Customer Reviews

CowboyStudio Led CN-160 Ultra High Power 160 LED Digital Camera and Camcorder Video Light, Opteka VL-160 Ultra High Power 160 LED Light for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Panasonic, Samsung and Olympus Digital SLR Cameras

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was not sure what to expect when I ordered the VL-160 LED light for my Canon HF s21 Video camera. I knew that I could not use the onboard camera light with the wide angle lens I have added and the Canon brand lights are all too short to avoid a ring shadow from the lens. I purchased this LED light along with Adorama Heavy Duty L-bracket ($10.95) from Cowboystudios. Both products were perfect and work excellent with my Canon HF S21. The LED light when turned up at night can light up the back of my pool cage across the water from my patio which is over 45 feet. With the included diffusion panels and dialing down the light intensity, you can get close range to your subjects without washing them out. The color balance remains decent unless you get right up on them within 2 feet and then any light is going to washout in a dark setting. For the price, there is no better option. You can get cheap Sony camcorder rechargable batteries to fit in the light which doesn't add too much weight and will give you decent run time of lighting. I recommend this light to anyone considering it.

I like this light. The fact that I can use my extra Sony camcord rechargeable batteries to power it as well as AA batteries is a big plus.
Lights up an area beautifully and the level control comes in handy.
Only two reasons I didn't give it 5 stars.

1. Because the connector arm is as tight as I'd like but certainly not a deal breaker.
2. The filters are a nice added feature but they're not as secure as you'd like them to be... meaning if you turn your camera sideways or upside down they fall out. You could probably come up with a manual fix (i.e. tape, rubber band) for this pretty easy.

Most of my wedding shooting does not require auxiliary lighting as my 3-chip cameras do well in low light. I decided to get the CowboyStudio unit just for back up as I knew a shoot I had was in an abnormally dark location...only candlelight and a few weak overhead lights. I thought this would be a good alternative to the much more expensive Lite Panels or my old Cool Lux units which require an external 12 volt battery pack. This unit saved my butt. I ended up using the light for the entire reception and it worked great. I chose double A's as the power source and still had over half power after 4 hours of intermittent use. I did have to do manual white balance due to the blue nature of the LEDs, but no big deal. I liked having a dimmer as I could just add enough light for close up shots and then put it up full power for dance floor shots.

My only digs on the unit is the entire thing is plastic and the connecting arm to the hot shoe seems a little weak as the light wiggles when moved. So I could see if you used the unit heavily, you might break it as some point. Also the cover on the back for the batteries does not cover the entire battery, just enough to keep them from coming out. So seeing exposed batteries makes it look like you are using it without a battery cover.

I can honestly say that this will be a fixture in my camera bag and doubt I will be dragging along my older lights on a shoot any time soon.

I wondered how well this LED light panel would perform and now that I have gotten my hands on it I have to say, it has met my expectations. You have complete control over the light intensity, not just 4 stages like the VL-126 which is really helpful when filming the reception dance parties without blinding them. You can adjust it for just the amount of light needed. If you use this with a camcorder without a cold/hotshoe adapter, you'll need to get a flash bracket that screws into the bottom of your camcorded, which is available for as low as 8.99.

The light output is impressive with fully charged batteries and I'll be giving it a more complete testing in just another week with feedback to follow. For under $80 you can't beat this.

Over all, a great buy.

It's bright, does what it's intended to do, and doesn't overheat. This extends a good 40 ft for lighting. The filters don't do much. The clear/off white filter does very little to add softness; the pink is almost completely unnoticeable; however, the sepia isn't half bad.

Besides the filters, only other complaint is the battery life indicator ...it's not a battery life indicator. Basically it tells you what level brightness you have your light turned up to. With brand new batteries, light turned up all the way, the indicator will show one red light. I don't know if maybe this means an hr lifespan at this light level? When dimmed down to about a quarter of it's brightness, all four red lights will light up. - Same batteries, right after full brightness test. Half dimmed, 2 red lights.

For the price and brightness, you can't beat it. Filters and battery life indicator aside, good product with a fairly firm build. Bottom parts seem to be made of a cheap plastic, but screws hold very tight and the parts are short enough that I don't think they're in danger of breaking unless you really try. I've tested it in multiple positions and it's held up great thus far.

You are getting what you pay for. It is not that cheap but it is not expensive either. It looks somewhat cheap in comparison with "L" type lens below, but it is not bad at all.
Good thing is that it is possible to use different batteries, but word of caution: I purchased ACD-270 battery with is supposed to replace SONY NP-FM55H and while it connects quite well, it provides the light for a less than 50 minutes only and I expect it to become worse, so it is pretty useless.
Recheargeable AAA batteries are working for more than 90 minutes before the light starts to fade. Battery indicator is not very useful.
Overall, I am happy with my purchase. If the budget is tight, consider cheaper models like Opteka VL-126 Ultra High Power 126 LED.

I rarely write reviews, but this thing was a lifesaver at a shoot I had last week. I went to go shoot at a club, knowing my footage was going to be underexposed and grainy, but I wanted to give myself some options... I picked this up on a whim, and I can't tell you how much of a lifesaver it was..

This thing puts out an AMAZING amount of light.. blindingly so. I can't tell you the exact lumens, but I'm going to be using a pair of these instead of a softbox/rimlight setup on interview shoots from now on. There's just no reason to lug all that stuff around.

Yes, the build quality seems a bit cheap-- but for this price, I could afford to buy one every couple of months. The diffusers, dimming switch, and the fact that it can work with industry standard rechargeable batteries are just icing on the cake! I would rate it 4.5 stars for the build quality-- however, since I can't, I won't dock it a full star-- as I said, even if it breaks on me, I'd still buy another one.

Protip: Don't mount this to your camera in a "sungun" fashion. Get a tall guy to hold it up above your right or left side at an angle, for much better lighting results. Use distance from the subject to compensate instead of dimming in case you have a camera that is sensitive to dimmed- LED issues (strobing)

Let me first say that this light is great compared to other on camera lights. I love the fact that it dimmable and it casts good light. I use it for on camera and as a backlight. The only problems that I have is the arm that connects it to my camera is cheap plastic. Other than that I recommend this light to anyone who is tired of wearing a battery belt. Also, the fact that it accepts multiple batteries, I didn't have to buy anything.

I read the reviews on this light and similar products. My expectations were LOW. OK, let's get right to it: It is a cheap light. The plastic is not thick gauge ABS. It's just plastic. It will not survive being dropped too many times (but neither will your $5000 HD Camera)
But it works, the filters fit snugly. The adjustable arm, while flimsy, is tight.

I'm very pleased with the purchase.

It's dimmable, and comes with 3 diffusion filters: translucent, pink and amber filter. It uses 6 AA Batteries, rechargeable AA batteries and even popular Camera Lithium Batteries (My Sony Info Lithium Type L batts fit perfectly.) Even includes an adapter for Panasonic Lithium batts.

Take care of it (Read: don't force anything and don't drop it) and it is a great deal. Extremely bright at the highest setting.

It's brighter and provides much more fill than my 12v pro light which required me to have a 10 lb. lead acid battery dangling from my shoulder. I also like the color temperature better than incandescent.

I'm fashioning some barn doors for it, and I'm only bringing my Bescor as an emergency back-up.

It's perfect for Wedding Videography, Most types of ENG, Non-Contact journalism. It's not water or shock proof so ... I wouldn't recommend for use in the trenches...

This is a decent on-camera light.

I think that you need to add a better diffuser because the light is too strong and can easily give a paranormal activity/obvious light to your subject.

It's very bright and there is a dial to control brightness but you still need more diffusion.

The MAIN PROBLEM with this light is the f****** mount, it's plastic and no matter how much I tighten it, the light will fall off my camera once every hour or so if I don't remember to re-tighten.

The light hits the ground and there's just a crappy cover for the 8 batteries it takes so when it hits the ground the back pops off and the batteries explode everywhere (not explode detonate, like bounce and make noise and scatter)

I can't recommend it until that's fixed because it's super annoying and incredibly embarrassing.

thevideogenius.com