SmallRig was showing its brand new RA-F150 Fresnel Lens at Interbee 2023 in Japan. The RA-F150 is a lightweight and compact Fresnel that features a zoom in/out design where you can simply rotate the focus button with one hand.
You can adjust the flood and spot of the Fresnel from 10° to 40°. SmallRig states that the Fresnel uses high-transparency, high-temperature-resistant borosilicate glass, which enhances the glass’s heat resistance and also improves the glass’s transparency and light transmittance. The size of the Fresnel element is 150mm.
The RA-F150 Fresnel Lens is said to also use a new heat dissipation technology where a heat dissipation fan together with heat dissipation holes, heat sinks, etc. allows for efficient heat dissipation. This is quite interesting and at least to my knowledge, this is the first Bowens S mount Fresnel I have ever seen with a fan.
The fan doesn’t run off any type of battery, instead, it receives a small amount of voltage that is generated via thermal heat. This small amount of voltage that is generated is enough to spin the fan. The Fresnel has temperature sensors and once one of those sensors reaches 25c the fan will be activated.
Now, SmallRig states that the RA-F150 Fresnel Lens can be used with just about any Bowens-S mount LED light that has a power draw under 600W. In my experience, Fresnels are usually designed specifically for certain fixtures based on their LED COB design. While the SmallRig Fresnel will certainly work on most lights it will be interesting to see how the performance of the Fresnel is affected. You need to be very careful when using Fresnels that were designed for certain lights on other fixtures because you can end up generating a lot of heat and damaging your light. This is why SmallRig has incorporated a fan.
The RA-F150 weighs 1.5kg and it has physical dimensions of 185 x 192 x 150mm.
The RA-F150 Fresnel Lens also works with SmallRig’s optional 8-leaf Barndoors.
Price & Availability
The SmallRig RA-F150 Fresnel Lens is now available to purchase for $119 USD.
