob in the position before the “Normal” mark, bitLighter will work without stopping.

 

Drop protection

Users started to use the flashlights for shootings and it became clear that in the case of falling from a height of around 5 feet (1.5 meters), the heavy 0.5 lbs (0.2kg) battery moving by inertia strikes the rigidly mounted electronics very hard and damage it. Without real-world tests, it was hard to guess that.

Now electronics and the battery are squeezed between two tight springs at the beginning and the end of the flashlight. In this way, the entire structure balanced and absorbed the shock of a fall.

Before:

Combined electronics, rigidly fixed to the body.

After:

Distributed electronics, sliding contacts.

• Charging without removing the battery. (in our opinion the most convenient way)
•  Ability to work and charge at the same time. (allows you to work in the studio from the wall outlet)
•  More accurate brightness regulation on low values. (programmed into the firmware)
•  Gold plated contact pairs. (keeps good contact between interchangeable head and flashlight longer)
•  Tight zoom. (does not wobble or slide under its own weight or during movements)
•  No wires in the driver’s PCBs. (wires are the weak point of electronics because they can move and break off after a long time)
•  Reinforced clamp. (The mounting handle is reinforced, as this was a weak point)
•  Reliable dimmer with extended lifetime. Metal cup. (it’s a protruding and moving part, so should be reliable)
•  Aluminum battery case. (sturdy and safe)
•  Automotive-grade components. (more expensive, but more reliable for high-temperature operation)
•  Copper LED substrates. (overheating can cause degradation of LED’s light quality. The copper substrate is expensive but the best option)
•  Well debugged firmware. (long testing allowed us to clean all the bugs we found)
•  Charge indication with 4 positions. Overheat indication. (simple and intuitive interface)
•  Reliable contacts with the battery. (No loss of contact by falls and sudden movements)
•  Shock absorption of the electronics on impacts. (The electronics and the battery are mounted between two springs at the beginning and the end of the flashlight. This helps absorb the shock of a fall)
•  High charging speed. (The charger charges the flashlight with the highest possible current that yet not damaging the battery)
•  Precision temperature sensor. (This is important because the flashlight’s internal temperature is quite high)
•  Intensive testing. (Each bitLighter is pushed to overheat and pass through a list of necessary tests)
•  Two-year warranty. (We believe in the reliability of our device, that’s why we give such a warranty)

•  Length: 12″ / 30.5 cm
•  Head diameter: 2″ /  5.2 cm
•  Weight (without battery): 0.70 lbs. / 0.32 kg
•  Weight (with battery): 1.19 lbs. / 0.54 kg
•  Battery: 36.72 Wh (3400mAh, 12.6V), equivalent to Sony NP-F 5100 mAh
•  Color rendering index (CRI): 93+
•  Color temperature (K): 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, 5000K
•  Max power consumption (normal mode): 17.5 Watt
•  Max power consumption (high power mode): 35 Watt
•  Max brightness (normal mode): 1700 lm
•  Max brightness (high power mode): 2700 lm
•  Dimmable range: 0.6%-100%
•  Charge time: 2.5 hours
•  Runtime (normal mode): 2 hours
•  Focusing range: 10-56°
•  Charger: Li-ion charger, Input: 100-240v 50/60hz AC, Output: 12.6V 1.5A DC
•  Brightness adjustment curve: logarithmic (more precise on low values)
•  Knob life: 15000 cycles
•  Cooling: Passive
•  Flicker-free: Yes
•  Warranty: 2-Year (Light), 1-Year (Battery)

Equipment for the photo-video industry is a fairly narrow niche with high and specific requirements, which we have already explained in the “Why it’s not just a flashlight?” and “Attention to detail” sections. So as you may have noticed, even inexpensive photo-video lighting devices of acceptable quality cost at least hundreds of dollars.

Our cost of production consists of several things:

1. Costs of parts. We use automotive-grade components, branded CREE LEDs, copper pads, gold-plated contacts, etc to provide sufficient quality.

2. Engineering costs. We had to design the electronics from scratch to meet these requirements, as well as write the firmware for it.

3. Assembling costs. We are not making a mass-produced device that can be assembled on a conveyor belt. Therefore, we need a skilled assembly with attention to detail.

It is worth noting Li-ion batteries have become more expensive because of the shortage, the prices of some components have increased several times due to the semiconductor crisis, and Covid has made logistics more expensive.

We want to be realistic in our promises and fulfill all our obligations in good faith. That’s why we have to charge a sufficient cost to do this. And at the moment, given our package with the battery included and device specs, we’re probably more on the cheap side.

We are trying to lower our price as much as possible, as this is the main complaint about our device. We have optimized production to spend money wisely while maintaining quality.  What helped us?

• As we have a device in the shape of a flashlight it’s relatively simplified the development. It is a time-tested and polished lighting design. (This has also become our burden, as we get confused with cheap mass-market flashlights by appearance)
   
• We have tested all construction nuances extensively in the real world and made several iterations of production-level prototypes over the years. This will help avoid reworks during manufacturing.
   
• We bought some rare components in advance before the price went up due to the semiconductor crisis.

1. bitLighter itself
2. Battery
3. Charger
4. Clamp
5. Cover bag

We provide worldwide shipping. 

Estimated shipping cost: ~25$ worldwide.

“World shipping friendly” (We will be able to send the parcel as a gift, so the import tax / VAT should be minimal.)

Final shipping charges will be calculated in the Pledge Manager after the campaign.

Our price does not include any kind of fee which could be required by your country.

 

Shortly before we ship your bitLighter, we will invite you to our Pledge Manager in which you will be able to:

1. Submit your latest address
2. Pay Shipping
3. Select light color temperature

The idea appeared about 4 years ago when I (Igor) was fond of photography that requires continuous light. I made the first version of the prototype and showed it to my photographer friends. The light source was well received, but it was fragile and unreliable.

 

Then I persuaded engineer Victor to take part in the project. By that time he already had experience in developing audio equipment and premium-quality bicycle lamps.

 

Working together we managed to develop the high-quality and reliable version of the light source.

We started to share it with a local community of photographers to get some feedback.

 

After several years of iterations and corrections, we introduce bitLighter to the Kickstarter community.

Don’t forget to support the project and share it with your friends. To contact the authors, write in the comments or by email.

bitlighter.com

instagram.com/bitlighter

facebook.com/bitLighter

kickstarter@bitlighter.com

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vKp1l9xCSDO0-dTKBU_DjGlIZxSyaygX?usp=sharing

 

Risks and challenges

Product

We developed the product for several years and shared it in small quantities with the local community of photographers. We created several versions that helped us to identify and address weaknesses of the device, so now we represent the fully developed and working version.

Production

There are many nuances to monitor in the production process, so we except parts supply from China. We also organized a final assembly in Eastern Europe in our workshop to be able to keep control of the process daily. We have already started assembling the batch of bitLighters, so we expect a short manufacturing time.

Purchasing of the components

We consider the risks connected with the shortage of spare parts. We use high-quality and “automotive-grade” components that may be difficult to obtain, therefore we have already bought the rarest components in advance.

Delivery

Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the delivery time might be prolonged, but we have studied all the nuances of delivery to the USA and to other countries. We have already made arrangements with delivery services about shipping our products.