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Hive Lighting Wasp 100-C: the Swiss Army knife of RGB LED lighting

Hive lighting are well-known for their plasma lights – which makes the Wasp 100-C a departure for them as it’s based on five-colour LED technology.

After a successful Kickstarter last year, it’s now being delivered to backers and will shortly be available to buy, with delivery anticipated for July.

Best of both worlds?

Hive Lighting Wasp 100-C
Gel your lights without gels…

The company claim it offers the best of RGB and bi-colour style LED fixtures, using five-colour LEDs to make up white light. This results in fully saturated colours – reds are truly red, greens truly green –  and very accurate control, down to increments of 1°K. The aim is to provide the flexibility of a gel pack without the need to actually carry a gel pack around with you.

Wasp 100-C colour temperature range

The light’s colour temperatures range from 1,650K – 8,000K and Hive reckon intensity should be about the same at 3,200K and 5,600K: roughly comparable to a 650W tungsten fixture. Output will drop slightly if you’re using the light as a pure colour – but then that’s true if you’ve heavily gelled a light as well.

Accessories, compatibility

Hive Lighting Wasp 100-C
The Wasp 100-C offers lots of options for shaping your light, from soft boxes…

The Wasp 100-C is a par-style light that comes with a 22° reflector as standard and three spreading lenses that can take the beam spread up to an 80° flood. What’s more interesting though is that the mount on the front of the light is compatible with all sorts of pro photo gear: everything from Chimera and Elinchrome softboxes to Hive’s own 10° long-throw reflector and mini source four adapter for even tighter beam control.

…to this adorable mini Source Four.

We’ve been seeing a lot of manufacturers adopt the monobloc form factor for LED lights recently. It’s a nice change after the relative ubiquity of 1×1 panels, and means it’s often easier to shape and control the light using a variety of accessories.

Wasp 100-C price and availability

If you’re not an existing Kickstarter backer you can order a Wasp 100-C now. The standard kit sells for $1,052 US and includes:

  • Wasp 100-C head unit with 22° reflector
  • Wasp 100-C power supply 100-240 VAC
  • HDP lenses: medium, wide, and super wide
  • five inch four-leaf barn doors

There’s a manual, too. Because we always read them.

Were you an early backer on Kickstarter? Or late to the game but fancy a versatile workhorse lighting fixture? Let us know what you think of the Wasp 100-C in the comments below!

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