Elgato Key Light Air Review: For Regular Streamers, A Must-Have!

Elgato Key Light Air

Even with top-tier video capturing equipment, lighting is crucial if you plan to get into streaming or have already dabbled with it. But it can also be very helpful to be able to change that illumination quickly and easily, which is where the Elgato Key Light Air lights come in.

The units are at the higher end of lighting units you might consider for content creation, with a suggested retail price of roughly $200 per unit. Even though they provide more illumination output for the money, the less expensive LED lighting units frequently have physical manual controls and provide harsher, less diffuse lighting.

You may use WiFi to control the Key Light Air by first connecting to it with your smartphone and pointing it in the direction of your wireless network. Once connected, you’ll be able to control each unit separately from the desktop of your PC or Mac, an iOS or Android device, or both.

The maximum output is 1,400 lumens, and the color temperature ranges from 2,900K to 7,000K. Although the Key Light Air has about 1,000 fewer lumens than the majority of LED lights created with video production in mind, it isn’t intended to provide general illumination.

It is designed to be desk-mounted and enables excellent customization for close-up illumination, but there is also a more potent non-Air version available that boosts the lighting to 2,800 lumens.

With multi-layer diffusion technology, the 80 OSRAM LEDs mounted on the panel’s edge provide remarkably equal lighting. Each panel needs a power adaptor and may be adjusted from a height of 66 cm (26 inches) to 96 cm (38 inches). The Elgato Stream Deck is compatible with the Key Light Air in addition to the Control Center app and your smartphone.

You’ll be happy to know that the stand has a channel for the cable to fit into if your Key Light is on display while you stream or you’re just a little obsessed with keeping your desk tidy, however it would have been even better if the wire could also be hidden within the base. The ball and socket joint was also easy to operate and could be set up so adjustments could be made without reaching around the back for the tightening screw.

Is The Elgato Key Light Worth It?

Conclusions

Although it costs a lot because it has wireless controls and good diffuse illumination, the Key Light Air would greatly simplify life for a regular streamer. Because it’s so simple to alter brightness and color temperature, you can quickly adapt your illumination to your surroundings. Although you can connect multiple lights to the same controls, the Mac, PC, and smartphone apps don’t have the feature of saving profiles, which may help deal with varying lighting conditions. After all, not all of us have a dedicated room that isn’t affected by sunlight or stream from the same setup or distance every time.

Apart from this, the Key Light Air is easy to use, very effective, and suitable for light video work as well as streaming, but the more potent Key Light might be preferable if you blend more of the former into your workflow. Overall, though, if you’re a regular streamer trying to give your work a professional look, the Key Light is worth the money.

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