Yongnuo YN 300 II video lights

The Yongnuo YN 300 II video light, a fairly priced light for photography and video ist ntroduced in this article.

Introduction

For a couple of my tutorials i used my  [post id=341]Lumix[/post] to do the video, but using the kit lens it is getting dark very fast, so you have to increase the ISO setting, but this would not increase the video quality. Therefor very fast i had the need for video lights. Since i’m doing all this in my spare time, the price should be reasonable.

The choice

Due to positive reviews on a couple of websites i found the Yongnuo video lights. Knowing Yongnuo from the [post id=145]YN 568 EX II[/post] flashes, the [post id=149]YN 622C[/post] radio triggers i trusted the quality and ordered 2 YN 300  II video lights, 2 rechargable batteries and a battery charger. The complete set ran just about 170 ,– €.

Configuration

The YN 300 II video light provides 150 LED lights with a color temperature of  5500 °K and another set of 150 lights for a color temperature of 3200 °K. Both sets can be controlled seperately. But let take a look on the video.

Lets take a look on the differences in color temperatures of both sets:

Mixing both sets will give you a warmer light color with the maximum brightness, which doesn’t need to be corrected, but that’s a a matter of personal taste.

The above pictured X-Rite colorchecker provides a neutral grey card on the back site, which i used to measure the light in 1m distance from the card. Turning on only the 5500° K LED set you’ll get a 1/100sec. at f 4.0 on ISO 100, measured with the spot meter of the camera. Adding the 3200° K set will not lead to 1/200sec., i measured just a 1/160 sec., maybe this is due to the color temperature.

The Patona rechargable batteries are pretty bold and heavy, but they last almost 4 hrs. on full power. This is a goot value but it takes a long tiome to recharge the batteries, it took the whole night before the contrl light on the battery charger turned green.

A point of criticism is the little bag delivered with the video lights, is too small. The video light won’t fit into the bag if you just mounted the hot-shoe to the video light, which is also base for the handle or to mount the light on a light stand. So please Yongnuo provide a bigger bag or forget about it.

I mount the video lights on light stands, which are available for a fair price from Walimex and other manufacturers. If you taking the video with a little help from another person you can mount the video light with the handle and the helping person can follow you with the light more flexible.

Conclusion

The YN 300 II video lights are recommendable for smaller video or photography projects, and the price/performance value is very good.

What are your experiences with video lights? Write down your experiences and questiosn are welcome too.

ciao tuxoche