The best lights for Zoom calls will instantly make you look more appealing on a webcam. So whether you're having a one-to-one with the boss, pitching to a client, or addressing a meeting, you'll project a clear, crisp, and flattering image and look much more professional and confident.
Certainly, if you’ve spent money on the best 4K webcam, then it makes sense to invest in lighting too. And the best lights for Zoom calls are normally powered by LEDs, due to their longevity, reliability, and low energy consumption.
They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, too, so there are a lot of choices available. You might want a tabletop light, a larger free-standing lamp, or a small light with a suction-cup light that can be mounted anywhere. Bigger lights tend to offer more brightness, color flexibility, and more flattering light, although they also tend to be more expensive, so there's a compromise to be made there.
Below, we've listed the best Zoom lights you can buy right now. And we've included all the information to help you make the right choice for your needs.
Willing to stretch your budget? The Lume Cube Wireless ring light is packed with premium features. It's probably overkill for just Zoom calls, but if you need a ring light for multiple professional uses, this could be a wise choice. Read more below...
Just want a good value light for Zoom calls? This is probably your best bet. The light itself is excellent, offering a good range of brightness and color temperature options, making it easy to customize your lighting. Read more below...
This entry-level home studio lighting kit can provide a diffuse key light and also reduces wrinkles by removing harsh shadows, so it should flatter your face as well as adding a sparkle to your eyes. Read more below...
Ready to push the boat out? You can rig up this light to give yourself soft, flattering, professional-quality lighting on your calls. The fully dimmable set of LEDs can be white-balanced from 3150K to 6500K, ensuring accurate colors in all conditions. Read more below...
This little light can work well for Zoom calls, as well as plenty of other photo or video lighting applications. It’s packed with a wealth of lighting options, has a solid casing, and the fact that it doubles as a power bank makes it even more versatile. Read more below...
Best lights for Zoom calls in 2024
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Want to look your best? YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and TikTokers know all about that, and typically use a ring light, which produces constant light, and sculpts the face in a flattering way.
Why not emulate this 12-inch model from Razer? The light quality is great and is softly diffused to cast your face in the most attractive manner. The included tripod is sturdy and substantial.
And the wired remote lets you tweak the brightness and cycle between three color temperatures with one hand. That means you can adjust things discreetly during your Zoom call, without drawing attention to yourself.
Overall, this ring light is easy to use, well made, and offers great performance for the price.
Willing to stretch your budget? The Lume Cube Wireless ring light is packed with premium features. While it's much more expensive than the Razer Ring Light (number 1 on our list), it's also much bigger, at 18 inches in diameter. The light itself is really bright, and the two included batteries promise up to 1.5 hours of run time at full brightness. You can also run it off the mains if you prefer.
The built-in 3200-5600K color temperature range and high levels of brightness minimize shadows and reduce facial imperfections for the most flattering look. There's an LED readout for settings. Plus it comes with a carry case, a 6.5-foot stand, and mounts for iPhones, other smartphones, digital cameras, and action cameras up to 10 lbs.
In truth, this is probably overkill for just Zoom calls. But if you need a ring light for multiple professional uses, such as streaming or professional selfies, it could be a wise choice.
If you're not bothered about a ring light and just want a good value light for Zoom calls, this is probably your best bet. The Lume Cube Video Conferencing Kit comes with an excellent Panel Mini LED, plus an included suction cup that allows it to be mounted to pretty much anything.
Though the obvious choices would be at the top of your laptop or computer monitor, you could also mount it to a wall for a side light if you wanted, or to a tall piece of furniture. In short, there are plenty of possibilities.
The light itself is excellent. It offers a good range of brightness and color temperature options, making it easy to customize the quality of the light and get it just the way you want it. Also, while it’s powered by a built-in battery, you can use the included USB-C to USB-A cable to connect the panel to your computer and power it that way, meaning you never have to worry about the battery dying mid-call.
No internal battery so lights require tethering via USB cable
Joby’s Studio Deluxe Lighting Kit provides an affordable entry-level way to elevate the production values of your video presentations. The diffuse output of the key light reduces the presence of wrinkles and adds a more engaging sparkle to your eyes. This face-on key light source can make your features look flat, so it's useful to add a splash of extra light and color to the side of your face using the kit’s smaller background ‘modeling’ light.
Both lights need to be powered by plugging them into a USB source (such as on your PC), so the lack of portable power tethers you to your desktop or laptop (whereas many LEDs have chargeable internal batteries and can therefore be placed with more freedom). All in all though, this is an effective entry-level 2-point lighting kit.
The best light for Zoom calls if money's no object
Specifications
Color temperature: 3150-6300K
Power Source: AA batteries or Mains
Weight: 354g (Rotolight NEO 2)
Dimensions: 145 x 50mm (Rotolight NEO 2)
Reasons to buy
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No flicker
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Incredibly versatile
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Great accessories
Reasons to avoid
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Over-specced for just Zoom
Ready to push the boat out? Rotolight is deservedly one of the most respected names in video lighting, and this pricey kit includes the Rotolight NEO 2. With ease, you can rig up this light to give yourself soft, flattering, professional-quality lighting on your calls. The fully dimmable set of LEDs can be white-balanced from 3150K to 6500K, ensuring accurate colors in all conditions.
If this all sounds a little overkill for just Zoom calls – well, it probably is. However, the Rotolight NEO 2 is cheaper these days thanks to the introduction of the NEO 3, and this video conferencing kit represents good value for money, throwing in a desktop light stand, a 360-degree ball head, and four-piece filter set to further diffuse the light.
The Lume Cube RGB Panel Pro 2.0 is one of the best portable LED lights on the market, making it great for zoom calls, as well as lots of other photo or video lighting tasks. It’s not nearly as affordable as, say, the SmallRig RM120 (below), but we’ve not had a Lume Cube product fail yet, so we’d expect this little light to weather general wear and tear like a champ.
It emits a suitably bright light, and it’s big enough to produce a nice even beam that can work as a flattering light for zoom calls. The pre-set lighting effects aren’t perfect, but they pair nicely with the fantastic standard light, endless spectrum of colors, and power bank functionality. It all comes together to create what is perhaps best described as the multi-tool of portable LED lighting.
The special effects are not particularly useful on most Zoom calls
There are many mini light panels on the market, but the RM120 stands out from the crowd for several reasons. For starters, we were impressed by its construction. It feels more robust (and heavier) than many flimsy plastic LED panels due to its metal body (and this quality is reflected in its comparatively expensive price). It also has a colour OLED display on the rear that makes it easier to view the many menu modes this mini LED panel has to offer. You can dial in a range of color temperatures using the main dial at the side (which also doubles up as a mode-changing button). A 1/4 threaded hole lets you mount the light on a stand or tripod, you can use the supplied cold shoe adapter to pop the panel above your DSLR or mirrorless camera.
The Lume Cube Panel doesn't reinvent anything about LED lighting, but it's a useful unit for occasional use, or to carry with you when away from home. For a start, it's not just an LED panel, but also a power bank; when we tested it out, we were using it as a light while also charging a smartphone, which is pretty handy.
It doesn't hold enough juice to replace a dedicated power bank, but it's a handy feature nonetheless. If you don't use this functionality, then the 3.85V Li-Polymer battery will last about 90-100 minutes, which is also really impressive. Brightness is good, and you can adjust the color temperature, so you can more naturally blend in with your room lighting.
Setting up a Zoom call but have limited desk space, or perhaps you just need some more light while in a virtual meeting while on a train? Then opt for the Lumimuse 8, a lithium-ion powered LED light that will easily add more light to your video call. It’s incredibly bright considering its compact dimensions and so lightweight it’s easy to throw in the pocket before leaving the house.
Simply prop it up on the desk or attach it to one of Manfrotto’s many accessories for flexible positioning. The only drawback is a limited stepped brightness control and snap-on filters for adjusting color balance, but for most Zoom users it’s a great value LED panel to add a splash of light.
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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, colour 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.
Jase Parnell-Brookes is an award-winning photographer, educator and writer based in the UK. They won the Gold Prize award in the Nikon Photo Contest 2018/19 and was named Digital Photographer of the Year in 2014. After completing their Masters Jase has spent a good chunk of two decades studying and working in photography and optics shooting and writing all over the world for big-name brands and media outlets. Now the Channel Editor for Cameras and Skywatching at Space.com their speciality is in low light optics and camera systems.
