I have had some unfortunate situations where I have had to shoot photos with low light outdoors and using my flash and avoiding the use of a very high ISO, the end result were blurry pictures because I had to guesstimate.
I invested in ring lights but the problem was the light was not strong enough. I needed a better light to shoot my subject(s) and figured, I would need to invest in purchasing an expensive lamp and a battery pack.
But my friend in Japan had a device that connected right on top of his hot shoe and he had control of how much light he had. But he was in Japan, I was in the USA and was a bit bummed because I wasn’t planning to go to Tokyo any time soon. But my friend said they were available in the U.S. and pointed me to the CN-160 on Amazon.
And sure enough, having received the device, here is my review for the Neewer Pro CN-160.
I. WHAT IS INSIDE THE BOX?
Inside is the Neewer Pro CN-160, battery adapter, one white, one pink and one orange filter plus a silver wallet to store each filter.
The battery adapter allows for one to use three kinds of Sony lithium batteries, a Panasonic lithium battery or six AA regular or rechargeable batteries.
II. INSTALLING THE BATTERIES
Well, in terms of the Sony or Panasonic lithium batteries, I didn’t have the right size to test those out on the adapter but I did test them with six Eneloop rechargeable batteries.
But all you have to do is remove the back cover and insert your batteries and install the back cover to make sure your batteries don’t fall out.
III. TESTING THE DEVICE
Attaching the CN-160 to the hot shoe was easy. There is a locking mechanism to keep the device in place, you can adjust the amount of brightness with a knob on the side of the device. There is a button that you can press to test the charge capacity of a battery.
But went outside at 9 p.m. to shoot and immediately, I was please by the amount of brightness there was from the device. Granted, it won’t be comfortable for portraits as you don’t want people looking directly to your camera with the bright light shining on their faces. But if you have them looking to the side, it works perfectly. Great for those shooting objects, flowers or plants at night and once again, you have control over the amount of light by a simple turn of a knob.
In front of the LED light are holders, so you can use the white filter for a diffuse effect, the amber/orange filter for a 3200K color temperature effect or a pink filter. But the regular light on its own has a color temperature of 5400K.
Because this uses six batteries, not only did I find this device to be affordable but also cost effective if one uses a rechargeable batteries. The device runs on battery power for a long time and just a great lamp light for your DSLR!
JUDGMENT CALL:
For those who have shot photos or video outdoors and have been through those moments of wishing you had strong light at that moment, well now you know that there is an affordable device that gets the job done.
All you need is a hot shoe, so if you have one, Canon, Nikon or whatever brand of camera that you have, this device will work.
Avoid the ring lights, the Neewer Pro CN-160 LED camera video lamp gives you the light you need for those low-light situations for a wonderful price under $35. It takes six AA batteries and also utilizes Sony and Panasonic lithium batteries. It comes with three color filters and does what is expected of this device!
A magnificent lighting device that I highly recommend!
