Portable Mini RGB Pocket Light, CRI95+, color temperature ranging from 2500K to 9900K, featuring 21 lighting effects. Rechargeable, magnetic, suitable for indoor camera shooting to enhance video and photo lighting.

SKU: GW51.0115

  • 29.99
Overall Rating 5   28
Reviews
5
Great Little Light
I've wanted a little photo light for years, but just recently got around to picking some up. This one stood out because of its adorable design, and it turns out that it's actually pretty decent to boot.

First, the packaging. As others have noted, does indeed look a lot like a tofu tub. The sliding lid isn't the most secure (I'm guessing reviewer Eleven's second adapter nut slipped out through the gap during shipping), and the whole thing isn't super study, but it would be sufficient for storing the light on a shelf or in a hard-sided case with other items.

The light itself is excellent. It's not too heavy, so it shouldn't tip a camera rig or a small tripod, but it doesn't feel like a toy, either. It seems fairly sturdy. I would feel comfortable tossing it into a camera bag or suitcase without any additional protection.

All functionality is controlled by a pair of knobs (one that can spin endlessly in tactile increments, one with four positions) and a button. The button is flush with the back of the case, and the knobs are protected by little protrusions from the case. The button is satisfyingly clicky, and I found the knobs fairly easy to turn. This is good, because you'll be turning them a lot. The four-position one controls whether the light is off, or in white light, colored light, or effect mode. It puts up a good level of resistance, and I don' think it could be easily bumped into a different mode by accident. The endless spinner, meanwhile, handles all color, color temperature, saturation, and brightness changes. It has slightly less resistance, and I did accidentally nudge it by a click a couple of times, but it's still very hard to bump it any further than that without meaning to. The endless wheel seems fairly sturdy, but if there's one concern I have about this device, it's how well that wheel will handle being turned the tens of thousands of times that regular usage over the years will require.

The light modes seem pretty good. The diffuser seems to do a good job of blending the output from the different LEDs. At lower brightnesses you can see the individual LEDs through the diffuser, but the effect isn't visible on camera at all unless you point the camera right at the light and adjust the exposure to meter based on the light itself, which isn't a terribly common use case.

The white light mode adjusts in increments of 100 Kelvin, and I was able to tune it to be indistinguishable from the light from various household lamps of different color temperatures. The brightness is pretty high, even when turned down to 1%, which could be an issue for some situations, but is probably ideal for a lot of photographic uses. I do not have the equipment or expertise to verify the claimed Color Rendering Index, but the light does generally seem to be accurate.

The colored light mode is a bit annoying to use, as others have mentioned, because of the necessity of turning the wheel as many as 180 clicks to get to the other side of the color wheel. It also seems like there can be a slight "jump" in color, for lack of a better term, when reaching the primary colors (red, green, blue). It's not too much of a jump, though, and when combined with the saturation adjustment, there are plenty of colors to pick from for any given situation.

The effects mode is a bit of a mixed bag. Some, like the color cycle modes and the rave modes, seem more like they were added for padding than functionality. The police lights mode and the TV mode, however, could be of use for filmmaking purposes.

The USB-C charging port is a nice, forward-looking touch. The included cable is only a few inches long, but better than nothing, I guess. Any old USB-C cable should work instead, if you need more length. The light will function while plugged in, if you wanted to do an extended shoot or timelapse. It does seem to continue to charge if used while plugged in.

The inclusion of two 1/4-inch screw mount points is nice, although maybe not strictly necessary for most uses. The cold shoe adapter technically works, as long as your unit actually comes with both of the required nuts, but even then it's a bit looser than I would like.

The built-in magnets are a bit of a disappointment. They can technically hold the light's weight, but the slick plastic back means it will slide down any smooth surface you attach it to. If the magnets are an important part of the product to your use case, I would invest in some type of rubbery tape to put on the back for some extra grip.

(The attached photos show the same scene with ambient light, the Tofu at 4200K, and the Tofu with a blue tint.)
Great Little Light Great Little Light Great Little Light
09/11/2023