Re: I need a cheap light that works
 

It's the same exact light I bought for $29 less:


It's a good light, lots of power and good battery life, but it's too heavy and it makes it hard to keep the camera still.

Re: I need a cheap light that works
 

I've bought a few of the different lights - the 160 is big and clunky, but plenty of light so you use the dimmer. The CN126 version is a bit smaller, somewhat lighter, still uses various Sony and I think one Panasonic batteries, quite good for the price, and again is dimmable.

it's not much lighter, but a bit smaller (you're stuck with either AA batteries or a "rechageable" type I've not seen), the SYD 1509 has a bit more stable mount, doesn't try to get fancy with tilting or anything, so less wobble. Has a dimmer, so you have some control. No "gels" (slide in plastic filters to alter the output temp a bit) like the others I've mentioned have, but seems to have decent diffusion from the built in front panel. Around $45, 135 small LEDS. Not a "perfect" light, but seems to be a better build quality.

FWIW, my "ideal" light would be smaller, for the most part you don't need the 100+ LED arrays on full power, seems like maybe half that would be sufficient (or a small array of the larger more powerful LEDs?), run on AA, or have adapters for any of the small camera batteries (already got plenty in the bag, of say NP-FV), filters/gels would be nice, and a DIMMER is mandatory - that's the thing that seems to get left off all the "small" lights!

Re: I need a cheap light that works
 

Hi Dave

Agreed!! That's why I have gravitated to the light with the 6 power leds rather than my 120 or 160 LED units! It IS a lot more compact but only can use Sony batteries!! On both the 120 and 160 lights I found that the mounting shoe was worse than useless and wobbled badly!! On both of the multi-led lights I cut off the silly plastic shoe and stem and drilled a hole in the body of the light and added a mini-ball head that has a cold shoe connector on it's base. These make the lights pretty sturdy!!!

The power LED light however does have a substantial base and doesn't need any modification!!

Chris