Anyone use this ring light before? Stellar 18"

M

mikemiho

Member
Our company does a lot of "webcam/skype style" content for some of our shows. Basically, we fake a skype call to make it look like people are video chatting together.

I typically put up a single Kino Diva, but we're looking at the ring light in the link below. It's a full thousand bucks cheaper than a Diva, so we're probably going to get a few. Just putting it out there if anyone has any thoughts. I've never used ring lights before, so open to any shooting cautions or ideas as well.

They sell these at EVS and Samy's so at least initial thoughts are that they are legit.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ms_CEL_R18C_CEL_R18C_18_Fluorescent_Ring.html

The Stellar website is apparently "down for maintenance" but here is the generic company link in case it comes back up in the next day or so.

http://www.stellarlightingsystems.com/
 
I haven't, but it looks tasty!

I bet you could find it cheaper. Stellar rebrands a lot of overseas equipment like LEDs etc.

Amazon search for the size of the ring light, some specs, and you might find it for even less.
 
We bought one for testing. We were pretty impressed with the amount of light it throws off. The dimmer works but takes about 5 full seconds to "cool" down to the appropriate brightness. Meaning, when I dial it down to 50% and take my hand off the dimmer, the light continues to dim a bit. Not a big deal as I can recorrect and dial it back up if needed. Once it settles though it is constant.

Let me know if you have any questions about it. The "camera mount" is about at worthwhile as a punch in the arm though. We'll be putting the ring on a cstand and positioning sticks behind it to shoot through.
 
Thanks for the feedback mikemiho. Kholi, while there's about a $100 difference between the B&H Stellar and the Amazon light you found, there are some differences - at the very least there's a dimmer on the Stellars (plus an extra bulb), and the Stellar ring is substantially larger diameter - I'm not clear on if they are equivalent in lumens output, but you have to decide if the differences, such as they are, are worth paying the extra $100 for, depending on how you use it, it may or may not be worth it.
 
I have the Stellar Diva ring light and it works pretty nicely. Construction is fragile and how it mounts is pretty bad. The gooseneck sucks. But the quality of the light is surprisingly decent and actually pretty close to daylight. I haven't noticed any flickering at regular shutter speeds but it does start to subtlety band like an old TV at around 180th/sec and above. I guess it has iffy ballast. It does put out a surprising amount of light. I've noticed that you can buy a similar light on eBay and Amazon in three different wattages. The Stellar looks similar to the 500 version sold by Ardinbir Studio.
 
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