Ulanzi LED Video Light – Budget Light for all
Hello there! This is the review of a very special LED video light buy Ulanzi.
I have been using it for a while now, and here’s my honest review of it. Hopefully, it can help you decide, whether or not, it’s worth your money
So, when you buy one of these, this is what you get
Inside the box is a pack of colour films or gels, a micro USB cable for charging, no type C here, and the light itself in this nice carrying pouch. I went with the package the includes rechargeable batteries, but more on that later. We also get a user manual, which everyone should definitely read.
The light with both filters weighs in about 120g, which is super light to travel with.
If you have the LED lights facing you, then we have the power switch on the top, the brightness control dial on the right, the micro USB port, the hotshoe mount and ¼” screw at the bottom, and finally, at the back is a mini LED indicator and the battery compartment.
At the front are the LEDs, 96 of them to be exact. 12 horizontally and 8 vertically.
For the specifications, we’re looking at
- a luminance angle of 120 degrees view
- a colour temperature of 3200K or 5500K
- an output power of 11W
- an average service life of 50,000 hours
Turning the lights on is as simple as flicking the power switch to the side. I for on and O for off, I think it’s actually 1 and 0, but it looks like and I and O to me here. Then controlling the brightness level with the dial on the right on the device. Up for more intensity and down for less. We know what I mean.
The colour films come in red, mauve, purple, orange, blue and then, green. Each separated neatly with a white film. I think this is so, because since they are all plastics, heat may make 1 colour leak into the other if they aren’t separated.
Take note though, that you may not get these films if you opt for the lesser combinations of the same item on the Ali Express site.
Since this unit is not RGB, the films make it easier to switch between colours. And if you’re so good with colours, we can mix up a few of the gels to get other colours not initially included.
Like if you use the yellow filter, you get a warm look, but then, if you put a blue film on top, you get a white look. Or better still, just save yourself the trouble and take everything off.
The battery is a BP-4L lithium ion battery with a 2500mAh capacity. For my Ghanaian guys still using those old techno devices will have similar batteries lying around at home. But if your unit doesn’t come with this battery, don’t worry, you can easily power it up with any 4 AA batteries or even power it directly via a USB cable. Of course, the USB cable has to be connected to power of some sort. A power brick to a wall outlet is cool and so is a power bank.
I noticed that, the LED indicator at the back only lights up when you’re connected via USB. It turns green when you have the lithium battery installed and charging, and red when charging is complete. And when powering directly with no batteries in place, it stays at red.
Note that, they stronger advice NOT to power the light via USB and only do so when you have the compatible lithium battery already installed. They say, it’ll affect the service life of the light. I’m no scientist so I guess, I’ll take their word for it.
The included, white and yellow filters are super easy to install. Like literally, all you have to do is bring them closer to the light and they snap into place with these 4 magnets on either sides.
The magnets are strong enough to hold them in place, and I doubt they’ll fall out anytime. And since they’re placed on both sides of the device, switching the filters are a lot easier as well.
Why did I get this?
I have been using flood lights to light up my background ever since I started recording videos for YouTube, and although the wardrobe is gone, I didn’t want to rely on them anymore. They are super bright at 25W and there’s no way to turn the power down. Unless I put a black plastic sheet on top.
So, I needed a light that I can control the colours and most importantly, the brightness. And that’s where this comes in.
They’re small and compact, so easy to carry around
The 1/4” screw and hotshoe mount at the bottom allows you to place this virtually anywhere. On a tripod, on your camera, on a lightstand, a microphone stand, selfie stick. I’m not so sure about the last one though.
Another thing is, if you are a photographer or videographer and you want to change the mood of the scene, this is an easy way to do that as well.
But most importantly, if you do event photography, at some point, there will be night events with some terrible, terrible lighting. And some would even have no ceiling to bounce your camera flash on. That is when having one of these will be super helpful. If you’re close enough to your subjects, you may not even have to use your speedlite.
That is what happened to me last weekend on a wedding shoot with PDY. It wasn’t easy. My camera could see nothing.
The only thing I don’t like so much about this is that, it isn’t RGB. But everything besides that, checks out OK with me.
So for GHc 90, excluding shipping, I highly recommend this. You see that light in the background over my shoulder? Hihi, I like it so much that I bought 2.
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