As professional and amateur photographers, the accessories we require can be broadly classified into three categories. The must-have category, the nice-to-have category, and then the what-the-heck-I’m-buying-this-for-kicks category. TTartisan certainly makes many accessories that fall in the first two categories. However, the TTArtisan Mini LED Lights definitely fall under the third. They can serve a practical purpose in the right scenario, but they’re mostly just there as conversation starters and for visual appeal to your camera setup/camera bag. At the price that TTArtisan sells them for, you ought to just buy one if you like the way they look.
The Big Picture: TTArtisan Mini LED Lights
Coming in two varieties, the TTArtisan Mini LED Lights are cool accessories to hang by the side of your camera bag or use as a keychain for your everyday carry. They look like 35mm film rolls, and definitely grab people’s attention. If you need a dash of extra fill light at times, they can do a half-decent job. These LED lights do provide a fairly decent output in various colors and can be used as hair lights or fill lights, given the right conditions. But even if you don’t take them too seriously as a tool and just consider them as an adornment, like the luggage tags and pins on your camera bag, they’d still be cool to own..
For being a super cool looking, yet extremely affordable accessory that comes in two neat varieties, and will definitely be something millennials and GenXers love to own, I’m giving this 4 out of 5 stars. We grew up with our families shooting 35mm during our childhood years. An item like this is a great piece of nostalgia to have lying around our game caves and inside our camera bags.
If you’d like to order them, get yours today from Amazon.
Pros
- Magnetic, so it easily attaches to rods and poles on location
- Come with a cold shoe mount add-on
- The cold shoe mount (seen below) is magnetic too and isn’t permanently affixed to the light. This allows you to rotate the light when it’s mounted on top of your camera. This was really cool to discover
- Single colour model comes in 3 color temperatures: 6000K/4500K/3000K
- Full-color RGB LED model has a spectrum between 400-750nm
- Charges within 45 to 60 minutes via the USB-C charging port, for a usage time of 80-160 minutes
- Has a lanyard hole so you can wear it around your neck or hang it somewhere
- Protective cap above the switch to avoid accidentally turning the light on
- Looks so cool. 35mm FTW
- 300mAh battery lasts longer than you think
Cons
- I wish the RGB LED model could sync to a smartphone app via Bluetooth to quickly select the color you need. Right now, you need to hold down the on switch and cycle through the colors every time
- It would have been nice if a keychain lobster claw could have come with it, but at this price, you really can’t complain
Gear Used
- The TTArtisan Single-color LED Light (sent to us by TTArtisan for this review)
- The TTArtisan Full-color RGB LED Light (purchased by me)
Ease Of Use
With the TTArtisan Single-color LED Light, pressing the switch on top turns it on. To cycle between the three different temperature outputs, you just tap it once each time. A fourth press turns the light off. The array of 15 LED bulbs arranged in a 5×3 pattern provides a lot more brightness than you’d think it could.
For the RGB LED Light, a single tap of the switch turns it on, but in order to change the color, you have to hold down the same button until you reach the desired color. One tap as usual to turn it off.
Both units can be charged using a standard USB-C cable.
Lots of Fun
As a professional photographer, you’re not often accustomed to shooting with lights this tiny, so using them creatively can seem daunting at first, until you realise that no one’s expecting you to use them in a professional shoot. They’re great for light painting, though, as kids will soon discover. My 7-year-old had great fun creating light trails in the park using these lights.
The TTArtisan Mini LED Lights are also fantastic for adding some color pop to your frames. I do think they’d be cool and powerful enough for YouTubers to use in their home setup as fill lights. Don’t worry too much about where they might be useful. Just buy a pair and keep them in your camera bag for use anywhere. The ideas are bound to turn up when they should.
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