Owning a Lightsaber - Yongnuo YN360 Led Wand Review
What’s the one thing that can dramatically improve your photography? A Canon 5D Mark IV? No. A hefty (literally and on your wallet) lens? Nope. A good photography book with theory and examples? Oh, come on! If you really want to step your game up, good lighting is the thing you need most.
Today, I will finally show you my magic lightsaber, which I have been playing with for the last several months. I bought it right before I joined Steem with the intent to use it in my videos, but after I started blogging, I found myself using it more and more often for photography. The thing is - this RGB wand opened a whole new world of creative possibilities.
At the time of writing this post, Yongnuo YN360 costs about 83€ (96$) on Amazon, and for that amount of money you get:
• 320 LED 5500K color temperature lamps, which are so bright that it's difficult to look at them even when the brightness is set to 50%. There's also a included diffuser that can soften the light. The cool thing about it is that it snaps in place with magnets. The weird thing about it is that it's freaking orange! That's a bit of a downside.
• 40 full spectrum RGB LED lamps, which are not nearly as bright as the 5500K lamps. That could be a limitation depending on the type of photography. In portrait photography, as I cannot hold the wand close to my face, I have to bump up the ISO to compensate for the lower output. In product and macro photography, I don't have any issues because I can hold the wand really close to my subjects. Having RGB LED lights is seriously cool!
• Plastic but sturdy build. Still, I assume that the wand will break if dropped.
• A handy carrying bag and a dedicated app. An app!? Absolutely! The LED lamp can be connected to a mobile device (Android & iOS) via Bluetooth, and in theory, it should be possible to control the colors via the application. How cool is that? However, I couldn't make it work on my Lenovo phone.
The wand is be powered by NP-750 batteries or an AC power adapter. Unfortunately, neither batteries not power supply comes in the package; that can be expected, though, considering the low price. This type of batteries can be purchased relatively cheap on Amazon or eBay, and with a single 2900 mAh battery, I get about 1.5-2 hours of use.
The AC power socket and the battery compartment above it.
Controlling the wand is pretty straightforward - there's a neat control panel, as well as a display that can show the power output in percentage (0-99) plus the battery level. On the bottom, there's a 1/4"-20 female socket that allows this to be mounted on tripods and light stands.
Overall, I am thoroughly impressed with this thing! It's small and light enough (under 500 grams) to carry around. It's great for portraiture, macro and product photography, as well as videography.For the money, I would say it's a steal!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop me a comment ;)
Thank you for reading!
Yours,
Dan
This does seem like a very cool device. :c) Agreed that the choice of an orange-tinted diffuser is a little bizarre - and reminds me of light products intended for emergency use scenarios - but the impact upon your test photos are undeniably compelling. :c)
Thanks your sharing.
Haha 🚨 I am glad that you liked the photos, @pathforger :) And thank you for stopping by!
This looks way cool! I do a lot of iPhonoe stuff and unfortunately, it doesn't capture REDs - my favorite color - very true on its own. Sometimes I rig my own homegrown reflectors or gels to help out. This might do he trick!
It's one of the coolest gadgets that I've owned :) What do you mean by "it doesn't capture REDs"?
REDs don't translate true on an iPhone. The temperature and exposure are almost always wonky. It's super frustrating.
Oh, I see. Reds are not problem for my Lumix, but I remember my ex-camera (Fuji X-T1) struggling with turquoise :)
Nice! I'm thinking of borrowing one of these from a friend's kid to try some long exposure shots. Also, there's a place near where I live selling flexible LED strips of any length and colour. I'll probably buy a couple for the same purpose to try and create some trippy Christmas effects :)
You know, that could be a nice photo theme on Steem - #MyTrippyXmas or something like that :)
Lol - I can almost hear an accompanying theme song...We wish you a trippy Christmas, We wish..
💥 🎅🏿 🕉
Lol 🎅🚬
Thank you Dan that was very educational and useful to me.
Thanks for your comment, Mihail, I am glad that you found it useful :)
I do want to learn more about photography. I am a beginner at that too :)
Супер! Ако те интересува нещо конкретно - питай :)
Блгодарят ти много. Тепърва ще навлизам в светът на фотографията. И ще те питам теб когато имам въпроси. Ти си много интересен и отзивчив човек радвам се че те познавам.
И аз благодаря за хубавите думи - радвам се, че ме намираш за интересен :)
Congratulations @irreverent-dan! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP