By Brady Betzel

If you are on Instagram you’ve definitely seen your fair share of “adventure” photography and video. Typically, it’s those GoPro-themed action-adventure shots of someone cliff diving off a million-mile-high waterfall. I definitely get jealous. Nonetheless, one thing I love about GoPro cameras is their size. They are small enough to fit in your pocket, and they will reliably produce a great image. Where those actioncams suffer is with light performance. While it is getting better every day, you just can’t pull a reliably clean and noise-free image from a camera sensor so small. This is where actioncam lights come into play as a perfect companion, including the Litra Torch.

The Litra Torch is an 800 Lumen, 1.5 by 1.5-inch magnetic light. I first started seeing the tiny light trend on Instagram where people were shooting slow shutter photos at night but also painting certain objects with a tiny bit of light. Check out Litra on Instagram: @litragear to see some of the incredible images people are producing with this tiny light. I saw an action sports person showing off some incredible nighttime pictures using the GoPro Hero. He mentioned in the post that he was using the Litra Torch, so I immediately contacted Litra, and here I am reviewing the light. Litra sent me the Litra Paparazzi Bundle, which retails for $129.99. The bundle includes the Litra Torch,  along with a filter kit and cold shoe mount.

So the Litra Torch has four modes, all accessible by clicking the button on top of the light: 800 Lumen brightness, 450 Lumens, 100 Lumens and flashing. The Torch has a consistent color temperature of 5700 kelvin, essentially the light is a crisp white — right in between blue and yellow. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery can be charged via the micro USB cable and will last up to 30 minutes or more depending on the brightness selected. With a backup battery attached you could be going for hours.

Over a month with intermittent use I only charged it once. One night I had to check out something under the hood of my car and used the Litra Torch to see what I was doing. It is very bright and when I placed the light onto the car I realized it was magnetic! Holy cow. Why doesn’t GoPro put magnets into their cameras for mounting! The Torch also has two ¼-20 camera screw mounts so you can mount them just about anywhere. The construction of the Torch is amazing — it is drop-proof, waterproof and made of a highly resilient aluminum. You can feel the high quality of the components the first time you touch the Torch.

In addition to the Torch itself, the cold shoe mount and diffuser, the Paparazzi Bundle comes with the photo filter kit. The photo filter kit comes with five frames to mount the color filters onto the Torch; three sets of Rosco Tungsten 4600k filters; three sets of Rosco Tungsten 3200k filters; 1 White Diffuser filter; and one each of a red, yellow and green color filter. Essentially, they give you a cheap way to change white balance temperatures and also some awesome color filters to play around with. I can really see the benefit of having at least two if not three of the Litra Torches in your bag with the filter sets; you can easily set up a properly lit product shoot or even a headshot session with nothing more than three tiny Torch lights.

Putting It To The Test
To test out the light in action I asked my son to set-up a Lego scene for me. One hour later I had some Lego models to help me out. I always love seeing people’s Lego scenes on Instagram so I figured this would also be a good way to show off the light and the extra color filters sent in the Paparazzi Bundle. One thing I discovered is that I would love to have a slide-in filter holder that is built onto the light; it would definitely help me avoid wasting time having to pop filters into frames.

All in all, this light is awesome. The only problem is I wish I had three so I could do a full three-point lighting setup. However, with some natural light and one Litra Torch I had enough to pull off some cool lighting. I really liked the Torch as a colored spotlight; you can get that blue or red shade on different objects in a scene quickly.

Summing Up
In the end, the Litra Torch is an amazing product. In the future I would really love to see multiple white balance temperatures built into the Torch without having to use photo filters. Also, a really exciting but probably expensive prospect of building a Bluetooth connection and multiple colors. Better yet, make this light a full-color-spectrum app-enabled light… oh wait, just recently they announced the Litra Pro on Kickstarter. You should definitely check that out as well with it’s advanced options and color profile.

I am spoiled by all of those at home lights, like the LIFX brand, that change to any color you want, so I’m greedy and want those in a sub-$100 light. But those are just wishes — the Litra Torch is a must-have for your toolkit in my opinion. From mounting it on top of my Canon DSLR using the cold shoe mount, to using the magnetic ability and mounting in unique places, as well as using the screw mount to attach to a tripod — the Litra Torch is a mind-melting game changer for anyone having to lug around a 100-pound light kit, which makes this new Kickstarter of the Litra Pro so enticing.

Check out their website for more info on the Torch and new Litra Pro, as well as a bunch of accessories. This is a must-have for any shooter looking to carry a tiny but powerful light anywhere, especially for summer and the outdoors!

Brady Betzel is an Emmy-nominated online editor at Margarita Mix in Hollywood, working on Life Below Zero and Cutthroat Kitchen. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @allbetzroff.