Opteka RL-12 Digital Macro LED Ring Light for Canon EOS, Nikon, Sony Alpha, Olympus and Pentax Digital SLR Cameras

For I spent for it, the light works ok but strictly for close macro work only. The LEDs aren't especially bright so one has to be within six or eight inches for the light to be effective. The light is well diffused and doesn't create a harsh glare unless the subject has a high gloss.The big downside is the body of the light will block the sensors for any of the settings, such as exposure and focus. Manual settings have to be used.This works well for closeup macro work on immobile subjects for a high end point and shoot when used with a tripod. I got this for use on a Canon SX10 IS. Since the SX10 doesn't have threads to mount filters, etc., I had to get an adapter ring so it would fit on the end of the lens barrel which wasn't a problem since I knew this upfront. Using this with my camera on mobile subjects would be frustrating since the focus would have to be constantly fiddled with and manual focussing is a bit tedious. Those with higher end cameras would be better off with a higher quality macro flash.

This light works as it should, but I just think it should have been designed with about twice as many led lights. It is well enough made, and fits my lenses just fine with the adapters. I have taken some decent macro photo's with it, but one smaller f/stop would have made for better depth of field and/or made it easier for handheld shots. If you like to shoot your macro shots with very shallow depth of field, as some people do, this light could work for you. If your macro photo is always done on a tripod it should work good for that. Any reflections in your subject will show the ring of spots made by the leds. On the plus side it was very inexpensive and so far has been trouble free. I would reccommend it to someone that understands these strengths and weaknesses, given the moderate price.

This will be one of my "quick" reviews (i get very wordy on some). I purchased this at work. I needed to take lots of close-ups and our point and shoot camera was blowing out the photos with the flash enabled. Without flash, there was too little light. Many ring lights were ~$200, which was a bit much. I wasn't looking for superior brightness or great color accuracy in the light source. I just wanted to take some decently lit photos of failing solar panel components (i'm a reliability engineer). This little guy really did the job well. I never tried it with an SLR, so can't comment on the adaptor rings. Ultimately, i ditched the camera in our lab and just shot photos with my iPhone 3GS. I held the camera lens of the phone in the middle of the ring light. It worked quite well and i was able to easily pull off the photos back at my desk.So, this isn't a complete review, but i just wanted to chime in that it does the job. Keep in mind that the quality of the plastics is quite cheap. You're buying (and getting) and cheap ring light. For my application, it worked quite well, but your mileage may vary...

If you think a $20 light will replace a $500 flash, then you need to think again.This light is decent, don't get me wrong, but it's far from perfect. With it, I managed to cut my shutter speed roughly in half most of the time. While that sounds good, it means that I dropped from a 1.5 second shutter to .7 seconds. A definite improvement, but it means I still need to use a tripod or other stabilizing device most of the time. Were I using an actual macro lens rather than a macro tube, I suspect my results would be better.My box advertises a "Variable power switch," but the extent of the variation is ON or OFF.

I was so excited to use this macro light on my HS10 and at first i thought it was working perfectly until I saw that 2 out of the 12 LED bulbs were not lighting up. I would have had the product replaced but unfortunately, there was no option for that. Instead I was given a refund. I will be ordering for the same thing maybe next week. Hopefully it turns out OK as I liked the quality of the pictures I used this product with (around 4 shots). If it still turns out to be broken, I'm gonna be really disappointed.

For what it is it works great. Yes, it could have more power and a lo-med-hi setting but it could also cost a hundred bucks too. If you keep within a couple of feet and have fast lenses it will work just fine.As an added bonus, the Cokin P Series adapter rings fit nearly perfectly so if you have some of those or need a size other than what was included those will work.I posted two pics, one taken with the light ring and the other with a flash ($400 SB800). The flash maintained the color better, the LED's lighted up the blue too much so a color temp adjust will have to be made to the light ring pics if accurate color is a must. The flash on the other hand created shadows where the light ring didn't.

It's not that effective for my videos, I only used it once and didn't make much of a difference

This is not a flash. The lights are either off or on. It is great for macro work or close portrature. The range of adapters is great for such a low priced product.I would definitely recommend having it in your camera bag.

I've got 2 of these lights, which are a great idea and could be perfect if they replaced the LED's with less power hungry ones and more reliable ones. 2 leds failed after a few hours on my first unit and my second unit is fine so far. As for "200 minutes continuous use", I can't get more than 35 minutes before the LED's dim using alkalines. Try it with rechargeables, which start life at 1.2 volts and the unit is dimming in 20 minutes and useless after 30 mins. I have another LED light which goes on for hours and hours on rechargeables and this light has about 40 LED's in it, so its a mystery to me. May 2012 update. I'm afraid the LED's in my second unit have started to fail in the same way as the first unit did. This I hasten to add is after about 10 hours use and NOT continuous. I have now arranged with Amazon for a refund for both my faulty units and must assign both these items to the file marked, "Rubbish!" This would be a brilliant product if they just sorted out some decent LED's for the unit!

It is a continuous LED Ring Light, not Flash. The ilumination intensity is good for general pourpose works. The ilumination is insufficient for dental photography. The relation price/quality is good.

I use it to film my Youtube videos, light is enough!