There was a time when ring lights were just for pro photographers, hard to find and very costly. Those days are gone and with the rise of selfie culture, the flat, feature smoothing light from the ring light is now available to a wider market with lights such as this one from Esddi for just £89.99. For myself, I am more interested in the light for the original purpose it was designed, for close up photography as it can supply an intense shadow-free light allowing the photographer to use small aperture specialised close up lenses more easily.
The light and accessories arrived packed in a large rather plain box clearly not designed for retail display. In the box aside from the lamp itself was the robust and stable three section lockable 75″ tripod, a flexible head tripod extension arm, power cable with UK three pin plug, expandable phone mount, soft carry case, and a short but well-written User Guide.
The build quality of everything seems fine. The tripod, often an area where savings are made, is robust, well made and stable. The ring light itself is well made and seems reliable in use and it has easy to access controls to vary light output and colour temperature. The 40W light can be varied between 10 and 100% in output and 3200K-5600K in colour temperature which allows most levels to be found between full daylight and incandescent bulb. These have to be set by eye as there is no colour temperature or luminosity info LCD screen of the sort found on the far more expensive pro-level rivals. The inclusion of a phone clamp is a nice touch and shows the target market for this device and allows phone snappers to be able to use the device straight from the box. The ring has an external Diameter of 9 inches and an outer ring size of 14 inches, which is fine and most uses allows all but the very largest studio cameras to be used. On the inside lower face of the unit are the two rotary controls which are large and easy to manipulate. There is a cold shoe mount between them and another on top of the ring.
It was simple and intuitive to use, the only problem I found was that with the phones I tested it with the light spill from the inside face of the ring was causing flare onto the camera lens. I was able to get around this by fitting a simple track extension to the cold shoe mount to allow me to mount the phone a couple of inches further forward. This issue does not arise with a DSLR as when on the mount the lens is already further forward and of course if needed a lens hood can be fitted. The only other issue I have with the product is that the supplied soft bag has no padding or protection for the delicate ring light. It would have been better had the bag come with a foam insert for the light unit and cable.
These minor issues aside, I have been very pleased with this light unit which allows me to produce some otherwise hard to obtain lighting effects and for a very reasonable price.
Stable Tripod
No LCD screen
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