LED Ring Light for dedicated macro lens.

I was looking at ring flashes and realized that I can't afford one.There was one unit that sparked my interest,an LED adjustable ring light.Anyone use one?

Thank You

Mike Kennedy said:

I was looking at ring flashes and realized that I can't afford one.There was one unit that sparked my interest,an LED adjustable ring light.Anyone use one?

Thank You

Click to expand...

Hi Mike,
I too had the issue with 'doing macro' in that not enough light gets to the right places. Its possible but its a pain. Do I took a punt and bought an ebay special. Didn't cost much but the results are surprisingly good. I've not used it with pro film yet but with the Fuji Superia that I used it gave me good results.

There are quite a few DIY ringlights online for macro and portrait work. Some, obviously, are more Mickey Mouse than others but most seem to work. Some of the speedlight-based ringlights do an OK job for friends. Check out the Strobist site, too.

Just Google macro ring light.

Mike Kennedy said:

I was looking at ring flashes and realized that I can't afford one.There was one unit that sparked my interest,an LED adjustable ring light.Anyone use one?

Thank You

Click to expand...

For $8 you can buy an LED ringlight from the camping section of Wal Mart... Haven't tried it yet.. It runs on 2AA batts

The LED ring lights are not like a flash. They allow you to see the effect, which is good, but they don't add enough light to solve the problem of getting enough light on a subject at small apertures to avoid camera shake or motion blur.

The Sunpak Dx-8r ring light is reasonable in price, and easy to find, used. KEH has several under $75. The Dx-12r is more powerful and costs more, but still reasonable in price. They will both give TTL auto with the correct module for your camera. Two regular small flashes, up close and on axis will give an effect similar to a ring light. Varying their distances, or using one by itself or with a fill reflector, will give results that are less flat looking, with modeling that you can control.

Mike Kennedy said:

I was looking at ring flashes and realized that I can't afford one.There was one unit that sparked my interest,an LED adjustable ring light.Anyone use one?

Thank You

Click to expand...

To solve macro problems.. here is what I did.. reverse mounted lenses with bellows attachment (both cheap), 4 way macro slider (cheap new from ebay again) to be able to frame and compose without moving your tripod over and over and over.

Then what you need is a flash trigger and a receiver or couple, and some flashes like the Yong Nuo YN-460 II's set them up where you want the light coming from, even bounce it from a card from a direction etc. And a flash meter of some kind (I got my Shepherd one cheap).

Much more power and much better quality light than LED lighting which has spectral gaps.


I much prefer placing a light somewhere than using a ring light. However you can get a ring-light adapter cheaply that pipes light from an onboard flash or hotshoe mounted flash into a ring around the lens.

Thanks all for your time and input.I'm considering the Sunpak DSLR67.