CowboyStudio Led VL-160 Ultra High Power 160 LED Digital Camera / Camcorder Video Light

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.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 25 reviews  3.9 out of 5 stars