Aputure Electro Storm Series (IBC 2023)

During IBC 2023 we had a chance to talk to Brandon Lee from Aputure about the upcoming high-professional Electro Storm Series and its accessories.

Aputure Electro Storm Series

First announced back in CineGear 2023 Aputure announced two lights from its new Electro Storm Series as well as two accessories.

The first is the Aputure Electro Storm CS15 RGB LED Monolight, a high-powered 1500W COB with full RGB (with over 90% of colors within the Rec. 2020 color space) and a 2000-10,000K CCT range. The light has all the main connectivity options including Sidus Link app control, LumenRadio CRMX, Art-net & sACN via etherCON, and 16-bit DMX512.

To cool this beast Aputure included a unique Liquid Cooling Technology (something we usually associate with high-end computers these days). The light uses a hybrid mount with both Bowens Mount and the new proprietary Aputure electronic A-Mount (which uses pins to communicate with attached accessories).

The second light in the Electro Storm Series is the XT26. This monster COB can output up to 2600W and is a Bi-Color LED Monolight with a 2700-6500K CCT temperature range. Other features are fairly similar to the CS15.

Both have full weather resistance for both the head and control unit (which comes with its own push cart in the case of the XT26).

Electro Storm accessories

As mentioned above both lights use the A-mount and hence can communicate with attached accessories. One such accessory is the Aputure F14 Fresnel, a high-output electronic modifier. The F14 Utilizes the A-Mount and built-in motors to adjust the Fresnel’s 18° to 40° beam angle range and can be controlled with both Sidus Link and DMX.

The XT26 with the F14 Fresnel at IBC 2023

The second accessory is a compact robotic yoke for the CS15 and XT26 with smooth, remote operation of 360º pan and tilt adjustments.

Pricing and availability

At the moment there is still no pricing and availability for the Electro Storm series COBs (although B&H already has them on its site).

Make sure you don’t miss any of our IBC 2023 videos and articles on our special show coverage page.

Special thanks to our sponsors for IBC 2023: SmallRig, Ulanzi, Godox, Zhiyun.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.