Canon Video Light for Advanced Accessory Shoe

First of all, it's as big as a walnut. I feel badly because I gave it a bad review earlier today. Then as a joke, we put it on my gl2. It was really bright. I'd said before that it wasn't but I was using it during an earlier part of the day. I only wish it came with some kind of diffusion because when it came on, I saw white circles everywhere I looked for like 30 minutes. I am really glad to have this little thing if ever I get into a low-light pinch because it probably will not eat up the battery too quickly. Maybe I can make some kind of diffuser for it too. Plugs right into the camera's shoe. I have deep set eyes, so I felt more confident when the camera was on me knowing it was helping to balance that a little. If my subjects don't go blind, I'm hoping that they too will feel good about having a little eyelight. Also, I dissed the price before, but all photography equipment is ridiculously expensive. This is cheap by comparison. I'd change it to 4 stars despite the fact that a professional camera man laughed at this little thing the other day and told me not to use it. I might have to use it though so it's part of my lightweight kit.

This light does work as designed - its really small, fixes on to the AAS hot-shoe with very little effort, and has a nifty auto mode that makes it come on when needed.However it is very important to note that 3W seems to be designed to work for situations where it is the only light source with no ambient lighting.In particular, the difference it makes is not even noticeable when standing just a few feet away from the subject with standard indoor lighting.I've rated it a 4 so as not to skew the ratings (after all it does work per spec) - but if I were to measure how well it met my needs, I'd go with a 2.Updated:I had an opportunity to use this video light around a campfire - and must say that it does make its presence felt when the subject is very poorly lit ... in this case it did great work as a fill light. If you can, borrow one to make sure that it meets your needs.

Make sure your camera/camcorder's Advanced Accessory Shoe has the "S" logo - it looks like an S with double quotation marks but the one on the left is at the bottom, extending from the bottom of the S. The AAS should have an exposed metal plate. I bought this as a supplement light for my Canon XH-A1 HD camcorder, which has a hot shoe that is also called "advanced accessory shoe" in the manual. But it doesn't have the "S" logo or the exposed metal plate, and doesn't work with this light. In retrospective it was a poor buying decision anyway, since the light is probably too small/weak for the camera. I just want to post this review so that hopefully nobody else makes a similar mistake. I tested the light on a Canon HV30 and it worked fine. But HV30 has its own on-camera light so the need for an additional light is diminished.

This light is used on my Canon Optura 30 MiniDV camcorder. I purchased this light for use during indoor investigations. The light mounts onto the advanced accessory shoe and is activated by the camera when recording. Just flip it on and when you press the record button it will light up.The light is extremely bright and wide spread. It projects more as a flood light then a flashlight which is helpful on investigations. My Canon Optura 30 has terrible low light capability so I needed a bright light to help. The night shot feature on the camera produces unusable jerky motion video. This light allows me to run in just the low light setting at full frame rate.If you plan to use a Canon camcorder in low light situations, this light is a must. Do not bother with IR lights as the Canon cannot pick up the IR light.

I don't like using video lights in my productions, but unfortunately they're something that you must turn on when the lights are turned down. I use this light mainly during wedding receptions and the subject never seem to mind. If the lights are turned down pretty low in the room, subjects realize that the light will be spotty. This light also works well and even better as a fill light. What I like most is that gets it power from the camera; however, that means that it will drain your camera's batter faster if the light is left on too long. So it's a good idea to have a one or two extra batteries for your camera. Great light for the price.

With today's new camcorders .... this is enough light for most videos. You may not think so looking at the dark viewfinder, but when you play the video back, you will be surprised how nice and well lit with "normal" brightness and saturation, even though the room was DARK. The diffuser also provides a nice flood with no hot-spots. My Canon AVCHD camera is five years old, now, and that was true then, and it has gotten better. Make sure you have a camcorder with the Canon advanced accessory shoe, as it draws power from the camcorder battery. I bought extra batteries.

This light works well up to 7 or 8 feet. The color looks natural on people, and it isn't too bright for talent looking at the camera. If you need something stronger, there are options, but this is great for taking grain out of the picture, and adding nice light at shorter ranges.

The light works okay .. a little better than the built in light on my HG10 .. but this item suffers from a serious design flaw. It sits really low, so if you attach an optional lens on the front of your camera you get a shadow cast across the bottom 50 per cent of your frame .. the lens's shadow! Just crazy poor design. This light should sit a lot higher.