Thanks to Logitech, I got a chance to test Logitech Litra Beam light. This is a LED light with a desktop mount, that you can connect to your PC or just to USB power source – and use your computer with Bluetooth to control the light. Litra Beam is part of Creator’s series, but I found it very usable for information worker at home office.
Tech Details
Litra Beam Light
Height: 400 mm
Width: 30 mm
Depth: 30 mm
Weight: 185 g
Arm
Extended: 61.5 cm
Collapsed: 37 cm
Weight: 236 g
Base
Diameter: 150 mm
Height: 16 mm
Weight: 657 g
Cable
Length: 1.5 m USB-C to USB-A cable
In short, this is not a portable light but something you have on your desk. It can produce 400 lumen, but keep in the mind that then your USB must be able to power 5V 1.4A for maximum brightness.
Power USB 3.1 Gen 2 port or 5V 1.4A for max brightness
First I connected Litra Beam to my monitor’s USB and I was capped at 59% brightness. When I put it to LogiDock USB (marked with power sign) I was able to use Litra Beam with full brightness.
For more info, please check out Logitech site for Litra Beam. There are great info and pictures, when you scroll down the page, to give you good insight how you can use Litra Beam.
My Experiences
At first I was skeptical (read my Litra Glow article) if this light would do any good on my use, since I have twin Elgato Key Lights on my desk already. However, as you can see in the pictures my mind changes over this quite rapidly when I tested Beam.
I used Surface Laptop Studio Front camera. I had only room ceiling light on for the reference picture.
Setup: Litra Beam vertically positioned on my right (about 1 o’clock ).
Yes, the result is ok but could use more light. Next, I activated Litra Beam, with about 40% light power
Now it was much better, but could still use more light. The next one is with 59% light power.
It does look quite good with just the ceiling light and Litra Beam. Onward! I turned on my Elgato Key lights (twin) on and had Litra Beam Off.
There are indeed some shades on my eyes and face, since Key lights are pointing from the higher position. Then I turned on Litra Beam on top of Key lights.
The result is very good one. I just recently used this setup in my webinar. I had ceiling light off and just used key lights and Litra Beam to get good lighting. Of course I didn’t record how much power I had on Key lights (they can give quite a lot) but it is always a balance with the amount of light and shadows.
You can use Litra Beam via LogiTune or Logitech G Hub. G Hub gives you controls for brightness and tuning light color, while LogiTune only allows turning it on or off.
Great light for my home office
I have to say that Litra Beam exceeded my expectations. It has enough brightness that sometimes I just use that for lighting during meetings – this really depends since my key lights are just my Stream Deck’s distance away. I did test using it as the solo light and the result was really good. It is stylish light and you can pivot the light on the desk mount in variable ways – either use it vertical, horizontal or at the angle. I found it to be quite versatile – as these Logitech pictures demonstrate.
For it’s price ($99) I think it is not a bad deal. It looks great on the desktop and is well built. Since it has internal diffusors and you can adjust the light tone, it can be used both easily and has flex on adjusting different situations. 400 lumens isn’t a huge amount of light, but in your desk it can make a big difference between badly and well lit video meeting.
Litra Beam softens the light, from key lights, on my face and also gives more vividness to eyes with light sparkles. It looks like that I will start using both Key Lights AND Litra Beam on my presentations from now on. Light matters – and even more inexpensive web cams provide a good quality video with good enough lighting.
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