LED macro ring lights- comments?

[John Chardine]

Hi all- Could anyone provide some feedback on the many LED macro ring lights that are out there. They are much cheaper than a dedicated flash such as Canon's ring light but if they work I may give one a try. What I've been wondering about are things like colour of light from them, control of intensity, evenness of light, battery consumption etc. Any comments would be appreciated.

[Randy Stout]

John:

I haven't looked at ring lights specifically, but did look at the LED video panels with the thought of using them for fill while doing butterflies in a dark conservatory. They simply didn't put out enough light to be useful for me. I have the R1C1 Nikon macro flash system, which works very well, but was interested in trying the panels to provide fill behind the butterflies so the background didn't go black, but in my limited testing, at the small apertures I was using, the LED panels were worthless.

Hopefully others can give a more specific answer to your question. I am still interested, and will revisit the subject as advancements are made.

I even tried a couple of very powerful LED flashlights with a light diffuser, still not enough light.

Cheers

Randy

[John Chardine]

Thanks Randy. I imagine that at the short distances a ring like works, the amount of light from them is not an issue.