Ring lights are brilliant ways to illuminate a scene, and they have become enormously popular in recent years. However, they have one thing in common: they're bulky and take up a lot of space to store or transport. Until now!
This new light does something that even the best ring lights don't do: it folds in half, giving it a much smaller footprint that makes it far more convenient to put away or even travel with.
Okay, we have seen folding ring lights before – but mainly expensive options in the $500 price range. The Etsumi Vlog Foldable Ring Light, from Japanese company Etsumi, comes in much more affordably at ¥7,920 – which works out as just $74 / £53 / AU$96.
It has a 10-inch diameter that, as the name suggests, makes it great for content creation, and an ideal companion for the best vlogging cameras. It packs 120 LEDs that can output 480 lumens of brightness, which can be adjusted steplessly for hair-precise control.
An interesting byproduct of the folding design is that it illuminates even while folded. So it can create a semicircular lighting pattern, and it also behaves as a dual-sided light since both sides of the ring produce illumination.
The Etsumi ring light also boasts color temperature adjustment from 2,700 to 5,600 Kelvin, enabling you to match the daylight or artificial illumination in your scene accordingly. The unit is powered by a standard USB port, so you can connect it to your laptop, phone charger or power bank.
It comes with a flexible camera phone holder and features a quarter-inch screw thread for mounting on a tripod – and weighing just 410g it will sit comfortably even on mini tripods designed for your tabletop.
The Etsumi Vlog Foldable Ring Light is currently only available in Japan, but such a brilliant design is sure to make its way overseas before long.
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