LED light vs flash?

[havana_joe]

I had a $10 Best Buy coupon to use, I found an open box Dynex LED light for $15, and it’s for use with a camcorder/camera. It screws onto the shoe, although there are no contacts as it's just a “dumb” light, not “smart” like a flash. It uses 2 AAA batteries, it’s bright but the range does seem to be somewhat limited. I have not had time to really use it, but I did take a few quick snaps around my apartment.

It seems like it would be fine for fill light for photographing objects, but I think for photographing people it has limited use, since the non-stop light would be annoying and cause a lot of squinting.

Has anyone had luck using one of these? It seems like it would work well for getting close-ups of items for websites or Ebay, and I like that you can see the shadows and reposition before you take the picture, vs. a flash where you can’t always predict where the shadows will be. Maybe it would work well as fill light outdoors? I’m using the Nikkor 35mm 1.8 on a D40.

Thoughts?

[Anbesol]

it will be duller than dirt. A real flash would do better than it for any and everything. What can you really expect for $15 anyway? You may as well use a desklamp.

[havana_joe]

it will be duller than dirt. A real flash would do better than it for any and everything. What can you really expect for $15 anyway? You may as well use a desklamp.

Desk lamps seem a bit yellow to me and hard to carry around, especially outdoors. I don't expect a $15 LED to work like a $400+ flash or $4,000+ studio setup. I was simply asking about limited use, such as fill light when photographing still objects for online use, to see if anyone had experience with this.

Thank you for your response.

[Anbesol]

I was being facetious, sorry if it came off as rude. I have seen these items before and I honestly found them entirely worthless. What little that can do, your stock flash should do much better.

By the way - you can get bulbs with better spectrum, not all lights cast yellow. You can also compensate with custom white balance to offset the yellow cast.

[Photo-John]

Those things are only good for video. Better to invest in an inexpensive flash. Yes, you'll spend more. But you'll use it a lot more and for a lot longer.

[havana_joe]

Those things are only good for video. Better to invest in an inexpensive flash. Yes, you'll spend more. But you'll use it a lot more and for a lot longer.

Thanks John, I actually have 3 different flashes, I just like to try different things. I figure that the more things you try, the more you learn!

[Photo-John]

Thanks John, I actually have 3 different flashes, I just like to try different things. I figure that the more things you try, the more you learn!

Oh - well that's different. In that case, buy it and show us the results!