Introduction

Elgato Key Light Air review
A bit of air Illuminati for streamers?

This round we’re checking out the Elgato KEY LIGHT AIR. The manufacturer, a German company that has seen ownership by Corsair for over two years now, and its products are dedicated mainly to streamers, YouTubers, reviewers, or people doing live video feeds.

The Key Light Air is a light (well yes, doh!) intended to be placed in front of the person shown in a video and should make your videos and feeds look more professional by improving the lighting of the scene. If you’re a content creator and use a camera, you probably need some good lighting. Overall, this new product is quite similar to Elgato's original Key Light, but the Air version is more compact and portable. It also has some features that the bigger Key Light lacked. One of the examples is a groove on the back of the pole to hide the power cord in. This is a nice cable management solution, and it makes the setup look better as a whole. In other news, the maximum output is now 1400 lumens, instead of 2800. It seems good enough, so you shouldn’t worry. The surface area is about 50% smaller than that of the original Key Light. Another difference is the height adjustment range. For the Key Light Air, it’s between 60 and 88 cm, whereas the original Key Light’s height could be adjusted between 55 and 125 cm. The next major change is the mounting system:  the reviewed unit uses a weighted base, whereas it’s “bigger brother” can be mounted to your desk with a clamp.

	KEY LIGHT AIR	KEY LIGHT
LIGHTING METHOD	Edge-Lit LED	Edge-Lit LED
MAXIMUM BRIGHTNESS	1400 Lumens	2800 Lumens
COLOR TEMPERATURE	2900 - 7000 K	2900 - 7000 K
PANEL SURFACE AREA	ca. 300 cm² / 46.5 in²	ca. 600 cm² / 93 in²
MAXIMUM HEIGHT	88 cm / 34.65 in	125 cm / 49 in
MOUNTING SYSTEM	Weighted Base	Desk Clamp
CHROMA KEY PERFORMANCE	Moderate	Perfect
3D SWIVEL BALL HEAD	V	V
WI-FI ENABLED	V	V
MULTI-LAYER DIFFUSION	V	V
WORKS WITH STREAM DECK	V	V
MULTI MOUNT COMPATIBLE	V	V

You get here forty warm OSRAM LEDs plus forty cold to enable full-spectrum white. The design has been awarded the Red Dot 2020 prize. The price is 129.99 USD, but you have to keep in mind that you’ll need to use two units to achieve the best result, so the accumulated cost certainly is not low.