20 Best Portable Lighting Kit For Photography (2023 Updated)

I bought two of the Bi-Color 660s after checking out many on-line reviews. My purpose: to supplement indirect indoor lighting for live closed-circuit TV broadcasts to residents in the long-term care and assisted living community where I work.

During COVID, our programming for residents is now offered through the TV in their rooms. This includes exercise classes, musical performances, mindfulness meditations, worship, poetry readings, and yoga.

I’m assuming it will be a long time before we have live group activities in the chapel again. And because I’m not an A/V professional but am a chaplain who dabbles in tech, I need good equipment that I can learn and get better with.

Our chapel, where the cameras, switcher, and encoder are, has very soft, indirect light. Without additional lighting, I’ve had to boost the gain on the camera a little too high, resulting in grainy, poor quality video (the max resolution/fr I can broadcast internally is 720p/30).

While these lights have not turned me into a professional videographer, they’ve made the broadcast look a whole lot cleaner. With proper placement and the diffuser that came in the package, I now get more even lighting, better color, fewer shadows where they don’t belong, and no hotspots.

My only surprise was that I thought i ordered the lights with the remote and the LED screen on the back showing color temperature. That was my mistake. Apparently I read the wrong description. Noticing the price difference between what I actually ordered and what I thought I was ordering, I’ll just keep these and make the adjustments by eye.

I’ve compensated for the short power cord by strapping the power supplies to the light stands with hook and loop cable ties. The stands themselves are great, just a little stiff unfolding, but I assume that will resolve with daily setup and tear-town.

Documentation was somewhat incomplete for a beginner like me (for example, do I need two batteries on each light, or is one enough?), but I’m figuring it out. On the whole, I was pleased enough with these to order the smaller Neewer CN-216 lights for desktop use on videoconference calls.

We’ll see how those do when they arrive.

Things I like: 1. Feels sturdy 2. Easy to setup 3. Integrated lights 4. Quality Things I dislike: 1. Both backdrops (white and black) fit into the studio in an odd way. I like that they use magnets but they probably should be designed to fit completely.

The black is different to the white – size and anchor points! 2. The black backdrop is not black enough and it also is a dust magnet. Post processing required to remove all the dust. Use a lint roller but dust jumps back on.

3. It would be good if the black backdrop was made of the same material as the white one, which is a form of plastic rather than soft material 4. Probably should include a green backdrop as most of these things do.

I think I will be making a couple of more backdrops when I find time and some suitable medium.

Unlike the earliest Foldio version the new product has introduced a multitude of innovations. While the first version required a dangling 9-cell battery, Foldio2 Plus is powered by plugging into a common wall socket while allowing dimming functions.

It also provides a much larger area for photographing bigger objects. Also included are a pair of extra lights that can be placed in many positions for regulating the use of shadows. Another improvement is the stronger magnets that provide much more stability.

The white floor of the unit can get smudged from placing dusty objects upon its surface, and I know of no safe method to remove dirt stains without possible scratches or other damage. All together the Foldio 2 allows for a greater degree of professional object photography and at an affordable price.

Highly recommended.

This is a great light for the price. It truly is very bright, even when using the colored lights. I’ve lit up an entire room with just this one light with no issues. Very good quality LEDs, very versatile.

The included barn doors are of decent quality and don’t flap around or get loose. The biggest and most glaring issue with this light is the almost unacceptable low quality of the rear ball mount. It doesn’t get tight or sturdy at all.

It keeps the panel facing whatever direction you put it in, but literally blowing on the panel moves it. It’s not sturdy at all. In fact, I bought two of these, and BOTH of them broke at this mount point.

While I can concede that I may have gotten a couple of bad units, the actual ball mount part itself is really terribly designed. It doesn’t really allow for a rock solid, secure mounting. The part that connects the light to a c-stand or light stand is good; that is to say that once you attach it to something it’ll stay just fine.

That part is quite good, actually. It’s just the blue mounting part that is attached to the rear of the unit SUCKS. BAD. Oh, and the v-mount plate doesn’t seem to work too well with my Powerextra battery.

The locking mechanism doesn’t want to seem to engage unless I use extreme force to put the battery in place. I wonder how long that part of this panel will last with this much force being applied to it every time I need to power this thing without using the included (too short!) power cable.

Besides the horrible ball mount and faulty v-mount plate issues, this is a great option for budget filmmaking.

The light itself exceeds expectation. I ordered one and had it shipped to France. Sadly, it did not come with a European cord. It was shipped with a US plug. It’s not a huge deal since it comes with batteries but I would have preferred to have gotten one I can plug in without having to use a converter.

Secondly, the light sits VERY awkwardly on the stand. The mount on the light and the top of the tripod don’t fit together, at all. I had to balance it on top and just tighten the side screw as much as possible to just make sure it stays put.

Either it’s very poor design or there is a part that was supposed to come with the kit that didn’t make it. It does feel like there is something missing. Overall worth it.

I am a truly devoted fan of Lume Cube. I have been a repeat customer because the products have always been excellent. I’ve ordered the Ring Light off of Amazon after first making the mistake of cutting corners and buying a generic import version of a ring light.

My biggest concern has already been expressed by another customer here – that the stand-to-Ring-Light attachment point seems vulnerable to breaking given its made of plastic as opposed to metal. I also have a suggestion: at some point it would be great if a remote was included.

In the absence of that, a built-in Bluetooth connection for mobile phone apps would be terrific! I’m pretty sure something like a remote or an App will come along someday soon because Lume Cube is motivated to be the best of the best.

Customer Service is A++ I once had some issues with a set Lume Cube lighting mounts (for my drone). They promptly addressed my concern by replacing them. They ended up redesigning those mounts and they happened to think of me at the time – they sent me a set of the new ones out of nowhere.

Incredible! When they came up with a new design, they sent me a set of those.

This is a fantastic, bright light but all the parts are made up of plastic so be careful (as is mentioned in the instructions that you should be reading but no one reads these days) when attaching accessories to this light.

Almost everything is made up of plastic except the metal ball inside the ballhead. This light is meant to be used at a close distance (say 2ft – 6ft for best results). I love the fact that you can control the brightness and color of this light and the fact that this is a complete kit including the carrying and batteries for outdoor use when you do not have access to power outlets.

On top of it all, the kit comes with 2 battery chargers so that you can charge the dual batteries at the same time. A thing to note, if you look at the product pictures, the included stand folds upside rather than every other stand I have which folds down.

It is a neat design to reduce the size of the folded stand. You can notice that the legs of the stand have support arms attaching to the tube above it rather than going under it. This makes it a little difficult to open and close this stand but I would not change the design as I like the compactness of the stand when it is all folded to go into its bag for travel or storage.

Here are few things I wish to see improved: – The phone clamp is spring loaded and is not wide enough to hold wider phones. I tried to use this clamp on iPhone 8 Plus which had a silicon case around it.

It is very difficult to put this clamp around this phone. It feels like the clamp is going to break as it is reaching its max limit. It also puts too much pressure on the phone and I get nervous that it is definitely going to break my phone case and may even damage the phone.

* My solution to solve this problem was to buy JOBY GorillaPod Mobile Rig with B&H # JOJB01533 or MFR # JB01533. * Optionally you can get just the smartphone holder by buying JOBY GripTight Pro 2 Mount (Black/Charcoal) with B&H # JOJB01525 or MFR # JB01525.

* This smartphone mount is expensive but it allows you to adjust the grip tightness plus it gives you options to rotate from Horizontal to Vertical and in between positions. Keep in mind that it is best to use this mount with a ballhead which is provided with this light for complete freedom to adjust the angles and I love this flexibility or I should be saying my teenage daughter for which I bought this light and the smartphone adapter loves the flexibility for her TikTok videos.

The light is really bright and works well for its intended purpose. The phone holder barely opens wide enough to hold the phone in its case. The articulated arm is week and not very adjustable.

IšverstiShow in original languageReally Good product. great price. does the job just as anticipated. The light bulbs are huge. they are professional grade. can’t buy them in a regular store. my products are now professionally lit.

I can see the difference! Also, came very quickly and perfectly packed so nothing was damaged! The only thing I have to find a solution for is that the light stands are very lightweight, and I have to find a way to anchor them so that they don’t tip over if I should bump into them.

but this is not a defect. glad they are lightweight for traveling purposes. and speaking of which, kit also came with nylon travel cases if I want to fold them back up and transport them. Overall, I am thrilled that I finally spent the money!!.

IšverstiShow in original languageI was apprehensive when I ordered this lightkit, fearing for the price it might be low quality. It arrived today and I am very pleased. It was packaged very well. The tripods are easy to adjust and stand upright securely even with the large bulbs in them.

The 135 watt bulbs are exactly what I needed for my photography. I like that the white soft light cover velcro on and off quickly. The carry case is an added bonus if you move your set up. One thing I decided to do was keep the boxes and styrofoam for the bulbs in case I need to pack them up to move to another location.

I highly recommend this kit.

IšverstiShow in original languageBeing a new youtuber these are good for the price. they do feel slightly cheap, but have done the job. My only complaint is that in less then a month one fixture quit already.

I don’t use them heavily, but when I grabbed the stand to move it that’s when it quit. The bulb still works because I’ve switched it around with other fixtures and it works in the those fixtures. So I just got my second set in the mail and am using them.

I guess I have an extra bulb, stand, and hood, so all’s well.

My son wanted this for his YouTube videos that he makes. He loved the product. Just what he was looking for. I wanted to get him this for Christmas. I thought I waited too late to order and was going to tell him that he was going to get one but it would be after Christmas.

I didn’t have to tell him that. The company got this to me in plenty of time before Christmas. Nice!! Would definitely recommend the product and the company.

although I am not a professional photographer. actually far from it. The kit i purchased is more than adequate for my needs, and can only comment on your services and policies. Two of the three bulbs were no good and you only offered a 15% refund instead of replacements, furthermore I had to research where to purchase the replacement bulbs.

For this I am not sure if I would purchase from you again. however all other aspects of experience was very good. ease of placing order = 4. 5 processing and shipping of order = 5 packing = 4. 5 product =.

Exceptional price, and product is better than expected! I am a natural light photographer, but had a need for an indoor shoot…this lighting setup was ideal for what I needed.

This product was easy and quick to assemble. For the price, it’s great. LED lighting systems are so expensive and would be really nice space savers. This makes for a nice alternative, however. This doesn’t come with sandbags.

In case anyone else thought it did. haha. Also, the white covers that came to cover the boxes weren’t all made the same size. Only 1 of the 3 fit. They sent me a replacement of the entire order and then I need to return the other.

It’d be cheaper to just mail two white covers, but I’m sure that’s hard to orchestrate. They did it quickly and without charging me anything extra. I’ll add pictures to this when they send me working parts.

It was really easy to set up. The lighting on the products is excellent and has tremendously improved the quality of my photos. The quality is great for the price. This is a great selection, especially for beginners, because anyone can work with these.

Works good for intended purpose. Lightweight construction probably won’t stand up to any misuse. As long as you’re careful and don’t plan on traveling with, it performs, good value for the money, but not pro level quality.

It’s amazing how much solid construction can be packed into a small bag that could even easily fit in a large suitcase. This is not a flimsy lightbox like so many others I have set up. It provides brilliant, controllable light resulting in some fine phtoos.

There were two problems, one surmountable, the other not: Assembly instructions are terrible and markedly inadequate. I would gladly have paid an additional $0. 05 to add some pages to the tiny instruction pamphlet.

Fortunately, a couple YouTube videos helped circumvent the disappointing instructions. The other problem is the inadequate mechanism for holding the background roll in place. With everything else so solid, why should I have to use tape to help the supplied clamp hold onto the background.

That will make disassembly and reassembly a continuing problem. The manufacturers must have been aware of this and their having done nothing to rectify it is disappointing. Furthermore, the supplied black background is far too reflective resulting in a photograph showing a gray, not black background.

Otherwise, I’m happy with the purchase.

My husband bought me one of these so I could use this for our vlogs. We did store pick-up at the Flowood, MS store. Picked it up. Drove the hour home just to find out they sold us a used light that has broken and missing parts.

My question is is this a normal practice for the Flowood, MS store? We will be returning the light for another one, but buyer beware if you do store pick-up from this store. I mean you are selling a vlogging tool and did not think you would be called out? You are lucky I am not posting this on social media! The light ring itself worked.

It is bright enough for vlogging in a small room. It will work fine for someone starting out or if you need extra lighting.

For the price at the time of purchase, I expected this product to be built with integrity. The stand does not fully tighten thus its prone to slide down on certain surfaces. In addition the ring light joint angle does not remain stationary in a locked position.

My initial setup did not require much angulation therefore I did not come across this problem initially. I wish I had done a more thorough assessment because I would have returned this otherwise. Perhaps I received a faulty product just by unfortunate luck, however I cannot recommend this given my personal experience.

The light on this has been a joy to use! The luminosity and the color temperature adjustments are fantastic! The stand is too cheap and flimsy for my liking, so I mounted the light to a sturdier stand.

I wish the power pack was built into the light instead of halfway down the power cords. It’s often in the way and often comes unplugged. I wish say that for vloggers that might set this light up in one spot and use it over and over, it’s a great value.

Very controllable.

Used with Octa-M Rapid Switch, and FJ-X2m trigger on Nikon D850 and Z7. Light had nice build quality and I was happy with the exposed head in the soft box. The wireless trigger had poor build quality and the scroll wheel kept being unresponsive.

TTL exposure did not want to work between FJ400 and the cameras; each shot was adequately illuminated, but I couldn’t get flash to honor image exposure compensation or flash compensation. In manual mode, everything worked great.

Recycle times are phenomenal, although we didn’t push the flash too hard and only did indoor photography. Overall, I was happy, but the fussy trigger and the need to resort to manual mode kept this from being a keeper.

Its not often I work with videographers, and then not often its a fun experience, but one recently was and I picked up a new-for-me idea of using two of these lights for 1st dance to both assist in lighting the dancing Newlyweds, and their Guests, but also to aid with the common mirrorless problem of low-light focus (something most flashguns don’t help with as they did with DSLRs) So I bought a couple of these wee beauties and was immediately impressed with their small size and build quality.

I first used them on a new venue shoot for both portraits with my S-Bowens’ fit holders and modifiers, and for some food photography too. What immediately impressed too was they are more powerful than I had thought, meaning I ran them at 50% or less power, and that they last for HOURS before needing recharging.

They also remained completely cool and noise-free (noise not being a stills’ issue, but its nice anyway) Yesterday, I again used them for 1st dance, the original idea for their purchase, where they shone (pun intended), but also for some outdoor night-time portraits.

Here again the fact that they are a constant light source made for an easier & faster outdoor night-time shoot than my usual flash set-up as its so much easier to focus and refocus with zooming or moving position than flash is Overall then, and despite using them for only 3 shoots so far, I couldn’t be happier with them – hence the 5* review :).

I bought the SL60 before these and though I had no complaint with them; the ML60Bi is better in every way, Lighter, quieter, bicolor and can run on battery. The thing that really sold me is when using the optional Godox S2 Speedlite Bracket for Bowens I can switch out my AD300 with the ML60 without removing modifiers.

They basically share the same form factor (circumference). The only thing I would have liked to see is them working with the same remotes as the flashes. They have the mini Godox mount built in. I think the Godox mount is great but for now I mostly use the Godox S2 adapters.

I LOVE these lights. There is a caveat to this, though. For context, I am a twitch streamer who was looking to get serious about the production value of my stream, and that meant having a static, properly colour balanced two point light setup.

I WAS just using my room’s yellow overhead lamp and my desk lamp to do chroma keying, and had to make some terrible adjustments for the chroma key to work. These lights and their stands manage to be surprisingly maneuverable and compact, even though they sport the umbrellas, and while I don’t know if I’d trust their sturdiness taking them out and about, they are PERFECT for an office setup, where they’ll largely be static.

The bulbs are the perfect colour, incredible compact, and run VERY cool, but. THE BULBS HAVE FANS INSIDE OF THEM. THIS is what people are talking about when they comment about a whine from the bulbs; there is a very small fan in each bulb that keeps the LEDs from overheating the circuitry (even though relatively speaking to other bulbs they’re incredibly cool even after hours of use).

The problem is that the fans are very small, and so have to spin at relatively high speeds to accomplish any real cooling. I did not see any way to open and replace these fans, and wouldn’t trust myself to; besides, there would be no alternatives at that size anyways.

I use an AT2020USB microphone, and honestly just turned down the gain on my mic. Keeping oneself positioned properly with their microphone will mean that turning down gain almost eliminates room noise while maintaining great audio, but be warned; you DO NOT want to purchase these for shooting films.

These will be a nightmare to your editors. unless you like redubbing literally every shot these are used for in post.

I was looking for an on-camera light to shoot event video such as weddings and parties at night with my BMPCC 6K PRO. People don’t like lights that are too bright at events. The Ikan Mylo MB4-TK is a perfect match.

The light provides enough and wide output for night events. It allows me to adjust the color temperature to match the temperature of available lights at the location, resulting in images that look natural.

Thumbs up.

To start off, this product is a solid device, and I would recommend it for anyone looking for some lighting for photography or anything close to it. I am going to break this product down into three aspects: build quality, brightness, and controls.

Build Quality: This is a solid device and feels like it too. It’s made of nice feeling metal, and it is sturdy as if it could survive quiet a few drops. The buttons on the side of the device do feel good, but they do seem a little loose.

It is not that noticeable and would not really effect the function of the device. On the device there is a little LCD screen showing the information you need to change colors, what function you’re using, and what brightness level you’re on.

The screen is small, but it is simple to use and I have never had a problem with it. Brightness: Now I know that this light is suppose to be bright, but I don’t think I have ever had a light this bright.

This light brightens my entire room it is that bright. Another feature that I like is that it is RGB. Now I would usually want to use a white light, but there are times where I would want to use other lights for different scenes for pictures or streaming.

Controls: The controls are pretty straight forward. They do take some getting use to, but it reminds me of the old MP3 players that had those single toggles. Like I said they feel good, but they do seem to be a little loose.

Or at least that’s the case of my unit. Not that big of a deal for me though. I still love it. Navigating through the menus is a little tedious, however. When changing colors you have to navigate to the feature you want to use for it, and then you have to hold down the button until you get the color that you want.

It’s a small thing, but if you want to change the color on the fly there is no preset feature that would help you with doing so. Overall this device is great. The build quality is great, the brightness is bright enough to blind me, and the controls are good enough to get the job done.

I don’t think anyone would have a problem with this device.

I was a bit skeptical about this initially as there are many lights to choose from. After getting this, I have found it to have adjustable – White, Red, Green, Blue hues for all types of lighting needs.

Several different “Flash” functions available. You can simulate the lighting of “Police Cars” for videos which was great for reporting and other uses. It can simulate “Strobe” lights, short Flash bursts.

It can generate general lighting conditions with adjustable background colors – hues, intensity etc. Overall I give this an excellent rating due to the numerous adjustable settings and pre-programed functions available.

This LED light panel worked exactly as described. Read the directions carefully as there are a ton of settings. And that is a good thing! There are options to use it a myriad of ways. Good color, brightness control, ease of use are all features that come to mind.

The small digital display was a great feature as well. It is not large! If you are expecting something huge or that will be able to operate in a larger space this isn’t it. But it does what it says, appears well built, and should stand up to fairly heavy use.

It does also have a tripod mount for various options. Great overall product for the price.