Samples from F&V R-300 LED Ring Light and Comparison with 600 LED Panel
So many people have been waiting to see example footage from F&V’s Brand NEW LED Ring Light the R-300. In the video below, we show you not only how this Ring Light performs as a 3 Point Light Setup but also what the color looks like and how the R-300 LED Ring Light compares to a common 600 LED Light.
The R-300 LED Ring Lights are daylight balanced to 5600K so we locked our cameras in at 5600K to show the truest representation of color temperature that these lights produce. None of the lights were at their full brightness in this video. We simply lit and exposed for the situation I was in- the small studio space. The R-300 LED Ring Light ships with a Frost filter, we used this on the ring light. The 600 LED Light did not come with a diffuser gel so we lit the space with the light naked. The most noticeable trait that we see is the greenish color cast that the 600 LED is giving off. The 600 is also a bit spottier. For both tests we left our cameras locked in at 5600K. ** NOTE ** The R-300 does NOT come with the Milk Diffusion filter. That is sold separately. It does come with the Frost filter which is more transparent. It lets more light through but it does not soften the light as much as the Milk Diffusion Filter.
Here are a few things to note about why the R-300 has been such a popular addition to the possibilities of lighting for many shooters. This light is powerful and inexpensive. At 1950 Lux @ 1 meter, you get a lot of bang for your buck with this light. If you saw Emm’s earlier comparison of light spread between the R-300 and other LED lights (FOUND HERE), the 312 LED Video Light and the 600 LED Light
R-300 SPECIFICATIONS
- 300 Daylight Balanced LEDs ( 5600K )
- 1950 Lux @ 1-meter
- 85% Color Rendering Index
- Seamless Power Variation: 0-100%
- Flicker-free for Film and Video
F&V LED Ring Light R-300
Thanks for doing that Olivia, looks like a light I need to check out!
Dave
Shut up and take my money! Can we see it in all its music video camera mounted glory?
@Angelo LOL! Do you have a shoot coming up? Real world application would be killer.
Is it possible to do a power test which shows the approximate F-stops we can shoot at with this light at full power (with and without the diffusion options) in similar settings that you shot this video? Comparing it to other LED lights or fluorescent lights would be a plus!
Thanks for all the hard work Olivia!
Definately Dave. I’m glad I discovered the light last week, ordered 2 immediately, hopefully coming every moment. I’m going to do a raw graycard check on them. My amaran aputure LED had definately a greencast but with a quarter minus green from Lee it was balanced perfectly.
Wow that F+V ring light keeps impressing me.
That jar of water was really distracting mostly because I’m familiar with the adjacent controller and Murphy’s Law.
Olivia,
Thanks for answering my questions i posted in your original R-300 video with your last two R-300 comparison videos. Im loving this light so far. I might just order another one!
@kidzsicarus Can you please share with us your feedback on the R-300 LED Ring Light? Thank you!
Here is a warning in regards to F&V Lighting, they will let you order the “STUDIO PACKAGE – 15MM RAIL MOUNT” kit (that adds $40 to the package price) that is supposed to include a 15mm rail mount, but you will not receive the rail mount as ordered. My emails to them in regard to the missing for 15mm rail mount parts received the following response:
“There was a slight delay in the delivery of the 15mm Rail Mount to our US office. The reason for the delay was to guarantee the best performance out of the Rail Mounts as possible. We are not quite satisfied with them yet and needed a few minor adjustments. The R-300 LED Ring Light comes standard with the L-Shape Bracket. We will ship out your 15mm Rail Mount in roughly 1-2 weeks.”
The proper thing to do would be remove or mark as out of stock the 15mm rail mount kit on their site until they can actually provide what their customers are purchasing.
It is now over two week since I received the kit and I have heard nothing from them since their last email. At this point I have had to request a refund for the missing 15mm rail mount parts.
I can’t believe you didn’t do demo of this portable ring light the way it was intended to be used…. On camera around lens!
@Lensflairmedia I wanted to show that this light can be used in other applications. Everyone already associates a ring light as such, however with this light in particular, there is so much more that can be done with it. I also really wanted to acknowledge that this LED light (at this price) has such a clean CRI.
Hey Olivia,
Thanks so much for posting this and all your work in general. It’s sooo helpful in this abyss of endless equipment!
I’m prob gonna get three R-300′s for a portable 3-point interview set-up. I found some compact light stands, Lumopro LP605, that fold down to 19.25″. Got any suggestions for a case that would fit all this nicely, along with like 6 batteries, 3 chargers,and 3 AC adapters? Was maybe thinking of a pelican roller but wanted to see if you have any thoughts. Thanks!
@Eric I am actually about to publish a video on this exact setup along with bag options. If you can wait until early next week, I will have it published for you.
haha perfect. great minds think alike… and have bag issues
Olivia, do your light stands have a way to angle the lights down or is that an adapter?
@David I am using the F&V ball head in this video. Any simple ball head will do the trick to enable you to articulate your light.
Dear Olivia, hello from South of France. 1000 tanks for your blog : it’s very helpfull for beginners like me. Do you think that 2 of these F&V lights could be enough to light a white wall to do a realy white black grounds for video. So it could be also a very affordable “4 points lighting kit” for chromakey for example.
Excuse my bad english and thank you for your response.
@Jean-Christophe Thanks for reading along! No, just two of these F&V LED Lights will not be sufficient for creating and lighting an infinite white background. Have you seen my video tutorial on creating an infinite white background? CLICK HERE
Are CFL softbox lights like these avail where you are? Also, will you be needing these lights to be portable? If so.. these type of softbox lights are probably not your best bet. You may want to consider cool lights like Kino Flos in that case.. or a cheaper version of them.
Thank you Olivia. Yes i’ve seen your great tutorial but i’m looking for a portable and durable light solution and i would like to know if new f&v k4000 led panel could do the job? The new milk filter looks great to diffuse light. Isn’t it? I’ve also seen the konova’s “kinoflo” : they look great but I think that bulbs are to fragile to travel with.( I have to do photo and video shootings at my Clint’s offices) What do you think about a solution with 5x f&v k4000 ?
Thank you for your response. (Your blog is really really helpfully )
@Jean-Christophe I just got a few K4000′s in and they’re really great. For portability I think these are a better fit than the Kinoflos. If you purchase the K4000 Daylight LED Studio Panels from the OTech site we both win! Thanks for your support
Also, Jean-Chistophe, I will have a video review on the K4000′s up in a week at most.
Great! Your the best. Thank you.
Hi Olivia,
Great review! Exactly what I was looking for. However I have one question for you. How bright is the R-300 compared to the Switronix TorchLED TL-BT200? The spec says that the Switronix puts out 3800 lux at 1m, which is significantly brighter than the R-300 (only 1950 lux at 1m), so I hope you could help me clarify this.
Thank you!
@Tommy I no longer have the TorchLED light so I cannot do a said-by-side comparison. I’d go by the listed lux per company. If the Switronix states that the light is brighter than the lux of the R-300, it most likely is. You can also contact Switronix with questions, they’re pretty good about getting back to customers.
Hi There
Just purchased two of these r-300 lights. When I turn the knob from off to on – I get a slow fade up (which is great) but about 70% of the way around – the light seems to reach full brightness and then if I turn the knob any farther it turns off completely. This is confusing because the knob can still turn another half turn or so before it reaches the end of it’s range. If I turn backwards the light remains off until I go all the way back to 0.
I’m stuck as to how to get the light to full brightness. Since there is this ‘invisible’ threshold where the light will go past it’s ‘full brightness’ point and turn off… but I have no way of knowing where on the control dial that threshold point is.
Any ideas?
(using power adapter – 12v)
@Dan The lights we have here do not do that. I would contact F&V.