Ring lamp: top for smartphones | Articles | Photo, video, optics, Phones

Ring LED lamps are used by tik­tok­ers, vlog­gers, make­up artists, blog­gers and even those who par­tic­i­pate in online con­fer­ences or meet­ings. Pho­to: digitalcameraworld.com

LED Ring Lights are a sim­ple and effec­tive way to improve the qual­i­ty of your videos and pho­tos, whether you’re run­ning a YouTube chan­nel, film­ing Tik­Tok, or host­ing a Zoom meet­ing. In today’s arti­cle, we have select­ed 5 wor­thy exam­ples of LED lamps for smart­phones of dif­fer­ent price ranges. Read on to find out which mod­els are includ­ed in our selec­tion.

How was it evaluated

To deter­mine the best ring lamp for a smart­phone from the select­ed mod­els, we used the fol­low­ing rat­ing sys­tem:

- Pow­er type — lamps with sup­port for dif­fer­ent pow­er options will receive the max­i­mum score. Next up are the bat­tery or USB pow­ered mod­els because they are portable and can be used out­doors. The low­est rat­ing is for devices pow­ered by the mains, as they have a lim­it­ed shoot­ing loca­tion.

- Num­ber of Lumens — the more, the brighter the lamp shines.

- Col­or tem­per­a­ture adjust­ment - the wider the range of sup­port­ed col­or tem­per­a­ture (mea­sured in kelvins, K), the high­er the score.

- The weight – the lighter the LED lamp, the eas­i­er it is to move around the room or trans­port it to the shoot­ing loca­tion.

- Addi­tion­al fea­tures — the pres­ence of a dim­mer to adjust the pow­er of the glow, a tri­pod, a hold­er for a smart­phone, a remote con­trol — for each option 1 point.

We eval­u­at­ed all the con­sid­ered mod­els of ring lamps accord­ing to the above cri­te­ria rel­a­tive to each oth­er. The max­i­mum score that can be obtained for each indi­ca­tor is 5 (with the excep­tion of the “Addi­tion­al fea­tures” item, for which it is 4).

We talked about how to choose a ring lamp in this arti­cle.

All prices are valid at the time of pub­li­ca­tion of the rat­ing.

The best ring lamps for smartphones

Yongnuo YN128 II

With 3 pow­er options, the Yongn­uo YN128 II can be used for film­ing in any loca­tion. Pho­to: lightingrumours.com

Yongn­uo YN128 II LED lamp sup­ports 3 pow­er options — from the net­work, USB or bat­ter­ies (bat­tery and AC adapter sold sep­a­rate­ly). It is equipped with 128 SMD diodes, which have a long ser­vice life (min­i­mum 5.5 years of con­tin­u­ous oper­a­tion).

The col­or ren­der­ing index is equal to CRI95+ (accu­rate). You can adjust the col­or tem­per­a­ture (3200–5500K). In addi­tion, it is pos­si­ble to adjust the bright­ness of the light using a dig­i­tal dim­mer.

Ring LED illu­mi­na­tor Yongn­uo YN128 II costs from 3,250 rubles. The pack­age includes a stand for instal­la­tion on a hor­i­zon­tal sur­face, a flex­i­ble leg for fix­ing the lamp at any angle, a phone hold­er and a USB cable.

Pros of Yongn­uo YN128 II:

• dig­i­tal dim­mer;
• accu­rate col­or repro­duc­tion and col­or tem­per­a­ture adjust­ment;
• sup­port for 3 pow­er options;
• rel­a­tive­ly cheap.

Cons of Yongn­uo YN128 II:

• The remote con­trol is not includ­ed in the pack­age.

Fujimi FJL-Ring12

Fuji­mi FJL-Ring12 can be used with smart­phones or com­pact cam­eras (max­i­mum load is 4 kg). Pho­to: Fuji­mi

The Fuji­mi FJL-Ring12 ring illu­mi­na­tor has a diam­e­ter of 30.5 cm and 162 LEDs (half of them with a cold glow, half with a warm one). It is pos­si­ble to adjust the tem­per­a­ture from 3000 to 6000K and the glow pow­er from 10 to 100%.

The pack­age includes a uni­ver­sal mount for smart­phones (6.4–8.5 cm, can be used in both land­scape and por­trait mode) with a flex­i­ble shaft and a 4‑section stand with a small ball head (rotates 360 degrees, allows you to choose the best illu­mi­na­tion angle). The max­i­mum rack load is 4 kg.

The Fuji­mi FJ-BTRC Blue­tooth remote con­trol is pur­chased sep­a­rate­ly (it costs about 350 rubles).

The device is pow­ered by USB, can be charged from an exter­nal bat­tery.

Fuji­mi FJL-Ring12 costs a lit­tle less than 4,000 rubles. The min­i­mum height of the stand with the lamp is 85 cm, the max­i­mum height is 170 cm, when fold­ed it is 50 cm. Weight is 1.2 kg.

Pros of Fujimi FJL-Ring12:

• you can adjust the light­ing;
• can work autonomous­ly;
• light weight and com­pact dimen­sions;
• afford­able price.

Cons of Fujimi FJL-Ring12:

• no remote con­trol includ­ed.

Raylab RL-0518 Kit

This mod­el has a rich pack­age. Pho­to: Ray­lab

The Ray­lab RL-0518 Kit LED Ring Light is equipped with 418 SMD LEDs. The out­er diam­e­ter of the illu­mi­na­tor is 45.8 cm.

The Ray­lab LED lamp is pow­ered by mains or Sony NP‑F bat­ter­ies. It sup­ports col­or tem­per­a­ture adjust­ment with­in 2700–5500K.

The pack­age includes a light, a stand, a remote con­trol, a mir­ror (use­ful for beau­ty blog­gers), a uni­ver­sal phone hold­er, a flex­i­ble mount and a case for trans­porta­tion and stor­age.

The Ray­lab RL-0518 Kit ring lamp costs from 7,790 rubles.

Pros of Raylab RL-0518 Kit:

• 2 pow­er options;
• the abil­i­ty to adjust the col­or tem­per­a­ture;
• rich equip­ment.

Cons of Raylab RL-0518 Kit:

• CRI ≥ 90 — not suit­able for those who need accu­rate col­or repro­duc­tion in their work, for exam­ple, col­orists and make­up artists.

Falcon Eyes Beauty Light 240 LED

Weigh­ing only 480g, this ring lamp is USB pow­ered and can be eas­i­ly trans­port­ed. Pho­to: Fal­con Eyes

The LED illu­mi­na­tor Fal­con Eyes Beauty­Light is equipped with 240 LEDs and has an out­er diam­e­ter of 31 cm. The col­or tem­per­a­ture is adjustable with­in 3000–5500K. There is a dim­mer to adjust the bright­ness of the light.

To fix addi­tion­al devices (for exam­ple, a micro­phone or a phone hold­er), addi­tion­al con­nec­tors are pro­vid­ed on the case.

This smart­phone ring light is pow­ered by USB, the cable and pow­er sup­ply are sup­plied with the device. In addi­tion to them, the pack­age includes a bag for stor­age and car­ry­ing, a hold­er for a smart­phone, a tri­pod adapter, a ball head.

The cost of the Fal­con Eyes Beauty­Light 240 LED ring lamp is from 5,730 rubles.

Pros of Falcon Eyes BeautyLight:

• porta­bil­i­ty;
• the pres­ence of a dim­mer;
• adjustable col­or tem­per­a­ture;
• com­pact and light­weight (480 g).

Cons of Falcon Eyes BeautyLight:

• col­or ren­di­tion is not accu­rate (CRI> 87) — not suit­able for make­up artists and col­orists.

FST RL40BL

FST RL40BL is the most expen­sive ring lamp in our top. Pho­to: Fal­con Eyes

The FST RL40BL LED illu­mi­na­tor has a diam­e­ter of 35 cm and is equipped with 360 diodes. The col­or tem­per­a­ture is adjustable (3200–5600K). The bright­ness range is 10–100%, col­or ren­der­ing index CRI is 95+.

Oppor­tu­ni­ty of work from 2 accu­mu­la­tors or from a net­work is pro­vid­ed.

The lamp can be con­trolled using the FST RC-01 remote con­trol (sold sep­a­rate­ly, price — from 1,430 rubles).

The FST RL40BL LED lamp costs from 10,350 rubles.

Advantages of FST RL40BL:

• adjustable col­or tem­per­a­ture, accu­rate col­or repro­duc­tion;
• 2 pow­er modes;
• dim­mer and phone hold­er.

Cons of FST RL40BL:

• high price;
• remote con­trol for a fee.

Results

For con­ve­nience, we have col­lect­ed all the cri­te­ria for eval­u­at­ing each mod­el in a table:

Our selec­tion of LED ring lights received the fol­low­ing scores:

The Ray­lab RL-0518 Kit LED illu­mi­na­tor for the smart­phone received the max­i­mum rat­ing. This 50W lamp is suit­able for indoor and out­door pho­tog­ra­phy.

In sec­ond place are two devices at once. Fuji­mi FJL-Ring12 will be a great assis­tant for blog­ging in social net­works or beau­ty shoot­ing. Com­pact and light­weight, the Fal­con Eyes Beauty­Light 240 LED is ide­al for on-site shoot­ing or events.

Next comes the Yongn­uo YN128 II ring lamp. It gives you max­i­mum free­dom when choos­ing a shoot­ing loca­tion, thanks to the sup­port of three pow­er options.

Com­plet­ing our top LED bulbs for smart­phones FST RL40BL. This is a uni­ver­sal mod­el for sub­ject and por­trait shoot­ing, as well as man­i­cure and make-up artists.