You might have assumed that LED light panels would only be suitable for videographers – but this isn’t the case. While they’re definitely more commonly associated with video, the best LED panels can be hugely useful for photography, giving you instant, real-time preview of how your light looks. I often find myself recommending them to photographers, hybrid shooters, and those working in video.
In this guide, I’ve distilled the best of the best – all the finest LED light panels the DCW team has tested. This includes a broad range, from heavy-duty cinematography lights to pocketable panels that clip onto a smartphone. Whatever your setup, whatever you shoot, I think there will be a great LED light here to suit you.
As the name suggests, an LED light panel is a flat array of dozens – or hundreds – of individual LEDs that combine to create a larger overall light source and more powerful output. They are distinct from LED video lights, which use a single or small cluster of high-power LEDs, or LED light sticks or wands, which have an arrangement of LEDs in a narrow tube, or ring lights, which have the donut-shaped array of lights favored by vloggers. We also have guides to the best flashguns and the best studio lighting kits. See our separate buying guides for any of those.
But if you're looking for a circular or rectangular panel of LEDs, you're in the right place. So if you need more light in your life, let’s get started!
Ben is responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight.
The best LED light panels
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Best hotshoe LED panel
While it won't be suited to everyone due to the asking price, I have to be honest and say that the Rotolight NEO 3 is simply the best LED light you can buy right now for photography and video. A significant jump ahead of the previous NEO 2, the NEO 3 delivers a full range of color in both flash and constant lighting, with full RGBWW options. It comes in various configurations, and kits and accessories will vary according to which you choose.
Small but powerful and extremely versatile as a constant LED light, the NEO 3 offers a huge range of electronic color filters and special effects, all available via a simple and intuitive color touchscreen menu.
Our resident lens-and-lighting expert Matthew gave it the full five stars in our review. About the only thing you can ding it for is the fact that its flash power is lower than conventional flashguns – but if you're shopping for an LED panel, that should be a compromise you've already accepted. The NEO 3's power and versatility quite simply put it in another class.
Also check out the newer, and almost identical Rotolight NEO 3 Pro that adds 25% more power and a built-in light metering function.
Read our full Rotolight NEO 3 review
Best portable video light
If you require a constant photography or video light, combining the smallest possible footprint but the most lighting power, then I think the Zhiyun Fiveray M40 should be a serious contender for your gear bag. It's stylishly designed, and the level of lighting power it puts out is absolutely face-melting considering the relatively small size of the thing.
Of course, compromises have to come somewhere, and as Gareth noted in our review, all this goodness comes at the price of it being somewhat on the heavy side. He also found its control system turned out to be both a blessing and a curse, with very quick and precise controls which were far too easily changed by accident. Still, neither of these are fatal flaws in my book, and I can happily recommend this powerful and affordable light.
Read our full Zhiyun Fiveray M40 review
Best dual-panel kit
Using two or more lights opens up all manner of creative options, and the Lume Cube Studio Panel Lighting Kit consists of a pair of 10-inch LED panels that utilize 'Edge-Lit' tech – an array of 200 inward-facing LEDs with a built-in diffuser – that produces a soft, even beam that is significantly brighter than cheaper alternatives.
The panels are robust and feature intuitive physical controls, including a dedicated on/off switch and clear dials for brightness and color temperature (2700K to 7500K). A high CRI rating of 96+ ensures accurate color reproduction, and the lights can be powered via AC mains power or internal batteries for roughly 80 minutes at full brightness.
As a kit with everything you need out of the box, it includes a pair of sturdy, adjustable (up to 70 inches) stands and a remote control for making multi-channel adjustments from across the room.
Read our full Lume Cube Studio Panel Lighting Kit review
Best home studio LED panel
The Amaran Verge and Verge Max are flat-panel, bi-color LED lights designed for home studios where space is at a premium. They provide the soft, flattering illumination typically associated with bulky studio softboxes, but in a form factor just over an inch thick.
The Amaran Verge is a smaller, iPad-sized rectangular panel (11.5") that produces 2,347 lumens and is ideal as a fill light or a key light for small setups. The Amaran Verge Max is a much larger circular panel (24") producing a powerful 6,455 lumens that provides a massive spread of diffuse light. Both have a CRI of 96+, ensuring accurate skin tones.
On-board controls are simple: two knobs adjust color temperature (2700K–6500K) and brightness. While the Verge Max includes a small display for precise settings, the standard Verge does not. An accompanying Amaran App unlocks more advanced features, including specific Kelvin dialing and animated effects like lightning or fire flickers.
Read our full Amaran Verge and Verge Max review
Best RGB full-color panel
Roughly the same dimensions and weight as your average smartphone, the Lume Cube RGB Panel Pro 2.0 is the kind of panel you can slip into a pocket and carry everywhere with you. Fortunately, it also delivers the goods where it counts in terms of brightness and versatility – as Mike found in our review, it offers a huge spectrum of colors in addition to the standard white output. Brightness can be adjusted from 1% to 100% in 1% increments (previous Lume Cube panels only allowed 5% increments), meaning you can get highly precise with your lighting.
The Lume Cube RGB Panel Pro 2.0 features both on-board physical controls and app integration, and honestly you'll probably gravitate towards using the app. I would mention that if you're a stickler for using a device's physical buttons, it's worth being aware they are quite small and fiddly. The Lume Cube Control app integration, by contrast, is beautifully smooth.
Read our full Lume Cube RGB Panel Pro 2.0 review
Best MagSafe-compatible panel
While there are plenty of lights on this list that are suited to smartphones, I want to single out the Harlowe Sol 5 Spectra Creator Kit for one particular reason – its MagSafe compatible. This means you can mount it to your iPhone via the same magnetic attachment you use for wireless charging. If you already shoot all your photos or videos on your iPhone anyway, it'll slot right into your setup with ease.
It's a great light too, as George confirmed in our full review – while it produces a comparatively low light output of 220 lm, that's plenty for the relatively up-close shooting most people do with phones, and being able to use the circular touch-sensitive panel to quickly dial in the desired color temperature is intuitive and easy. Also, the Harlowe light doesn't have to necessarily be attached directly to a phone – it also performed well in George's more conventional tripod-based setup, even if it was a little top-heavy and unbalanced at points.
Read our full Harlowe Sol 5 Spectra Creator Kit review
Best studio panel
Designed (and priced) for pros, this powerful, hugely versatile yet lightweight portable LED lighting panel is a radical redesign compared with the original AEOS, the main upgrade being that you get 16.7 million colors of light to play with, instead of just various degrees of white – and that goes for both constant lighting and flash, the latter with a high-speed sync option.
In our review, Matthew also praised the overhauled interface, which adds of a color touchscreen that makes it quick and easy to access a huge range of lighting options, digital filters and special effects.
The AEOS 2 is available in several kit configurations: the cheapest 'Basic' kit only includes a mains power adaptor and no battery, although the light does come complete with a good-quality diffuser dome. The Explorer Kit adds a battery and charger, plus a padded soft case. Next up on the price ladder, the Masters Kit doubles up on lamps and diffusion domes while also adding light stands and a padded soft case, but this time batteries aren’t included. Top of the range is the Ultimate Kit, which is essentially the same as the Masters Kit with the addition of two batteries and chargers. Even the cheapest AEOS 2 Basic kit is still a hefty investment, but it’s a joy to use and a top performer, making it worth the money.
Read our full Rotolight AEOS 2 review
Best for filmmakers
Rotolight has packed the technology and features of its award-winning Titan X2 RGBWW LED light panel into the new Titan X1, which is a lot more portable and cheaper to buy – though both panels are expensive compared to regular photographic lights, reflecting the fact that they're aimed at the high-end cinematography market. This is in a different league to some of the little smartphone-mounted panels I've included elsewhere in this guide.
You can set any color you like, including white, dial in electronically-adjustable diffusion, use special effects for filmmaking and even use it as a high-speed flash. As Adam concluded in our review, this is a great tool for hybrid stills photographers and filmmakers.
Read our full Rotolight Titan X1 review
How to choose the best LED panels
Modern LED panels let you precisely vary the intensity and color temperature of your light, making it straightforward to achieve precisely the look and feel you want in the shot.
The big difference between LED panels and flashguns is that LED panels emit light continuously, not just at the moment of capture, meaning you can see what your shot is going to look like before you capture it. Obviously essential in video, this can also be useful in stills photography.
LED panels come in a few different varieties, all of which we've covered in this guide. Hotshoe LED panels are the most straightforward; as the name implies, they can literally mount into a camera's hotshoe, and provide you with a point-and-shoot light source. Like a flashgun, they can also be mounted to a stand if you prefer. They're a great choice, and are often quite affordable.
At the other end of the scale, there are full-size panels. Designed to be mounted on stands for professional studio use, they're less portable, but can deliver incredible lighting power.
How we test LED panels
At DCW, we test a huge variety of photo and video equipment, including cameras, lenses and accessories such as LED panels. Our process involves both real-world and lab testing – for LED panels, we measure brightness output and compare it to the manufacturer's claims to see how well the product stacks up. We also look at portability, color temperature range, lighting modes and other factors to assess how useful the LED panel will be to working photographers and videographers. Learn more about how we test and review on Digital Camera World.
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