The best ring light will instantly enhance your video calls, vlogs, interviews, Zoom meetings, and even selfies!
The best ring lights offer one of the most affordable and efficient ways to make your videos look professional. Once the preserve of stylish photo shoots and professional video productions, they’re now cheap enough to be accessible to anyone, including amateur YouTubers and TikTokers enthusiasts. Many are even specially designed for use with an everyday smartphone.
While ring lights were once powered by large fluorescent bulbs, nowadays it’s small LEDs that make the show. This not only makes them more affordable than professional lamps but also more compact. If you’re worried that a ring light might dominate your space and be unstable, don’t be – most of the lights on this list are tiny but mighty.
Light rings provide continuous illumination, which means they are popular among video shooters. If you’ve spent any time looking at content creators on YouTube or TikTok, you’ve almost certainly seen someone lit by a ring light. This is especially true for makeup and beauty vloggers.
While they can’t match the power output of the best flashes or flashes, some ring lights have flash modes or even high-speed sync modes, boosting their power up to 500% (with no recycle time). This makes them useful for photographers as well as videographers, and if you are someone who touches both worlds, a good ring light can be a very effective purchase.
Ring lights also have their use in the normal new world of working from home, and indeed, they are perfect combinations with the best webcams if you are looking to create a visually pleasing video conferencing setup. You’ll be surprised how much nicer you look in meetings if you take the time to enlighten yourself!
Finally, if you want to take a different kind of close-up, check out our guide to the best ring flash for macro photography.
Best ring lights in 2021
1. Razer Ring Light
The best 12-inch ring light
Color temperature: 3,000K / 4,500K / 6,500K | Power source: USB | Dimensions: 300mm outer diameter, 241mm inner diameter | Weight: 260g
The Razer Ring Light does everything you could ask for. It packs all the power you would expect from a 12 inch USB product, the light quality is excellent, and the build quality is superb, especially the included tripod which unlike those included with most ring lights, is robust and substantial.
Third-party brands are cheaper, AC-powered options are brighter, but it strikes the perfect balance and makes for a fantastic everyday ring light – and well-deserving of the Razer name. If you’re looking for a portable 12-inch ring light for streaming, video conferencing, and vlogging, this won’t let you
2. Lume Cube Wireless Light
The best portable ring light packs a powerful punch
Color temperature: 3200-5600K | Power source: Li-Ion batteries, mains | Dimensions: 18 inches
At first glance, the Lume Cube Wireless Ring Light seems overpriced compared to the other options. However, explore what you actually get and it offers good value for money: not only do you get a brilliant ring light, which can run on mains or up to 90 minutes on batteries (included), an LED display to monitor your settings and an extremely useful 6.5 foot light stand.
This is our favorite 18-inch ring light. It’s ideal for taking portraits, shooting vlogs and videos, and gives you the flexibility to work wirelessly on location, in the studio, or anywhere you might need to move the light. The strength of the plastic mounting bracket is the only question mark, so if you plan on taking a lot of top-to-bottom photos for flat poses or unboxes, you might want to try them before you buy. For the 90% of people who use vertical ring lights, look no further.
3. Neewer 10-inch LED Ring Light
The best simple ring-light for TikTok
Color temperature: 3200k-6000k | Power source: USB | Dimensions: 380x283x950 mm | Weight: 1.3kg
A lot of people looking for a ring light don’t necessarily need a lot of fancy bells and whistles. They just want something simple that works, and in that regard, the Neewer 10 inch LED Ring Light is a great choice. It’s smaller for a ring light, but still a perfect size for self-recording, vlogging, TikToks, and other quick and easy uses. It plugs in via USB and comes with a 54-inch tripod, which means it’s super easy to get started as soon as you take the Neewer 10 inch LED light ring out of the box.
You don’t get the fancy features of some of the other ring lights on this list, like the ones from Rotolight, and there are larger lights as well, including the ones from Neewer themselves. But the Neewer 10 inch LED Ring Light is a solid and all-around choice that will be a perfect fit for the vast majority of users, and that is why it ranks our number one spot. The bottom line is that if you are looking for a ring light, this one will almost certainly do the trick.
4. ESDDI PLV-R432 18-inch Ring Light
Best ring light for YouTube – big, bright, and bicolor
Color temperature: 3000K-6500K | Power source: Mains power | Dimensions: 458mm outer dia / 318mm inner dia
The ESDDI PLV-R432 is a powerful 18-inch ring light that delivers 48W of power from 432 LEDs. It’s large and bright enough to function as a key light for lavish portraits with that unique “ring light look”, producing soft lighting and circular catchlights. It’s also great for videos and vlogs, providing a useful touch or fill to soften shadows and even out lighting when presenting to the camera. Its slim waistline also makes it perfect for beauty and makeup work, giving you plenty of space and abundant light.
This kit includes everything you need to get started, with a 6 foot light stand and a padded travel case. Prominent dials adjust brightness and temperature, and the light can even rotate 180 °, making it useful for flatbed shooting or macro work. Unfortunately, the included phone holder is not very strong, and you cannot mount a camera on the light. So you’ll need to set up a separate tripod to use a DSLR or mirrorless camera if you’re filming yourself.
Note: Please be aware that the 18 inch ESDDI PLV-R432 Ring Light is difficult to obtain outside of the United States. So international users may want to consider some of the other options on our list.
5. Rotolight Neo 2
Best ring light for webcam video calls
Color temperature: 3150-6300K | Power source: 6x AA batteries, D-Tap port, AC adapter | Dimensions: 150x45mm | Weight: 354g (504g with batteries)
Okay, so the Neo 2 is technically a ring-shaped light – although for most people it will do exactly what they want. Since this isn’t a truly donut-shaped light source, it won’t achieve the same sculpted softness or circular catchlights for portraits. What it will do, however, is provide a whopping 1,840 lux (a little less than the 2,000 claimed) at a distance of 3 feet, making it an ideal key or fill light for photos. and video (especially when it can be edited with everything from barn doors to softboxes). Powered by six AA batteries, the Neo 2 can also be powered by an AC adapter for up to 500% more power in flash mode.
6. Rotolight Ultimate Vlogging Kit
Best ring light for streaming with a smartphone
Color temperature: 6300K, 5600K, 4100K, 3200K (using filters) | Power source: 3x AA batteries | Dimensions: 130mm outer dia / 38mm inner dia | Weight
The Rotolight RL48-B Stealth was one of our favorite portable ring lights in the past but faded from the market some time ago. It’s now back in an all-in-one kit, which also includes a Rotolight mini tripod, stand adapter, phone clamp, and accessory bar, making it the perfect partner for a smartphone setup. on table. While this kit is aimed at phones, the RL-48 is also an ideal light for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. The Neo 2 is a bit heavy and bulky for the shoe, but this small model is just the right size (although this kit does not include afoot for the shoe), and the hole in the middle is perfect for passing a microphone. through!
7. Neewer 20″ Dimmable Ring Light
A ring light so big, it could sit around Saturn
Color temperature: 3200-5600K | Power source: 1x NP-F battery, mains power | Dimensions: 530mm outer dia / 420mm inner dia
If the bigger the better, then the 20-inch option from Neewer is the way to go! Although this is the largest ring light offered here, with an adjustable output power of 44W from 352 LEDs, it does not have as much wattage or temperature range as the 18 inches, 48 models. W from ESDDI. However, larger light sources are softer – and the Neewer offers the option of battery power in addition to the mains, compatible with the versatile NP-F550 / F970 family (two batteries and a charger are included, even if you will lose approximately 10W of output from AC power). Also supplied is a 6’5 “light stand, swivel adapter and vertical/horizontal phone holder, wireless remote control, and carrying case. If you are looking for a true ring light with the greatest distribution of light and wireless shooting, you found it.
8.Smoovie LED Colour Stream Ring Light
Best color ring light – add a splash of fun to stills or video
Colors: 16 RBG colors + 3 white tones | Power source: USB | Dimensions: 6-inch or 8-inch
If you’re looking to add a splash of color to your images or videos – or want a ring light that can double as a cool mood light to brighten up a room when not in use – the Smoovie LED Color Stream will be perfect. perfect up your alley. It offers 16 RGB colors and 9 lighting modes, pulsing colors to cycle across the spectrum. It also features soft, warm, natural white lighting that mimics traditional color temperatures for use in both natural and artificial light conditions. Available in 6 and 8-inch options to suit your needs, it also comes with a foldable telescopic tripod and also (at the time of writing) includes a free 3000mAh power bank.
9. ESDDI PLV-R120 10-inch Ring Light
Best buy ring light – tailor-made for the tabletop
Color temperature: 3000K, 4000K, 5600K | Power source: USB | Dimensions: 260 x 390mm
If the Rotolight Ultimate vlogging kit is too expensive, this ESDDI tabletop equivalent is a user-friendly alternative. Keep in mind, however, that while it is much cheaper, it is also much less powerful, with an output of only 10W compared to the 80W equivalent of the Rotolight RL48. That said, it’s more powerful than Neewer’s similar 10-inch model (which produces 8W of power), and while it’s not dimmable, it does have three brightness levels. The 10-inch ESDDI Ring Light is ideal for smartphone shooters, with a two-way handle that holds your handset both horizontally and vertically, as well as a Bluetooth remote for photos and videos. And since it’s USB powered, you can run it from a power bank and use it anywhere.
10. Xinbaohong Clip-On Selfie Light
Best ring light for iPhones and laptops
Color temperature: 6000K | Power source: USB (internal battery) | Dimensions: 85 x 28mm
Sometimes all you need is a little light – and sometimes you literally need a little light that you can toss in your laptop bag or purse when you need it. lighting on the go. This is where the Xinbaohong Clip-On Selfie Light practice comes in – a brilliant mini ring light that clips onto anything 18mm or smaller. That means you can clip it to your phone for the perfect nightclub selfies, or put it on your laptop to give you key lighting when you’re working on the road and need to log in from a bedroom. hotel or cafe. Stick it on your tablet, monitor, and even clip it into the sun visor to better illuminate your car – it’s so cheap you should definitely have one to keep in your bag!
