Posted on by Terry White

LED Light Panel for Video

 I find myself using my Canon VIXIA HF10 more and more. My friend Bruce turned me on to this "cool" LED light panel for video.

R-50

The R-50 LED Video Light Panel

This thing is perfect for my camera. It runs off 4 AA batteries. It’s small enough for travel and EXTREMELY BRIGHT! I was blown away by the amount of light this thing puts out. You get everything you need to make it work except the batteries. The kit includes:

 

  • 24 LED Light Panel
  • Shoe Mount
  • Tungsten, Diffusion and Warming Filter

fv_r-50kit

Although this panel is designed to set right in your hotshoe mount, you can also mount it on a standard light stand (with the appropriate adapter) or tripod! That gives you much more flexibility for positioning the light. I mentioned that it’s extremely bright. There is a brightness control on the back. However, due to the brightness of it, you may want to take advantage of the ability to mount it on a tripod/stand so that it’s not blinding your subject.

 

There was one problem

Canon in their infinite wisdom decided to forgo the standard hotshoe size on their VIXIA HF10 camcorder in favor of their own "S" Mini mount. Argggghhhh! Luckily there was an easy fix for this. I bough this bracket which allowed me to mount the light on a standard shoe and it gives me a slightly better position for the light itself as well as a more substantial way of holding the whole rig.

sigmabracket

 

Here’s a picture of my setup

videolightsetup

The Bottom Line

It’s hard to go wrong with LED lights. They are very bright, put out little to no heat, small and compact and draw very little power. The R-50 goes for $189 here.

 

8 Replies to “LED Light Panel for Video”

  2. LED lights are great for video. In another life I was doing video for events. I swore by a company called VidLED. Made a bullet proof product that was super easy to use.

  3. Couldn’t you just buy a $20 LED light/torch from Target and call it a day? Sure it may not be as elegant a solution but a few mods and your in business. Not to mention WAY cheaper.

    1. Erick,
      Here’s the thing, yes you can buy a cheaper LED. I never said this was the cheapest solution out there. As a matter of fact, there is probably a cheaper solution for every single thing I review here. So if you are happy with a cheaper $20, less elegant solution that you make work. Go for it!

  4. Can you show some video with and without the light? I am interested, but don’t know if the difference is really worth it…

  5. Hello Terry,

    I have come more and more interested in doing video, using my 5DII and was also thinking about taking stills using this kind of continuous light, is it something you have tried with this one? Any hint?
    Thanks
    Nico

  6. These do not product near enough light for most photography applications. I would stick with your strobe for that.

  7. Pingback: Michael Kubler’s Blog » Blog Archive » MDKs – To Buy List (Oct 2009)

Comments are closed.