Yongnuo YN360 II LED Light Wand (5500K)

This thing is amazing to do close portraits. I bought them last month and brought it with me to Brazil, all the people Ive been shooting using the neon effect that this product does are so amazed by it. You should definetly get two in order to mix colors. Its really awesome.

This fine "ice light" is obviously Yongnuo's answer to Wescott's very expensive product (brainchild of the magnificent Jerry Ghionis). I've not owned the Westcott product, and after using this baby I'll never own one. The YN360 II puts out beautiful, very bright and clean, daylight balanced light. All told, this YN 360 II overperforms for the money, at about 1/3 the cost of the Wescott. Highly recommended.

Performs beautifully in native 5500 mode, producing very clean, soft light. The RGB mode is equally pleasing, providing a multitude colors for backgrounds and for offbeat, mood-evoking light. 5500 mode is very bright at full power; RGB light is considerably less bright. For less than 130, you can buy 3 of these babies for the cost of just one of the Westcott lights, making the YN360 II a must-have (unless one is a "brand-chump" who sneers at the "cheapo" brand equipment). The YN360 II is bulky without being ponderous; holding it for extended times should be no trouble for your assistants. A screw mount makes attaching the light to a light stand easy. If all this isn't enough, Yongnuo provides a free app for iPhone (and I think for Android as well) enables complete, hands-free control of the YN360 II both in 5500 mode and in RGB mode. I can imagine that treated with appropriate TLC, this fine light should last for years. Recharging the light is easy and fast, using the provided charging cable. Yongnuo hit it out of the park with the YN360 II. This is an easy 5 star recommendation, for fine performance, for features unavailable in the Westcott light, all at a price within reach of any photographer.

I've used Icelights, so that's what I am comparing this to. Build quality is what I expected from this light. It feels like it might break if I dropped it more than 2-3 times, not as durable feeling as the Icelight. The light also is completely white, which kinda makes it look goofy or like a toy. If you can get over that, this light is awesome! I took it apart and put two layers of parchment paper over the diffusion insert to give it a softer look since the light if very directional and center heavy. I wouldn't recommend you do this as it's hard to get it back together again. The over-all performance is great, it's not too hard to use one handed while you are filming with a gimbal rig. The phone app is really handy too if you want to hide the light behind a plant or object to create a wall texture. Color looks great and I like that it has an internal battery with power indicator so you know how much of a charge you have.

I am a photography/videographer and have been at it for years, but these are amazing. I take them with me on every shoot.; The battery life is awesome. I heard in a YouTube review they last about two hours on 5500K and four hours on colored, but in my experience I am sure those are longer. I've use professional video lighting such as ARRIs and others, but these get very bright. I have been able to light multiple subjects with just two. My biggest plus for this over other lights is the ability for me to access just about every color in the color wheel without color gels. Worth the money.

Good for 3 purposes: 1) Extra fill light for an on-location interview if you bring a light stand 2) hair light for a more formal interview or 3) background accents for interviews or portraits - just put it in RBG mode and hide it behind your subject