El Cheapo Ring Light, my experience with one.

[David G. Smith]

I had picked up a real inexpensive battery powered ring light and shot with it recently. I thought I would share my thoughts with using it. I only used it for photos, but I do want to use it for video.

The light that I got was the NEEWER® Macro Ring 48 LED Light.



http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER%C2%AE-Macro-Ring-LED-Light/dp/B0031AQ302/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1363551689&sr=1-2&keywords=NEEWER+48+LED+Ring+Light

It is powered by two AA batteries and I used it with the the 58mm lens mount ring on the 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 kit lens with my T2i. The lens mounting rings are metal and it came with six of them (49mm/52mm/55mm/58mm/62mm/67mm). Their construction is pretty solid and the 58mm ring fit on the lens with no issues. The light it self is all plastic, and kind of flimsy, about what you would expect for a $40.00 light. All in all, I like the light and plan on keeping it on my T2i from now on. I can;t stand the on camera flash, and this ring light is pretty good to replace it in many instances.

Here are some of the shots I took with it.

Here is a snap shot, taken in very low light conditions, of the producers of the gig I was doing.

Original shot:



and here is the shot with a little increase in exposure in post.




Shot, without the ring light:



Shot with the ring light:



I did find out that at the wide end, about 24mm or wider on the T21 you can see the ring light in the shots. Of course you can crop it out on a still.



Here is one of my favorite shots with the light:



All in all I like the light and for the price, it is another handy little tool to have around.

Thank you.

 

[OldCorpse]

Wow, that's not bad. I have this: F&V R-300 which is a couple more bucks, but opens some possibilities. I'm of two minds here. Your light does the job and does it well, and that's what counts. But then again, is it worth it to pay more - but not that much more - to open up more possibilites? I mean, if it was, like $400 or something, I'd say "pass", but it's still relatively little all things considered. My consideration is the following - I want to have as few pieces of gear as possible, but the ones I have should be highly functional and versatile. I reached this conclusion from years of buying gear that'll "just do", but then I end up with a garage full of marginal stuff, lights, grip gear, lenses whatever. So my question would be - do I want that light for $40, which will definitely do the job, but which will be limited beyond that, and I'll need another light if I want more... and that way I end up with two lights instead of just biting the bullet and buying one to begin with that covers more jobs... again, of course, within reason - I mean, $40 vs $199 is doable, though perhaps not $40 vs $400. So I'm torn. Do I want to buy yet another light to add to my collection of tons of lights... I'm gonna drown .

But thanks for the report - your photos speak for themselves, it's decent piece of gear and does the job at minimal price. One thing I like about these lights is that they take ordinary AA batteries. Always good to have options!

 

[David G. Smith]

Wow, that's not bad. I have this: F&V R-300 which is a couple more bucks, but opens some possibilities. I'm of two minds here. Your light does the job and does it well, and that's what counts. But then again, is it worth it to pay more - but not that much more - to open up more possibilites? I mean, if it was, like $400 or something, I'd say "pass", but it's still relatively little all things considered. My consideration is the following - I want to have as few pieces of gear as possible, but the ones I have should be highly functional and versatile. I reached this conclusion from years of buying gear that'll "just do", but then I end up with a garage full of marginal stuff, lights, grip gear, lenses whatever. So my question would be - do I want that light for $40, which will definitely do the job, but which will be limited beyond that, and I'll need another light if I want more... and that way I end up with two lights instead of just biting the bullet and buying one to begin with that covers more jobs... again, of course, within reason - I mean, $40 vs $199 is doable, though perhaps not $40 vs $400. So I'm torn. Do I want to buy yet another light to add to my collection of tons of lights... I'm gonna drown .

But thanks for the report - your photos speak for themselves, it's decent piece of gear and does the job at minimal price. One thing I like about these lights is that they take ordinary AA batteries. Always good to have options!

I understand, it is a conundrum. What you say about gear is correct. I have taken that philosophy, more or less, for the gear I am now buying for my video shoots. Like I am now buying Matthew stands and have sworn off the cheap stuff and I just bought a Mole Midget and so one. I had this light for a while actually and this is the first time I used it on a real gig. I really like the light you posted, but right now, there is other stuff I need more (Like a pro on camera monitor) and the difference between $40.00 and $199.99 for a ring light makes a difference. I also know that there are more than a few folks here that really can't swing that kind of difference also and I thought I would post this as an FYI. I am bookmarking the light you posted for sure. That looks like a winner. Thanks.

 

[OldCorpse]

Oh, I totally hear you. Btw., if you decide on the on camera monitor - let me know... I'd love to get one, but I just can't seem to be able to decide on which one is best... so I'd really appreciated your views.

 

[David G. Smith]

Oh, I totally hear you. Btw., if you decide on the on camera monitor - let me know... I'd love to get one, but I just can't seem to be able to decide on which one is best... so I'd really appreciated your views.

I am shooting with an FS-100, and I really want to get something with a WFM. I like working down at the bottom end, light wise (See the above shot without the ring light, that was my video lighting), but sometimes I go too far. The histogram on the FS-100 and my trusty Sekonics L-398A work for me most of the time, but I have mis-judged some stuff that I think having a WFM would have kept me from doing. The video stuff I shot for the above shoot turned out great (Can't post any until the edit is done) So I am going to get a pro monitor but it is going to be a few months probably... got car issues to deal with...YIKES. I am sure I will post something about it for sure. Thanks.

Thanks.

 

[OldCorpse]

I'm looking forward to your thoughts (and speaking of cars, I'm trying to figure out how to cheaply buy some kind of van/truck to haul gear... would be very helpful for the project I'm going to be doing... Ford? Nissan? Toyota? which? doesn't have to look good, just haul stuff).

 

[homestar_kevin]

I've been vaguely interested in these for awhile.

Great to see someone's experience with one.

How blinding is it to the people your shooting?

Is the brightness adjustable?

Definitely seems worth it just to mess around with for the price.

I'm still very much in the fill my garage with gear stage of my shooting life :thumbsup:

 

[David G. Smith]

I've been vaguely interested in these for awhile.

Great to see someone's experience with one.

How blinding is it to the people your shooting?

Is the brightness adjustable?

Definitely seems worth it just to mess around with for the price.

I'm still very much in the fill my garage with gear stage of my shooting life :thumbsup:

The light is not so bright as to be blinding to the subjects and the only intensity adjustment is a switch that cuts on half of the light, then the full light. I would be very wary of dimmers on LED lights this inexpensive as they probably would introduce flicker. If I really got into a situation where I needed to knock the light down a stop or so, I would cut a piece of ND gel to fit the light and attach it. That would be for video use, which I really haven't tried yet. For stills, adjusting exposure with aperture, ISO and shutter speed kind of makes it easier dealing with the limited intensity control on the light.

Oh yeah, the fill the garage with gear stage... The thing is that these inexpensive lights are OK to have and use as specialty items, but I tried to build my core kit out of cheap lights and gear, and that is not the way to go.

 

[homestar_kevin]

Yeah, definitely worth the 40 bucks to have around for the few times you do need it.

My frame of reference/comparison for these are the similar shoe mounted 160 LED lights with dimmers.

The half options seem pretty interesting and the shots look great.

Might have to pick one of these up....




Yeah, I've avoided most cheap gear, but am a champion of a select few things, like Colortran fixtures and some cowboy studios knock off kino's