VL-10Li on camera video light

[Rajesh Puttaswamaiah]

I was planning to get one of these Canon VL-10Li for my XL1s as I do lot of Wildlife and want to shoot some during night. I had used a regular torch before, but it was quite directional and very shrp at one point,
How soft is this Canon VL-10Li video light and does it suck too much battery power?
how far can it illuminate?
Is it worth paying that much or is it better off designing our own?
Experts please enlighten me.

[Ken Tanaka]

Hello Rajesh,
The VL10 is handy to have in some situations where limited fill light is needed. But it's only 10 watts; you're not going to be able to light an outdoor scene with it.

I don't know what type of wildlife shooting you do. But you'll need much more horsepower to light an outdoor scene reasonably well.

[Rajesh Puttaswamaiah]

Thanks for the info Ken.

My outdoor subjects will be mainly smaller mammals (like jungle cats, mouse deer, jackals,etc)

I did a few minutes of shooting a civet with a normal regular home torch with 4 'A' size batteries, but the light was beam type so it could not illuminate the whole body of the civet forget about its partner and a young one. due to low light i could not capture all three in a single frame. Later I tried with a 12v dry battery which is used in UPS's and a small Bike headlight with 55Watt bulb, though this was powerful and wide i felt it was too harsh and disturbed the subject. also i had the problem of fousing the light & lens simultaneously.

Is there any other models which i can fit on the camera flash shoe and power it by external source?

[Ken Tanaka]

Rajesh,

For very small mammals (ex:housecat-sized) in small scenes the VL10 will be better that nothing..

But for more power and flexibility consider the Frezzi. There's a current thread on the subject.