Lensgo Smoke S Mini Fog machine review

Now you may not have considered using a fog machine in your photography or videography and until I purchased the Lensgo Smoke S MINI neither had I! After testing it in a couple of shoots I’m now a convert thanks to its ability to add atmospheric smoke/fog to both model and toy photography set-ups. It’s smokin’!

Lensgo is a Chinese company founded in 2011. Although they mostly design and manufacture wireless microphone kits such as the Lensgo 348C 2.4G Wireless Lavalier Microphone System, they also produce smoke/fog machines such as the Lensgo Smoke B and the Lensgo Smoke S Hand-held Fog Machine. The model featured in this review is the Smoke S MINI, which as its name suggests is the smallest fog machine in the Lensgo range. But as some people say - size isn’t important, it's what you do with it that counts! And it will make a big difference to the look of your shoots as I discovered.

Lensgo Smoke S Mini: Specifications

Lensgo Smoke S Mini: Design & Handling

The Lensgo Smoke S MINI ships in a sturdy and attractive zippable carry case. The case is branded with the same orange color that adorns the Smoke S MINI itself. Black webbing inside the case keeps the Smoke S Mini’s many accessories in order and makes them easily accessible. The cylindrical metallic black body of the Smoke S Mini Fog Machine itself fits nicely into your palm as if you were clutching a small deodorant spray can. There are two buttons on the side - a slide-able On switch and a tap-able trigger button (that you need to double tap to make the device produce smoke.)

On the top of the cylinder is a plastic cap (which again reminds one of an aerosol can). Unclip the cap to remove a little black rubber flap so that you can pour the supplied oil (from a plastic bottle) into the fuel tank at the top of the device. The oil contains PG propylene glycol (which is found in some foods) and VG vegetable glycerin so it’s not toxic - which is just as well as a little oil does tend to leak onto the body of the metal canister. More oil bottles can be purchasable from Amazon, though in our tests we found that a little oil goes a long way.

Let's go back to the accessories. These are a collection of plastic tubes (and a foam filter) that change the texture and spread of the smoke produced by the Smoke S MINI, from a fine mist to billowing strands depending on your shoot’s creative requirements. More on these accessories in the Performance section (and make sure you check out our video of the Smoke S MINI in action).

Lensgo Smoke S Mini: Performance

When it comes to using a smoke/fog machine this was my first rodeo. As a keen toy photographer, I’ve enjoyed using LED lights such as the SmallRig RM01 mini LED Video Light Kit to add key, fill, and backlight to my 1/6th scale action figures. However, I noticed on Instagram that some of the other people’s more eye-catching toy photos featured mist and fog that helped give the shots depth as well as adding texture to their lighting. So I posed some of my action figures and then followed the instructions to fuel up the Smoke S MINI with its supplied oil.

I was a little nervous on my first use of the Smoke S MINI because I didn’t know what to expect. I closed my studio door and opened the windows to avoid triggering the smoke detectors (though the manufacturer claims that oil-based fog shouldn’t trigger an alarm). I attached the supplied hard straight tube accessory to the tip of the fog machine. This tube is designed to produce a high concentration of fog for portraits. I tentatively double-tapped the trigger and a generous burst of fog was emitted. I tapped again almost immediately to stop the emission and snapped away at my foggy toy photo subject. The device’s fog did indeed add texture, depth, and atmosphere to my toy photo setup - perhaps too much! I need to experiment with the black foam dry ice mode accessory to make the fog float lower around my toys.

My second S MINI fog machine test shoot was with a model (Insta: @runway.voguish) in my favorite location - London’s Barbican Centre. The shoot was designed to produce assets for my submissions to book cover stock site arcangel.com - check out this feature for more on that potential money-earning topic.

The theme of our test shoot was crime thrillers, so Maddy the model dressed as a detective. I was a little nervous at the thought of filling the corridors of the Barbican center with fog. I was also worried about having my book cover ‘detective’ wave a gun about in a public place, so I gave Maddy a small metal cage handle to pose with from my SmallRig All-In-One Kit for Smartphone.

My plan was to replace the prop ‘weapon’ in Adobe Photoshop 2024 with a plastic pistol that I picked up from Amazon for a tenner. Even though Maddy was clearly posing with a fake ‘gun’ I tried to keep her gun-waving to a minimum in case we triggered the appearance of an armed response team carrying real weapons. Once I got home I had to position my cheap plastic pistol to match her hand positions and light it with the same Harlowe Blade LEDS. I was relatively pleased with my gun ‘transplants’ so hope they make it onto a book cover one day.

To light the shoot I used two Harlowe Blade tube LEDs. I set the Bade 10 to emit an orange light while the smaller Blade 5 produced a teal color. This was designed to make my shots emulate the ubiquitous cyan and teal color grading that you see regularly in TV and movie dramas!

Once I was happy with the lighting on Maddy the model I popped the Lensgo Smoke S MINI in the foreground and used the supplied infrared remote to trigger a burst of fog via the attached hard tube accessory. This quickly filled the frame with atmospheric fog that caught the color of the Harlowe LEDS and added a cinematic look to my cop shot! I was then able to snap away with my iPhone 16 Pro for a few seconds until the fog dissipated. I was glad that the fog didn’t hang around for too long and it was a simple matter to generate some more when required via a tap on the remote.

I did encounter a couple of issues. Our shoot’s corridor location was open to the elements so occasionally the fog would drift in the wrong direction, requiring me to reposition the Smoke S MINI to try and take the wind direction into account. Fortunately, no smoke alarms were set off and the occasional passer-by seemed oblivious to the presence of myself, the model, two LEDs, and the output of the Smoke S MINI. However, once we stepped outside the corridor it was far too windy to use the fog machine (and this problem would apply to any fog machine!).

Another issue occurred when the fog was at its thickest and was floating between the model and my iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone’s Lidar sometimes got confused and the iPhone would focus on the fog instead of the model. This only occurred a couple of times and by and large, the automatic iPhone favored Maddy the model as the main point of focus.

Lensgo Smoke S Mini: Verdict

I loved using the Smoke S Mini both for toy and model shoots. Product photographers will also enjoy using the device to augment their studio shots. The smoke produced by the S Mini helped fill empty spaces and also added extra texture and atmosphere to my book cover pictures. The fog created by the S Mini picked up the colours from my location shoot’s Harlowe Blade LEDS which helped give my images a more cinematic look.

I was also impressed with how far a small portion of oil goes when it’s converted into smoke, so I’m not anxious about the supplied 60 ML bottle running out any time soon (and replacement 60 ML Lensgo ‘Fog Machine Fluid’ bottles can be purchased from Amazon). Talking of oil it can leak from the tank even when you attach the supplied orange plug to the nozzle, but it washes off your hands easily enough and is non-toxic. So if you want a more cinematic look for your photos or clips then this fog machine is a highly recommended way of achieving that.

Alternatives

Smoke Ninja This compact and portable smoke machine produces a bit more smoke than the Lensgo Smoke S Mini (and it operates for longer), though it does cost more than twice the price of the Lensgo model. The Ninja uses the same propylene glycol vegetable glycerin fuel as the Smoke S, but for added safety, it has a Coil Protection System that prevents the device from overheating thereby eliminating the chance of creating toxic chemicals.

TELESIN° C40 Portable Smoke Machine At 40W (compared to the Lensgo Smoke S Mini’s 15W) the C40 Portable Smoke Machine can fill a larger area and it has a similar collection of accessories to modify the type of smoke produced by the device (from floor-clinging dry ice to volumetric mist). It also has a remote control unit that you can detach and trigger smoke from 10 meters away. And despite its stronger power, it doesn’t cost much more than the Lensgo Smoke S MINI.