Prod Mod Lighting Review

by Jeffrey Chin

Just over a month ago I purchased a Portable LED Camera light from Mike @ ProdMod.com.  I was most interested in finding an affordable product with a powerful beam with a long battery life.  I searched through the internet from the prosumer level LITEPANELS to the SANYO entry level products.  I finally arrived to Mike's DIY website.  He advertised his product to be energy efficient and highly portable, fitting my assumed needs.

Through a couple weeks of discussion we finalized an order for the product.  It was similar to the one listed on his website @ http://prodmod.com/buy/prodmod-nightvlogger-160-kit/, except I asked for a cold shoe-mount so that it could fit atop my VX2000 Sony Prosumer Camcorder.  

When it arrived I took it out of its nicely packaged box.  Mike has sent me an email with instructions about his little gadget.  The light to me was amazingly light, weighing less than my trackball mouse.  It was also thin, which is great because it fits neatly into my excessively full camera bag.  My model consisted of two AA batteries inputs, a board, the light, and the cold shoe mount.

The first couple shots that I took were in the darkest place I could find - My bathroom.  I attached the light to top of my gorilla pod and hung it on the towel rack to produce a film noir-esque affect.  It was cool and extremely bright.  However nicely lit, after using the light for just over 5 minutes I began to get a headache.  I'm not sure how to explain it, it was much as a throbbing headache mimicking the extremely quick frequency of the LED light.

Anyway, I continued along with my new light and attached the light atop my Digital SLR (Canon Rebel) and shot some household items including close ups of my rabbit statuettes w/ and w/o flash.  From the camera view it seemed that the photos came out clearly with the provided light by the LED.  However, after uploading the photos the images were all blurry.  It was sadening to know tha the light not only gives one headaches but also cannot take good still photographs.

Finally I attached the light to my video camera.  It was simple and easy just to mount of the top, a quality which again pretty much had me sold to at least purchase the product.  I felt that even though the light seems to give off brightness in a smaller room, I wondered how powrful it might compare itself to the sun and how it might help prevent silhouetting.  When the light was mounted atop my camcorder I used the included extender to prevent shadows produced by my lens hood.  I felt that the light did justice for itself in darker room by producing a broad light, yet it was not powerful enough to be a key light for an interview, and produced headaches.

Will I use this light in the future?

Yes, it does what I asked for.  

Is it the best product for my needs?

Probably not, but on a budget it works at the cost of migraine headaches.

For an upgraded product I would suggest to have multiple LEDs to spread the source of the light to minimize such an intense affect.  I would recommend Mike to anyone who has a project and is willing to give time to explore newer and affordable innovations.