Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Excellent Artist Tool
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2017
For creatives, there are so many uses for a light box: animation, comics, tattoo tracing, quilting, photography, etc. Recently, I had a chance to review a light box offered by Huion: their A2 Light Pad.
On opening the box, you get the light pad, power adapter, instruction manual, and also a nice little clip to hold paper to the pad.
The Huion A2 Light Pad is beautifully designed. Made with acrylic panels and LED lighting, illumination is bright and even. The working surface is smooth and there are numbered scales on two sides for aligning what you're working on.
With a large 12.6 x 20.5 inch work surface, the Huion A2 Light Pad is the largest model Huion offers. Thin in construction and weighing just over 6 pounds, you can easily carry it wherever you need it.
The lighting on this unit, however, is the really incredible part. Once you plug in the power adapter, you see the red glow indicating power to the unit. And simply touching the power button, the pad instantly illuminates. Holding your finger on the button, you get a gradual increase in light intensity (and it really does this gradually, not in steps). Likewise, touching and holding again lowers it gradually.
According to Huion, the LED lamps can last up to 50,000 hours. The surface is comfortable to work on, and even with a few hours use at a time, I found it emits very little heat.
As I mentioned previously, there are many uses for a light box. For myself, I've had a great love for stop motion animation and it wasn't long ago I found sand on a light box creates some really unique looks and possibilities for animation. So, I played a bit with sand using the light pad and found it worked fantastic. However, used for this purpose, I would recommend placing something like a clear cover sheet or glass on top of the unit first, as sand could scratch the acrylic surface.
Whatever the use, I think this is an excellent product. It's light enough to carry wherever you need it, with even, controllable lighting, and is comfortable in use.
