Light Bulb with CRI/TLCI of 95+
Review by Erik Vlietinck
Aputure recently released the Accent B7c, a mains power and battery-operated 7W RGBWW color-mixing LED light bulb that features a standard E26/27 fixture. Unlike typical household LED bulbs, however, the lamp uses cinema-grade LEDs to reproduce skin tones with CRI and TLCI values of 95+ and a tungsten SSI score of 85.
Aputure claims the Accent B7c bulb is able to produce over 90% of the saturated colors in the Rec.2020 color space, putting the bulb on par with industry-standard lighting instruments. The B7c uses an aluminum structure and a toroidal diffusion design, with the diffusor the smallest part of the lamp. It spreads lights evenly as ordinary light bulbs for use inside lamp shades. Unique for a bulb that fits ordinary lamp shades, the Accent B7c features 20 KHz stepless dimming that remains completely flicker-free up to at least 1,000 fps, with no color shift. At a frame rate of 240 fps, there was no flicker while the color remained the same throughout. The bulb is controlled by the Sidus Link app. It produces a wide color temperature range of 2,000–10,000K. Measurements taken with a Lumu Power Pro Gen.2 showed some distinct differences between what the app reports and what I measured; however, using a light meter, you can set the temperature accurately.
When combined with the SourceMatch feature, the lamp can match nearly any white light source, which proved to be accurate. Finally, the Accent B7c has access to the app’s built-in lighting FX modes; for example, using your mobile device, the Sidus Link app will let you pick any color and set the lamp to the closest color it can output. Another FX capability lets you cycle the lamp in all kinds of configurations between two white color temperatures and intensities.
Yet another feature that I found particularly interesting is the Picker FX effect where you record a number of colors with the iOS device camera and let the Accent B7c play the colors back as you recorded them. ■
