5 Best Portable LED Light Attachments Under $50
LED light attachments are essential for bringing your photography and videography to the next level. Picking up the right attachment to meet your needs can put your next project on the right path. For this article we are looking at the best portable LED light attachments under $50, ones you can use on the go, or as secondary lighting on your set. They won’t be as large and powerful as stand-alone LED lights, since they are designed to attach to your camera or smartphone rig or cage.
Before choosing the right one for your needs, you can learn what the specs mean for LEDs, the different LED types, how they are mounted on camera rigs, and what diffusion or colour filters to look for to take that perfect photo or video. Colour is an important part of taking vibrant and vivid photos, and your lighting setup has a huge impact on how those colours will finally turn out, saving you loads on time in post-production.
Best 5 Portable LED Lights under $50
Below is q qucik guide for what to look for when buying a portable LED light. What you need to know about LEDs and attachments and what to avoid. Here are my top 5 choices for Portable LED lights under $50.
RBG LEDs Vs. Bi-Colour LEDs
LEDs come in different types and have different purposes. The main two types are RBG LEDs and Bi-Colour LEDs. RBG LEDs are ones that can be adjusted to any color in the RBG colour spectrum. Bi-Colour LEDs range from Yellow to Blue along the white light colour spectrum, similar to sunlight.
Most products will use Bi-Colour LEDs and a way to change the settings from Yellow (2500K to 3000K) to white 3000K to 4500K) to blue (6500K to 9000K). Some products will have a mix of both RBG and Bi-Colour LEDs.
Panel Vs. Soft-Box
LED light can be quite strong and powerful if it is coming directly off of an LED light. The more LEDs, the brighter and more powerful the light will become.
In photography, you’ll want to use diffused light or a filter to soften the light before it reaches the scene. Unsoftened light can leave streaks and reflections across the surfaces.
Some products are just simple LED panels with row upon row of small LEDs combining to create a powerful light. These panels can have additional soft-box diffusion pieces mounted to them to soften the photos. For small portable LED lights, the soft-box is already incorporated into the product design. Some soft-box pieces are built-in while others are detachable so you can swap on or off to change the colour and softness of the light.
CRI & Lumens (LUX)
CRI is the Colour Rendering Index, a measurement system that compares colour under lights to colours visible from the natural light from the sun. A CRI value of 100 means a light perfectly shows colours as if the light was from the sun. Most LEDs have a range of 80 to 90 CRI which means there will be a slight colour distortion using these lights.
Lumens is the measurement for the brightness or strength of a light. We are used to using Watts (W) on old lightbulbs as a proxy measurement for brightness, but Watts actually measures the energy and LEDs use way less energy than old incandescent lightbulbs. Lumens is the correct measurement. Most of the small products will have a range from 250 to 100 Lumens (LUX).
Hot Shoe Vs. Cold Shoe Slots
The hot shoe is the bracket part on the top of your DSLR camera used to attach a flash LED light or microphone. The hot shoe has it’s own electrical contact in the bracket to synchronize the timing.
Cold shoe slots are the exact same but without the electrical contact, so you can attach an LED light, microphone or even another clip for a second phone, but you’ll need to operate them manually or connect them via bluetooth to the smartphone or camera.
1/4-20 17mm Thread
Most non professional videography accessories used 1/4-20 17mm ong threads slots to attach other accessories like LED lights, microphones, tripods etc… These are universal threads, not owned by a single company, so you can mix and match products from multiple brands and they’ll work just fine together.
Professional equipment which is very expensive can also use larger 3/8-16 thread sizes.
- Attachments: 1 1/4-20 17mm Thread, 1 cold shoe male slot, 3 cold shoe female slots
- LEDs: 60 (95+ CPI)
- Battery: 2000 mAh – USB-C
- Colour Temperature: 2500K-9000K
- Brightness: 800 LUX – 0.5m
- Weight: 100g
- Dimensions: 10.00cm in X 10.00cm X 7.95 cm
- Price: $29.99 USD
Advantages
- 5 different brightness levels
- Easy to turn off and on
- Can be recharged while still on
- Small compact size
- Lots of additional attachment slots
- Good Price at $29.99 USD
Disadvantages
- Battery is small and discharges when not in use, so you need to remember to charge it before use.
- LEDs can flicker on lower dim settings, which is not desirable
- Not the perfect primary light, but a decent secondary light.
- Attachments: 1 1/4-20 17mm Thread, 3 cold shoe slots, 1 hot shoe slot
- LEDs: 100 (50 White, 50 Yellow) 95+ CPI
- Battery: 2000 mAh – USB-C
- Colour Temperature: 2500K-6500K
- Brightness: 900 LUX – 0.5m
- Weight: 150g
- Dimensions: 13.31cm in X 8.99cm X 3.40cm
- Price: $19.99 USD
Advantages
- Brightness wheel is easily adjustable
- Detachable cold shoe hinge to connect to any camera or smartphone rig
- Can be combined with others to create a large LED lighting grid.
- Excellent Price at $19.99 USD
Disadvantages
- Not as bright as other comparable products on the market
- Not the perfect primary light, but a decent secondary light
- Battery seems deteriorate faster than it should
- Wobbly cold shoe slots
- Attachments: None
- LEDs: 60 (20 White, 20 Yellow, 20 RBG) 95+ CPI
- Battery: 2000 mAh – USB-C
- Colour Temperature: 3200K-5600K
- Brightness: 250 LUX – 0.5m
- Weight: 190g
- Dimensions: 12.09cm in X 9.30cm X 4.90cm
- Price: $27.99 USD
Advantages
- 10 different brightness levels
- 3 light modes: Bright White, Warm White and Yellow
- Extremely compact and easy to use with other devices
Disadvantages
- Plastic clip on the bottom is weak
- Low lumens – not as bright as other similarly priced products
- Attachments: 1 1/4-20 17mm Thread, 1 cold shoe male slot
- LEDs: 60 (20 White, 20 Yellow, 20 RBG)
- Battery: Not included NP-F550/F750/F970 Li-On
- Colour Temperature: 3200K-5600K
- Brightness: 900 LUX – 1.0m
- Weight: 243g
- Dimensions: 14.10cm in X 6.20cm X 1.50 cm
- Price: $31.49 USD
Advantages
- Brightness wheel to adjustable up to 900 Lumens
- 2 Colour filters/diffusers included
Disadvantages
- No additional attachment slots
- Requires a special battery not included with the product
- Can use standard AA batteries but it drains VERY quickly
- Outdated model, other similarly priced newer products
- Attachments: 1 1/4-20 17mm Thread, 1 cold shoe male slot, 2 cold shoe female slots
- LEDs: 78 (30 White, 48 Yellow)
- Battery: 2000 mAh – USB-C
- Colour Temperature: 2500K-9000K
- Brightness: 960 LUX – 0.5m
- Weight: 104g
- Dimensions: 6.60cm in X 6.60cm X 3.30 cm
- Price: $36.90 USD
Advantages
- 10 brightness levels
- LEDs on two sides – 360 degree angle
- Magnet body to stick to other metal surfaces
- Small compact size
- 2 additional attachment slots
- Wide range of build in color filters adjustable via the display
- Good Price at $36.90 USD
Disadvantages
- Battery is small and discharges when not in use
- Not the perfect primary light, but a decent secondary light
- Attachments: 1 1/4-20 17mm Thread, 1 cold shoe male slot, 3 cold shoe female slots
- LEDs: 60 (20 White, 20 Yellow, 20 RBG)
- Battery: 2000 mAh – USB-C
- Colour Temperature: 2500K-9000K
- Brightness: 800 LUX – 0.5m
- Weight: 100g
- Dimensions: 10.00cm in X 10.00cm X 7.95 cm
- Price: $29.99 USD
Advantages
- 5 different dim levels from 2500K to 9000K
- Easy to turn off and on
- Can be recharged while still on
- Small compact size
- Lots of additional attachment slots
- Good Price at $29.99 USD
Disadvantages
- Battery is small and discharges when not in use, so you need to remember to charge it before use.
- LEDs can flicker on lower dim settings, which is not desirable
- Not the perfect primary light, but a decent secondary light.
- Attachments: 1 1/4-20 17mm Thread, 1 cold shoe male slot, 3 cold shoe female slots
- LEDs: 60 (20 White, 20 Yellow, 20 RBG)
- Battery: 2000 mAh – USB-C
- Colour Temperature: 2500K-9000K
- Brightness: 800 LUX – 0.5m
- Weight: 100g
- Dimensions: 10.00cm in X 10.00cm X 7.95 cm
- Price: $29.99 USD
Advantages
- 5 different dim levels from 2500K to 9000K
- Easy to turn off and on
- Can be recharged while still on
- Small compact size
- Lots of additional attachment slots
- Good Price at $29.99 USD
Disadvantages
- Battery is small and discharges when not in use, so you need to remember to charge it before use.
- LEDs can flicker on lower dim settings, which is not desirable
- Not the perfect primary light, but a decent secondary light.
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