Yongnuo, the Chinese photographic accessory manufacturer, were kind enough to send me a copy of one of their latest ring lights, the YN128. Admittedly, as a ring light (and being composed of atoms…) it is mostly empty space, but it is also fairly slim, made of lightweight plastic and not burdened by a bulky power supply or heavy battery pack. So you can shove this in your bag and throw it around a bit, without the need for a padded case, on the basis that it’s light enough that it should bounce back from most impacts.
The YN128 comes with a flexible mounting arm with a 1/4″-20 male thread on both ends, which fixes to a weighted base for positioning on a table top. I wish the flexible arm had a female thread at one end and a male at the other, so then you could mount it on a light stand or tripod without a spigot adapter (though these are easy to obtain). Click it again to switch into colour temperature adjustment mode (and back again) and hold down the button to turn the light off. The design of the clamp means you really need to be using the front-facing camera, because if you mount your phone the other way and view from the other side, then the screen will be mostly obscured by the bracket. Even if you want to use it as a ring light for a smartphone while shooting someone else, using the (usually) superior rear-facing camera on your handset, the bracket covers your phone’s display.
Then the camera isn’t actually mounted in the exact middle of the ring, which might make your subjects look like they are lit more from the bottom than the top.
I don’t have a way to measure TLCI myself to verify the spec, but can say that in general usage there was no noticeable green or magenta colour cast and the quality of light from the Yongnuo YN160 is rather pleasing to the eye. The lamp—which draws 7.6 watts and puts out a claimed 1024 lumens—isn’t dazzling, even in the dark, which is partly due to its large size but a double-edged sword: is the YN128 really bright enough? Even if you’re not some kind of beauty blogger, the Yongnuo YN128 is a nice and portable soft light source for general video use.
It’s sort of like a softbox with a hole in the middle, but all that means is that it’s lighter than the equivalent disc-shaped LED panel, and not quite as bright, while still softening up the shadows. It isn’t bright enough as a main light but for non-critical applications such as mobile snaps and videos, it is pretty handy, while doubling as a phone holder.
The Ultimate Yongnuo YN608 Review! – Photography Pls
We have seen a number of YouTube vloggers and videographers reach out for advice on the YN608 over recent months so hope that our review article will help any of our readers considering picking this decent little ring light up. As the remote control for the Yongnuo YN608 does not use the 2.4g protocols there should be no issues with it causing problems with any other wireless camera accessories that you use in your studio either. In this modern age where more and more kit is supporting wireless functionality, this is a nice little feature to have as the last thing you want to be doing is trying to tweak the performance of your light only for it to do something to another piece of your equipment.
We have also seen some people mention that Yongnuo are apparently going to add the functionality of the YN608s remote to their smartphone app but at the time of writing, this has not happened. When it comes to general videography work, there are an absolute ton of uses for a bit of kit like the Yongnuo YN608 and the only real limitation is what your imagination can dream up. The light also has some decent low energy consumption technology in it to ensure that you can get a high brightness level from it while still having a pretty solid battery life too. Considering that the ring light has a pretty low price tag and a great level of performance, we really can’t think of anything we would change on it. The various types of LEDs in the lighting unit are all securely held in place as shown in the image below just under the front casing.
Answer – The officially listed life span of the YN608 is 50000h but like many other lighting units on the market, we feel that it will easily last longer than the 50000h mark if cared for correctly.
Thankfully, we did find the video review that we have embedded above that we feel covers it well but it does take a while for the host to get into the nitty-gritty of the light. In addition to that, we cover all of his main points in our article too so if you are strapped for time, you can probably skip watching the video. It offers some excellent performance in a number of low light conditions and will make a great addition to your collection of camera accessories.
The Ultimate Yongnuo YN-14EX Review! – Photography Pls
After seeing an increase in the number of people we have seen asking about ring flash-based photography over the last few months we have decided to publish our dedicated Yongnuo YN-14EX review as we feel it is currently one of the better products out there and is very popular within the community. Yongnuo has done an excellent job with the YN-14EX and really managed to lift the bar when it comes to the more budget-friendly ring flash units on the market. Thankfully, just like the majority of modern flash units on the market that have been released over recent years, the Yongnuo YN-14EX has a very easy to use user interface system as shown in the image above. Many other popular camera flashes on the market right now use a very similar user interface and control system and the navigation menu on the YN-14EX has been designed to be as easy to use as possible.
The image above shows the battery holding bay on the YN-14EX and it is extremely easy to use and locks securely to ensure that it won’t accidentally open during use. Additionally, the plastic is also both weather and dust sealed to help ensure that it will last you for many years to come should you choose to add the YN-14EX to your collection of camera accessories.
Keep in mind though, just like we mentioned earlier in the article, there are a large number of other use cases that you are able to use the ring flash in to help improve the image quality of the photographs that you capture during your sessions. Some photographers will leave this in their photography but many of them will remove it in post-production within a couple of seconds so, in our opinion, it is a fair trade-off for the softer shadows.
As you can see, the photograph is excellent, gets its point across and the ring flash helps draw your attention to the face of the model as well as her facial makeup without leaving a reflection. Depending on the type of fashion photography you are involved in you may not actually require a ring flash, especially an expensive one and that’s where the cheaper, more budget-friendly Yongnuo YN-14EX comes in. It is cheap enough to add to your collection of camera accessories without really feeling too much of a pinch while also having the level of performance needed to have a direct effect on the image quality of your photographs when you do choose to use it. This review of the Yongnuo YN-14EX that has been posted online by an independent photographer who uses the YN-14EX on a regular basis goes into great detail into their experiences with the ring flash.
This review of the Yongnuo YN-14EX is much shorted but comment on how it is almost a third of the price of some of the competing ring flash units on the market right now while managing to hold its own. In our opinion, the Yongnuo YN-14EX will make an excellent addition to your collection of camera accessories if you are on a tight budget or just want to pick up a cheaper ring flash unit that will perform very well. The example photographs that we have shown earlier in the article do a great job of showing how the Yongnuo YN-14EX is able to improve your image quality in low light conditions.
Yongnuo YN608 Ring Light 5500K
It’s a beautiful catch light that adds extra emphasis on the eyes: which is what so many portrait photographers try to do anyway. Yongnuo YN608 Ring LED light is formed by 608 5500K high-quality lamp beads of extra-large luminous chips, with higher brightness at same energy consumption. In addition, it adopts the latest LED driving technology, which ensures the light not appear as corrugated, stroboscopic or manifest any other negative phenomena when shooting.
Moreover it effectively improves the conversion efficiency, adopts the encoder digital dimming mode, thus the camera light can be dimmed accurately and reliable, and will not lead to undesirable effects such as light shaking after long-time use. YN608 adopts 608 high-quality LED lamp beads with chips of extra-large luminous area. Greater luminous intensity, more uniform facular and longer service life at the same energy consumption. Adopts Yongnuo proprietary LED driving technology which does great help to effectively avoid corrugation and stroboscopic flash. Supports external 8V,5A DC power input for long time shooting.
It can also be powered by 2x sony NP-F series batteries which is great for on-location shooting.
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