It happened more than once to me that high expectations led to disappointment when unboxing new gear. Not only because it seemed like a great tool, but mainly because of the fact that I was expecting it to be way for me to discover lightpainting. It had been quite some time since I had been following the Kickstarter project and therefore my expectations of the unit were rather high. I have to say I was quite excited when I received the Pixelstick. Fortunately Bitbanger Labs, the creators of the Pixelstick honoured our request to send us a sample so we could write this review. All this sounds very exciting, but the big question is always how well will it work in practice. It enables people like me, who have little to no experience with lightpainting to make amazing pictures because the Pixelstick takes care of a large part of the work, leaving you with the possibility to focus yourself with the creative part. What is unique about the Pixelstick is that it is one of the first “high-tech” tools for lightpainting photography. This means that you can use any image and ‘print’ it in mid-air during your long exposures. What is special about the Pixelstick is that it is not limited to a few pre-set patterns for the LEDs, but instead reads files from an inserted SD card. By hooking the RGB LED strip to a controller that alternates the colour and brightness of the LEDs it is possible to change the effect the light has on the final image. If you haven’t heard about the Pixelstick, it is a multicolour LED strip that can be used to leave a trail of light on your long-exposure photographs. It not only seemed like a great photography tool, but also like a cool high-tech gadget.

Personally, I am not much of a light-painter, but this Pixelstick really intrigued me. I have followed the project from day 2, to see if they would make it and how the final product would look. More than one year ago the Pixelstick was announced through a Kickstarter project.

Pixelstick portrait