Back in september 2014, we bought a new DSLR camera, while on holidays in Germany.
(A Nikon D5300) Also at this point, I got my hands on a LED-ring for this camera. The Meike FC-100 (with the included adapter rings, it should fit on almost virtually every DSLR lens) I didn’t write a review yet, but yesterday I was talking to Ludwig, who is “into” digital photography now, and he became curious about this “LED thingy”, so I quickly made a review 🙂 Ludwig, this one is for you, Best wishes for 2015 my friend 🙂
As said, it comes with a bunch of adapter rings, ranging from 52 to 77 mm. (So it does fit on all my lenses) You need to put 4 AA batteries in it (I assume it would otherwise drain the DSLR batteries in no time), to function properly, and does have a color temperature of 5500K (32 High-intensity LEDs makes this possible) It fits onto the hotshoe of your DSLR, and will be triggered by the internal shutter of your DSLR. (if you use it in “flash” mode) – But I assume the hotshoe of a Canon and Nikon are not identical, so make sure you order the correct kit 🙂
There are 7 steps to regulate the intensity of the light, going from -1.5 to +1.5 in 0.5 increments. You can not only use it as a “flash”, but you can also set it to give permanent lighting. This is ideal for dark scenes, where a camera sometimes does have problems focusing on a subject. Furthermore, you can also turn of the left- or right-half of the LEDs, so it functions as a “half light” or “half flash” 🙂
In General, I like this LED-ring very much. It also gives me the possibility to take HDR pictures with extra lighting. (setting it to “light” not to “flash”, you can’t take HDR pictures with a flash) I don’t use the internal flash anymore, since I got this nice little add-on …
Another nice “side-effect”, is that, when you photograph people, you get more “sparkly eyes” in your pictures, like professional photographers have 🙂 (Ooh well, they also use LED-rings, maybe in a different price-setting, but they surely do use it)
Included are some pictures I did take, for comparison. The LED-ring is stated as a nice addition for “macro photography”, but I also use it for regular interior pictures. As a matter of fact, the difference with taking interior or global pictures, is much more noticable !
To be able to compare the pictures, I did take all pictures with the same camera settings.
(ooh well, except Flash on/off, for the pictures with the LED ring)
Every “scened” picture, consists of 4 photos:
1. with regular flash
2. with LED ring, set to +1.5 lighting
3. with LED ring, set to +0 lighting
4. with LED ring, set to -1.5 lighting
Are there also negative points ? YES, sadly there are ! When I use my 18-200mm lens, and I zoom out completely, to get a large picture, you will notice the side of the LED-ring in the picture ! After removing my UV filter, it’s a bit less noticable (and only in the wide-pictures). I do not have this problem with my regular 18-55mm lens … So keep this in mind ! (It’s not a deal-braker for me !) Just back up a few steps, and zoom a little bit 🙂
I also recently bought a photostudio tent with softboxes and lighting equipment etc …
Please expect a review of this, somewhere in january 2015 🙂