Thank you for your info. I am looking forward to receiving mine for my still photography.

I have the YN 300-II, which has 5500 and 3200 lights

I'm tempted to say it depends on how sensitive your camera or camcorder is and that it depends what you mean by "good enough" (what are you trying to achieve) - but realistically the answer is no to both, they're far to small (physically) to sensibly illuminate an entire body. You need a full-blown softbox with lots of fluorescent bulbs or a large tungsten lamp.

No worries, cheers

rodocarda I think it's a bit too big as a camera toplight, too unweildy. Better (despite the cold shoe mounting) to be popped onto a small stand with a cold-shoe adapter on it.

My shutter stays firmly on 1/50th (UK standard) and I haven't tried it with anything faster shutter than that but I have not noticed any flicker at this rate. If I get a chance, I'll try it but faster frame rates mean more staccato footage and I never like that anyway hence why I stick at 1/50th.

TubeShooterMag Sweet. Thank you for getting back to me. Good luck with your future projects.

I received my unit earlier today and have tested it at various brightness levels with shutter speeds of up to 1/8000. The light has produced no flicker or banding whatsoever, so the issue has most likely been resolved in recent batches.

That's a bit of an unspecific question really. If a room is lit only by ordinary lights then it will be too dark for most video cameras to sensibly film in, without adding LOTS of gain (and therefore noise). Your only option is to set the iris as open as possible, the zoom as wide as possible. Depending on what you're filming you *may* be able to set a slower shutter speed but do this with extreme caution as it will result in blurred motion. If you add the Yongnuo light into the mix, it should usually be no more than 3 feet away from your subject (though this depends on what you're filming); the brightness depends entirely on how sensitive your camera is. Whether you diffuse or not is an artistic choice which depends on the "look" you're trying to achieve. Sorry, can't be more specific without more information about what you're filming. It also depends how long you have to set up and film, and how many lights you have at your disposal.

Just a little late, but for other people: If you have the option to white-balance your camera manually, you should. You do this by holding a white object at the place where your main subject will be, and then performing a manual white-balance operation on the camera. If you don't have the time or possibility to do so, set it to 3200K (professional camera's) or 'indoors' 'incandescent light' or whatever the setting is called (consumer camera's): this usually works, but if there are energy saving lamps or fluorescent tubes, you are most likely to get weird colors, hence the need to perform the white-balance manually or even switch between manually pre-set white-balance settings like professional camera's offer.

Hi. The light is not dependent on any particular type of camera or camcorder; it has a standard cold shoe on the base so will fit to any camera that has a shoe mount. Your Z5 does have such a mount (and uses the same batteries as the light, which is helpful) but it will all be a bit big on top of a Z5 I'd have thought, and make it very front-heavy; Yongnuo do make a smaller version with 140 LEDs but I haven't tried it. This light is best on a small light stand off to one side I'd have said, especially as it can be so bright - if it's on the camcorder itself you run the risk of hurting people's eyes!

Thank you. It's a very old video though, I suspect there may be newer and better alternatives now.

Carlos Carvacho The light doesn't have a tripod mount on it but rather, a coldshoe mount for putting it on a camera. Therefore to stick it on a stand, any general light stand should do but you'll need a "1/4-20" to cold shoe" adapter (if the stand has a 1/4"-20 thread) or a "3/8-16 to cold shoe" adapter if it has a 3/8"-16 thread. The adapters are very cheap little screw-n devices that put a cold shoe on top of a light stand.

Thanks for the comment. The room size is probably irrelevant, the factor that matters is how close you're going to be able to get the light from the subject. If you're proposing to have the light 5m away from whoever you're filming then that's a very tall order and this little LED wouldn't be powerful enough. Even broadcast TV interviews using big 1000-Watt softboxes and the like typically only have them a couple of meters from the interviewee. You certainly could use three of these lights in the way you describe if you wish

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Appreciate it :-) so if you could only afford a led set up or tungsten lights with soft box set up, which would you choose?

Depends what I'd be shooting. For fast set up and tear down, and cooler lights - also less unpleasant for the subject as there's less heat - then LED. For lots of light for less cash, as well as a vast range to choose from then tungsten. There's life in the old dog (tungsten) yet!

Well the 600, as I understand it, is bi-colour so it has 300 daylight-balanced LEDs and 300 tungsten-balanced, and you can mix between them to set your preferred temp. So the light will only ever be as bright as the 300 unit (since eg at full daylight setting all the daylight LEDs will be on but all the tungsten ones will be off) but you do have that colouration advantage. In that case, you're best off buying all three the same as presumably you'll need them to match each other, colourwise, in a shoot.

Depends which size battery you're using and at what brightness of the light.

It should only turn off either if you accidentally lean on the remote control :-) or if the battery is running out of power. The light seems to wear the batteries out very quickly so it could just be that.

TubeShooterMag Yeah it was the battery; thanks again, I love this lights a lot

Hi. Either stop waving your hands or use manual focus. The camcorder has no idea what you want focused on so it just tries to focus on the main thing in the shot so if that's your hands, that's what it'll focus on. The trick with self shooting using manual focus is to stand something where your head will be, focus on that, then remove it and sit in the same spot. Cheers.

Thank you so much, i will try it and let you know .

That video was shot so long ago, I can't remember what was used. Not DSLR though, I don't use them. It would probably have been done on a Sony Z5 back then.

TubeShooterMag OK thanks. Now that you mention it... do you still use this light after 2.5 years? I guess if these have been around for at least 2 years and still on the market I assume it is reliable. Otherwise I would surmise that the market would have booted it to the curb.

I tend to use my Aputure 528 and 672 these days because the shoe mount on the Yongnuo is a bit weak and can break. It is a great little light though.

TubeShooterMag thanks ....on your advice and your video I did order this small one and the bigger one...but only coincidentally found one in real life... a bit plastic but smooth controls and alot of light but i can tell you the price variance on these things is massive... sometimes a 30 percent spread... another one I stumbled on is a set from CAME-tv... there is a guy who did a fairly good video using two 1024 led panels sort of a mock interview set up... They seem a bit more robust but they are almost 1000 US for two lights... ... of course from china and no North American distributor... supposedly high CRI number but I find most of these panels are pretty exaggerated... cheers

The light uses Sony NP-F type (or compatible) batteries. Yes, rechargeable.

Hmm, well they're not directly comparable, in a way. The YN600ii, if I recall correctly, is a bi-colour light so it can be switched to any colour temperature between around 5600K (daylight) and 3200K (tungsten). The YN300 is daylight only and you'd have to add gels to change it. Therefore if variable colour temperature is essential to you then the 600 might be your most practical option; remember that adding gels to a YN300 is fiddly and you lose some of the light intensity. Equally, bear in mind because of the colour-changeable feature, a YN600 will only ever be as bright as one (ungelled) YN300 since it will only ever have half its LEDs at full brightness (either at 3200K or 5600K) If you can get away with using daylight balanced LEDs, then having two lights is more flexible of course than a single unit as it means you can have a key light plus a separate fill or back light. Not sure that answers your query but hope it helps you make a decision!

I'm still hesitant on which one to buy D: I like what you said, and it really helped but what about the YN300II? I watched some reviews and it also has the variable temparature and you can turn on the tungsten and daylight to achieve maximum brightness.

TubeShooterMag Also looking for the ones which you can plug into a power socket. So far I've only seen that on the YN600

Yes but if you turn on the tungsten AND daylight LEDs then you're going to get light with a temperature midway between 3200 and 5600 (ie 4400K) so it may not match any surrounding light. Maximum brightness at either 3200 or 5600 will only be half the LEDs so it will be less bright than the YN300 (Mark I version) or the YN600. Depends whether brightness or variable colour temperature is more important to you - what kind of locations will you be filming in?

Yes, the YN300s only power off batteries, though you can get, I think, a mains adapter with a plug in the shape of a Sony NP-F battery which might work.

Thank you! Please feel free to enjoy all the rest of this channel's reviews as well! ;-)

"Cheap" and "effective" rarely go together. Also, what's your idea of cheap? And what actually do you want to do with the light? "Vlogging" is too vague a description for me to help...

I would use it indoors but mostly outdoors. I was thinking about Apurture AL-H160... Do you think it's good?

+Steph Kurty I like my ALH160, use it all the time as a "grab light" to point at things while I film. You shouldn't need it outdoors, you've got that bloody great big light in the sky aka the sun to do the job for you. Indoors, the ALH will be OK for close up work but you're not going to light a room or an interview with it. Limited for pieces to camera too, really.

So, what light do you think would be the most versatile? THANKS =)

+Steph Kurty I can't possibly answer that as you haven't been specific on what exactly you want to do. But regardless of that, there is no one single light that suits all situations - you're looking for an impossible product. Some lights are portable and battery powered but they may not be as bright as a mains-operated fixture but they will be more convenient. Some are multi-colour temperature but they will cost more and you wanted cheap. So, without knowing precisely what you're trying to light (Yourself? Products? From the top of a camera? In a studio? How dark if you're filming outside? What sort of locations? ETC) it's impossible to say "which light is most versatile" because there are many lights and no single one of them is "the most versatile". Especially when you haven't stated your budget!

SmearStudios You wouldn't need the first product if you bought the second. The Amazon product would take the Yongnuo light and connect onto the top of a light stand.