Harlowe Blade 5 & 10 Bi-Color & RGB Tube Light Kit review

Harlowe is the rebranded name for Hobolite, a company that produces the most stylish and eye-catching LEDs on the market. I’ve reviewed a wide range of Hobolite LEDs for Digital Camera World such as the Hobolite Avant Max. All of the Hobolite LEDs share a stylish retro 1960s look courtesy of faux brown leather panels and silver metal surfaces. Indeed thanks to their box-shaped design (with a lens at the end) they are occasionally mistaken for retro cameras (such as an old Hasselblad) when I take them on a shoot. To acknowledge the re-brand I’ll now use the Harlowe instead of Hobolite for the rest of this review.

The Harlowe Blade breaks the mold by being the first tube light released by Harlowe. I was very keen to test the Blade (which comes in two sizes - the Blade 10 and the Blade 5) as I’m a big fan of tube lights due to their portability and the fact that they are fun to feature in a shot as well as illuminating it (anyone for a light saber duel?).

Harlowe Blade 5 & 10: Specifications

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The Harlowe Blade 5 & 10 Bi-Color & RGB Tube Light Kit is available for $399, though you can purchase the Blade 10 as an individual unit for $299, while the smaller Blade 5 costs $199. The LEDS have just come on sale on November 18 2024, and should appear in stores soon.

Harlowe Blade 5 & 10: Design & Handling

The Harlowe Blade 5 & 10 Bi-Color & RGB Tube Light Kit ships in a black cardboard box that’s embossed with pictures of the two tube LEDs that it contains - the 360mm (14.7 inch) Blade 10 and its little brother - the 16.4mm (6.46 inch) Blade 5. To place those sizes in context the Blade 10 is the same length as a MacBook Pro while the Blade 5 matches the length of an iPhone 15, so that gives you an idea of how compact and portable both Blade tube LEDs are.

Open the box and both Blade LED lights are stored in a supplied branded carry case. This robust case shares the look of other Harlowe LED carry cases, with a grey body, black zip, a Harlowe branded faux leather badge, and a faux leather handle. The attention to design and detail on the case is reflected in the kit’s contents. Despite being tube lights the two Blade LEDs share the brown faux leather panels found on Harlowe’s older camera-shaped LEDs. The rear of each Blade has a silver metal surface inlaid with a small color OLED panel which features the Harlowe logo. This panel enables you to see which color temperate or HSI setting you’ve dialed in for example.

Both Harlowe Blade lights in this kit are Bi-Colour, so you can dial in a color temperature in degrees Kelvin to complement other light sources in a location. Most Bi-Colour LEDs that I have tested have a color temperature range between warm candlelight (2500ºK) and cool daylight (7500ºK). Both Blades produce a much wider range between a warm 1700ºK and a much cooler 10000ºK. I don’t believe that I’ve encountered an LED that has a range as wide as this before (and I’ve tested and reviewed approximately 25 LEDs to date before testing the Harlowe Blades).

As well as being Bi-Colour LEDS both Blades have an RGB feature too. This enables you to use a control dial to make the Blade emit 36000 colors so you can change the mood of a scene in a creative way. The Blade 10 has two control dials - one for RGB and HSI (Hue, Saturation, and Intensity) and another for brightness. The shorter Blade 5 only has one control dial that you need to long press to change between RGB and HSI modes. At either end of the Blades are two magnets - more on that feature in the Performance section. There’s a 1/4” threaded hole on either end of each Blade which enables you to mount it on a stand or tripod for a hands-free shoot. There’s also a thread in the middle of each LED to mount it horizontally.

Both versions of the Blade can produce 8 animated lighting effects - Flash, Flame, TV Screen Light, Lighting, Pulse, Fireworks, Shutter, and Explosion. To access the animated Effects you have to long press the On/Off button on the Blade and use a dial to select the Effects menu. If you’re not careful you can easily turn the Blade off by mistake using a short press, which is a bit annoying.

The effects were much easier to select from my iPhone using the Hobolite app (which has yet to be updated to change its name to Harlowe.) The app also enables you to change properties such as Hue, Saturation, and Intensity (HSI) or color temperature by swiping and tapping the screen of your smartphone - and the Bluetooth connection stretches up to 20 meters away from the Blade LEDs. As you swipe to adjust a slider to control properties such as LED intensity you get a helpful haptic vibration as feedback from your smartphone. You can also control both the Blade 5 and the Blade 10 from the app which speeds up your shoot’s workflow. It’s also much easier to swipe on the app’s color wheel to choose a specific color than it is to rotate a physical dial on the LEDs. So a big thumbs up for the Hobolite app!

As well as the Blade 5 and Blade 10 tube lights, the carry case contains a range of accessories, including two magnetic barn doors that quickly attach to each Blade. Talking of magnets both Blades have a magnetically attachable rounded opaque frosted dome diffuser that creates a softer light source with less harsh shadows. These accessories are essential to help you shoot more flattering and eye-catching portraits.

Harlowe Blade 5 & 10: Performance

To test the Harlowe Blade 5 & 10 Bi-Color & RGB Tube Light Kit I took it with me to Scotland. My brother John Cairns has a WW2 Willys jeep (‘Rusty Gold’) with seat covers signed by over 400 WW2 veterans, so he was invited to star with his jeep in a photo shoot at Aero Leathers (https://www.aeroleatherclothing.com/). This Galashiels-based company created and supplied vintage leather jackets for movies and TV shows such as Apple’s ‘Masters of the Air’, so they wanted to shoot John wearing their RAF: Battle of Britain jacket sitting in his jeep in front of their premises.

On the day of the shoot, the shaded location was very gloomy, so I slipped the Harlowe Blade 10 out of its case and used its magnets to attach the tube light on the inside of the jeep’s metal window on the driver’s side. The Blade was slim enough to fit in a small space above the window but strong enough to add modeling light to John’s face. I had tweaked the Blade’s color temperature slider for a warm light source to help John stand out from his cold blue-shaded surroundings. The Blade’s magnetically attached barn doors enabled me to focus the output of the light on John’s face and the RAF jacket.

Without the Blade 10, the resulting photos could have looked very cold and flat-lit. While the magnetically attached Blade 10 was illuminating the jeep’s driver I popped the Harlowe Avant Max on a Harlowe tripod and used that to add a key light to the jeep itself. I’m confident that the presence of the two Harlowe LED lights elevated the quality of the shots captured by Dominick O'Donnell from Aero Leathers. You can check those out on the company’s Instagram feed - @aeroleatherclothing.

I also used the Harlowe Blade 10 when I shot the Jeep at sunset using my iPhone 16 Pro. Despite only having an output of 900 Lumens (that’s around 900 candles!) the Blade 10 kicked out enough light to bring out the color, texture, and detail on the jeep (when it would have been a silhouette without the presence of the Blade 10). I was surprised yet impressed with the Blade’s performance. I set it to a warm color temperature to complement the ‘Golden Hour’ colors of the setting sun. With the sun as a key light ,the Blade 10 made an effective fill light.

I finished off the Scottish leg of the Harlowe Blade 10 test with a video shoot of the jeep in motion. Once again I used the Blade 10’s magnets to attach it above the driver’s front window. I also used a Moment anti-glare CPL filter mounted on a Moment iPhone 16 pro case to the window’s reduce reflection glare so I could see John driving more clearly (see the Moment anti-glare CPL buying guide entry when I’ve written it!) Despite driving through some bumpy Scottish terrain the Blade 10 remained firmly attached to the jeep’s metal frame, which was a relief as the sturdily built tube LED is relatively heavy at 358G.

One criticism I’d like to make is that the battery indicator initially showed a red (low battery) warning when I first fired up the Blade 10 on my first shoot, despite the LED being charged overnight. Fortunately the icon updated itself to a full battery icon after a few minutes, so my fears that the shoot would be cut short were put to rest. At full power you should get one hour of illumination from the Blade 10, but my Scottish shoot’s duration was only 30 minutes and the Blade stayed shining throughout.

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For my second test shoot, I took both Blades to London’s Barbican center to shoot some crime genre stills for potential book covers. As I was using both LEDs in a public location (plus a smoke machine! - review to follow) – I was keen to work fast.

I used the Hobolite app on my iPhone to quickly dial in a teal color for the Blade 10 and an orange on the Blade 5 for a cinematic look. I was very impressed with the results. As well as adding a creatively colorful key and fill lights to the subject (Insta model runway.voguish) the Blades also pumped more light into a dark location, resulting in a better performance for my iPhone 16 Pro. I had multiple setups during the two-hour shoot and both Blades ran out of power towards the end of the second hour. But all in all, I was very impressed with their performance and will use them on my next creative shoot.

Harlowe Blade 5 & 10: Verdict

The Harlowe Blade 5 & 10 Bi-Color & RGB Tube Light Kit is compact and highly portable, so it should appeal to photographers and videographers who like to travel light. It certainly meets my needs as an iPhoneographer who enjoys shooting on location without bulky lighting gear drawing attention to me from zealous security guards.

The ability to magnetically attach both tube LEDs in this kit is especially useful if you want to shoot in vehicles as I did. It also gives you scope to attach it in locations where a tripod may not be viable (such as in a moving car).

Despite The Blade 10 having a relatively low output of 900 Lumens I was impressed by the strength of the light that it produced. The smaller Blade 5’s 400 Lumens was weaker than you’d expect, but its small size means it can be used in shot. It should also appeal to product (and toy) photographers who need to add different colors to their shots.

The price of this kit may put you off buying it, but it’s a luxury branded item. If you’re a fab of the Harlowe range then you’ll already know if you want to add the Harlowe Blade 5 & 10 Bi-Color & RGB Tube Light Kit to your collection. And if you need to save money you can buy the Blade 5 or Blade 10 separately.

Alternatives

Hobolite Avant Max Creator Kit If you want a powerful but portable light source for shooting portraits on location then the Harlowe Avant Max is well worth a look. An attachable battery pack means you’re free from being hard-wired to a studio’s mains supply and a series of magnetically attachable colored domes enable you to add creative colors to your subject. At 40W it’s stronger than the 10W Harlowe Blade, producing a striking 4000 Lux output. Due to its beautiful design, the Max is an expensive luxury item but it will certainly impress your model (or client) during a shoot.

Zhiyun Fiveray F100 If you need a more powerful light source than the 900 Lumens produced by the 10W Harlow Blade 10, then the Zhiyun Fiveray F100 will do the trick. The Zhiyun Fiveray F100 can reach a retina-searing 20708 Lumen thanks to its 100W output, though, unlike the Harlowe Blade, the F100 requires cooling fans along the length of the wand. Fortunately, these fans are quiet enough that they shouldn’t spoil a video recording. The F100 ships with a detachable set of barn doors so you can control the spread of light (as you can with the Harlow Blade 10). The F100 is a bi-color and RGB LED, so it can produce a wide range of creative colors and specific color temperatures.