What it comes to Seventeen dollars for a simple daylight fill with three cold shoes, a base and a thread — a light that builds a vlog rig around itself and has nothing to set wrong. Five dimming steps are all named and both ends of the runtime are published. It is the only light on this shelf with no color adjustment at all, it publishes no output where its own RGB sibling does, and twenty per cent is as dim as it goes.
What the maker commits to in print
5500 K color temperature, stated to show the beauty of natural light · “A essential of 49 LED beads, CRI up to 95+, to reduce post-grading work”
Five adjustable brightness levels — 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 per cent — with maximum brightness output up to 120 minutes and minimum up to 300 minutes
A built-in 2,000 mAh rechargeable battery with a Type-C charging port, 130 g (4.6 oz), pocket-sized
Three cold shoe mounts on three sides, for a microphone, extra fill lights or other accessories: “Build your compact vlog rig freely”
A universal cold shoe base and a 1/4 inch screw hole for cameras, tripods, phone rigs, laptop clips and stabilisers
NO lux. NO lumens. NO wattage. No color adjustment. Nothing about flicker.
The only fixed-temperature light here
Five thousand five hundred kelvin. Noon daylight. No dial.
Outdoors and in a daylight-lit room that is exactly right and there is nothing to
set.
In a tungsten kitchen at 2,800 K it is badly wrong, and no white balance fixes a
frame lit by two colors at once — the face goes blue or the background goes
orange.
What it cannot do is drift. Every bi-color panel on this shelf can be left on
yesterday’s setting, and this one cannot.
Decide by the room.
Its own sibling publishes a lux figure and this does not
The VL49 RGB on this shelf: 800 lux at 0.5 m (1.6 ft), from 60 beads.
This VL49: nothing, from 49.
Same brand. Same name. Same pocket format. One page gives the photometry and the
other does not.
Forty-nine beads of the same type as sixty would give around 650 lux at the same
distance. That is an estimate, not a specification.
Five steps, and all five named
Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, a hundred per cent.
Naming them is better than “five levels” and far better than “dimmable”: you know
the gaps are even and you know there is nothing below a fifth.
Which also means it cannot be faded out on camera, and twenty per cent of a pocket
panel is still a visible source if it is in frame.
Its RGB sibling dims to zero — and lasts ten hours at minimum against this one’s
five.
Three cold shoes, and a base, and a thread
Three shoes on three sides for a microphone, a second light or a phone holder.
A cold shoe base to sit on a camera. A quarter-inch hole for a tripod.
“Build your compact vlog rig freely.”
Which is what seventeen dollars and 130 grams actually buys: not the brightest
light here, but the one most things bolt onto.
Availability
About $17 on the American Amazon store when this page was last checked.
Everything in this section is the figure Keepa carried on the day of the last update to this page. Availability and prices shift without notice.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 8 October 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.
What it does well, and what it gives up
Strengths
Five dimming steps, all five named
Both ends of the runtime: 120 and 300 minutes
Three cold shoes plus a base and a thread
A fixed 5500 K cannot be knocked off setting
A hundred and thirty grams
Seventeen dollars
Compromises
No color adjustment at all, alone on this shelf
No output figure, where its own RGB sibling publishes one
Twenty per cent is the dimming floor
Forty-nine beads, the fewest here
Nothing about flicker
No TLCI
Specifications
Output in lux with its distance
NEITHER PUBLISHED, which is the odd part: its own stablemate the VL49 RGB on this shelf publishes 800 lux at 0.5 m (1.6 ft) from 60 beads, and this publishes nothing from 49. The two lights share a name and a body; one page gives the photometry and the other does not. Five of the nine American lights on this shelf publish no output at all
Color temperature range
5500 K, FIXED — and this is the ONLY light on this shelf with no color adjustment of any kind. The page makes the case for it: 5500 K color temperature, stated to show the beauty of natural light. Fifty-five hundred kelvin is noon daylight, which is the right single value if you only ever shoot outdoors or in a daylight-balanced room, and the wrong one in a tungsten kitchen. What a fixed panel cannot do is drift: there is no dial to knock
Accuracy indices
CRI UP TO 95+, stated, with the consequence given — "to reduce post-grading work". Ninety-five is the shelf median. No TLCI
Dimming
FIVE STEPS, AND ALL FIVE ARE NAMED: 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 PER CENT. Naming the steps is better practice than "five levels" and better than "dimmable": you know there is nothing below a fifth, and you know the gaps are even. It also means the light cannot be faded out on camera, and 20 per cent is the floor
Flicker
NOT MENTIONED
Power options
A 2,000 mAh internal cell with BOTH ENDS PUBLISHED: 120 MINUTES at maximum and 300 MINUTES, five hours, at minimum, over USB-C. The same cell as the VL49 RGB on this shelf, which publishes 2 hours and 10 hours — so the RGB version lasts twice as long at its minimum, which is what a 20 per cent floor against a 0 per cent floor costs
Mount
THREE COLD SHOES ON THREE SIDES, plus a COLD SHOE BASE and a 1/4 INCH HOLE — so the light mounts on a camera, a tripod, a phone rig, a laptop clip or a stabiliser, and carries a microphone, a second light or a phone holder while it does. ULANZI is explicit about the purpose: "Build your compact vlog rig freely". 130 G
Amazon reference
B07YSF3X8K
EAN
0767311327140
What people ask before they commit
Is a fixed color temperature a drawback?
It depends where you shoot. Five thousand five hundred kelvin is noon daylight, so outdoors and in a daylight-lit room it is exactly right and there is nothing to set. In a tungsten kitchen at 2,800 K it is badly wrong, and no amount of white balancing fixes a frame lit by two colors at once — the face goes blue or the background goes orange. Every other light on this shelf adjusts; this one does not, which saves money and removes the commonest mistake with a bi-color panel, which is leaving it on yesterday’s setting. Decide by the room, not by the specification.
Why does the RGB version publish a lux figure and this one not?
Nothing on either page explains it, and it is worth noting because the two share a name. The VL49 RGB on this shelf publishes 800 lux at 0.5 m (1.6 ft) from 60 beads; this VL49 publishes no output at all from 49. Both are ULANZI, both are the same pocket format. Forty-nine beads of the same type as sixty would give around 650 lux at the same distance, which is a reasonable estimate and not a specification. This shelf's introduction says output is the first figure a continuous light is compared on, and on this page it is absent.
Twenty per cent floor — does it matter?
On a fill light, yes. Twenty per cent is the dimmest this panel goes, so as a subtle lift on a face in a dark room it may still be too much, and as a background accent in frame it will read as a visible source. Its own RGB sibling dims to zero, which is why that one lasts ten hours at minimum against this one’s five. The NEEWER SL90C on this shelf is stepless from zero. The fix for a 20 per cent floor is distance or a diffuser, both of which cost something.
Where this one places on its bench
At $17, it is the 2 cheapest of the 11 models in this category published here.
Cheapest on the bench$10
Median$30
Dearest on the bench$52
This one against the other photo equipment
photo equipment from the same category, at nearby prices. Only what all of them publish is shown: a column with holes compares nothing.
Model
Price
Output in lux with its distance
Color temperature range
Accuracy indices
Dimming
ULANZI VL49, 5500 K fixed, 49 beads
$17
NEITHER PUBLISHED, which is the odd part: its own stablemate the VL49 RGB on this shelf publishes 800 lux at 0.5 m (1.6 ft) from 60 beads, and this publishes nothing from 49. The two lights share a name and a body; one page gives the photometry and the other does not. Five of the nine American lights on this shelf publish no output at all
5500 K, FIXED — and this is the ONLY light on this shelf with no color adjustment of any kind. The page makes the case for it: 5500 K color temperature, stated to show the beauty of natural light. Fifty-five hundred kelvin is noon daylight, which is the right single value if you only ever shoot outdoors or in a daylight-balanced room, and the wrong one in a tungsten kitchen. What a fixed panel cannot do is drift: there is no dial to knock
CRI UP TO 95+, stated, with the consequence given — "to reduce post-grading work". Ninety-five is the shelf median. No TLCI
FIVE STEPS, AND ALL FIVE ARE NAMED: 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 PER CENT. Naming the steps is better practice than "five levels" and better than "dimmable": you know there is nothing below a fifth, and you know the gaps are even. It also means the light cannot be faded out on camera, and 20 per cent is the floor
800 LUX AT 0.5 M, stated, with a 120-DEGREE illumination angle also given — which matters because a wide beam spreads the same light over more area, so 800 lux across 120 degrees is a different proposition from 800 lux in a narrow spot. One of three outputs on this shelf published with its distance, and the beam angle is a figure only this and the published ULANZI K20 give
2500K TO 9000K, stated as dimmable rather than stepped — the SECOND WIDEST range on this shelf, behind only the ENEGON’s 2500–9900K and level with the published Rollei. Two and a half thousand kelvin is candlelight and nine thousand is deep shade; this shelf's introduction warns that a mixed panel usually peaks in the middle of its range, so the 800 lux figure is unlikely to hold at either end
CRI 95, stated as "topest CRI95" and credited with matching sunlight. That is the shelf median: 98 on the published Rollei, 97 on the NEEWER SL90C and the ALTSON, 96 on the published NEEWER pair, 95 here, on the published RaLeno and on three other American lights, 90+ on the Torjim pair, the EMART spotlights and the ULANZI K20, and nothing at all on the ENEGON alone. No TLCI
0 TO 100 PER CENT, stated, with a BUILT-IN LCD DISPLAY "for accurate readings". The display is the part worth noting: hue, brightness and color temperature shown as numbers rather than guessed from a dial, which is what lets a second light be set to match the first. Three lights on this shelf have a screen
NEITHER PUBLISHED. ULANZI says the VL-81 is "brighter, bigger angle" than the VL49 it upgrades, which is a comparison rather than a measurement, and gives no lux, no lumens, no distance and no wattage. Five of the nine American lights on this shelf publish no output at all, and this is one of them. This shelf's introduction makes it the first of three figures a continuous light is compared on
3200K TO 5600K, stated, from 41 WHITE and 40 WARM beads — and the DIVISION of the beads is published, which only this and the NEEWER SL90C do on this shelf. That matters because a bi-color panel reaches its extremes by turning one set off: at 3200 K the forty warm beads are working and the forty-one white ones are not, so the output at either end is roughly half what it is in the middle. This shelf's introduction says exactly this, and a page that publishes the counts lets you work out how much
CRI 95, stated in the title and the first bullet. The shelf median, behind the 97 of the NEEWER SL90C, the ALTSON and the NiceVeedi pair and the 98 of the published Rollei. No TLCI
NOT PUBLISHED AS A RANGE. The page says the color temperature "can be adjusted quickly" and names no brightness steps, no percentage range and no statement of whether the dimming is stepless or stepped — which is unusual for ULANZI, whose VL49 RGB on this shelf publishes 0 to 100 per cent and whose plain VL49 publishes five fixed levels. The runtimes imply a range exists: 150 minutes at maximum against 480 at minimum is a three-to-one draw
NEITHER PUBLISHED. No lux, no lumens, no distance, no wattage — the page says "the high CRI of 97+ is equal to a professional photography lighting", which is a claim about accuracy rather than output. Sixty beads at this size is a fill light for a face at arm’s length, which is what the page describes it as: selfies, webcams, makeup, video calls
THREE LIGHT MODES — WHITE, NATURAL and WARM — across 2500K TO 6500K, stated. Three fixed modes rather than a continuous range is the simpler arrangement: you cannot land on 4,300 K to match a mixed room, but you also cannot drift off a setting between takes. The span itself is 4,000 K, wider than the VIJIM’s 3,300 K and narrower than the ENEGON’s 7,400 K
CRI 97+, stated in the title and the first bullet with the argument made at length — "equal to a professional photography lighting … complement your skin glowing, natural even like a baby". Ninety-seven is the JOINT HIGHEST figure on this shelf among the American lights, level with the NEEWER SL90C which costs four times as much and with the NiceVeedi pair, and behind only the published Rollei’s 98. This shelf's buying tip says to read the index first; on this page it is the only photometric figure there is. No TLCI
TEN BRIGHTNESS LEVELS, stated — stepped rather than stepless, and ten steps is enough for practical work. What the page does with them is better than the count: it publishes the runtime AT TWO of them, which lets the steps be understood as power rather than as numbers
What sets the models apart, in photo equipment
If price decides: ALTSON D6-02-ES, CRI 97+, clip and tripod adapter, at $10.
Highest Color temperature range in the table: this model (5500 K, FIXED — and this is the ONLY light on this shelf with no color adjustment of any kind. The page makes the case for it: 5500 K color temperature, stated to show the beauty of natural light. Fifty-five hundred kelvin is noon daylight, which is the right single value if you only ever shoot outdoors or in a daylight-balanced room, and the wrong one in a tungsten kitchen. What a fixed panel cannot do is drift: there is no dial to knock).
This model holds the table’s highest figure for Color temperature range.
Where the price stands, among photo equipment
Details checked on October 8, 2026.
What use this one answers, among photo equipment
A simple daylight fill for a vlog rig, where three cold shoes and no settings to get wrong are the attraction
What buyers actually choose
Amazon reports what buyers took in the month before this page was last checked: at least 1,000.
The figure is a floor, rounded by Amazon, and read through Keepa — it says what buyers picked, not what a maker claims.
Sources
Specifications: the manufacturer sheet for photo equipment and the matching Amazon product page. Prices and availability: Keepa. Every figure on this page names its source.
CRI 97+, the JOINT HIGHEST on this shelf with the NEEWER SL90C · 60 LED beads · THREE light modes, white, natural and warm, across 2500K to 6500K · TEN brightness levels · 2,200 mAh with TWO runtimes published at TWO brightnesses: 15 H at 10 PER CENT and 4 H at 50 · a 160-DEGREE rotating panel AND a 180-DEGREE rotatable 1/4 inch head, with a CLIP and a HOT SHOE mount supplied · 3.9 × 2.8 × 0.78 IN, 95 G · a storage pouch · NO output figure · NOTHING about flicker · $9.68
Ten dollars for the joint-highest color index on this shelf, a clip, a hot shoe and a pouch.
Best for: Video calls, selfies and makeup at a desk, where a faithful color index at ten dollars is the whole point
TWO TABLE-TOP SPOTLIGHTS · 600 LUMENS each — a LUMINOUS FLUX, not an illuminance, so it cannot be compared with the lux figures on this shelf · 12 LEDs per light · CRI 90+, the joint weakest here · 5500 K FIXED, with SIX GEL FILTERS to shift it — two white, two orange, two blue · a head swivelling 180 DEGREES · a RETRACTABLE SPRING BRACKET that folds into the base · NO dimming published at all · NO battery · 18 MONTHS of after-sales cover · NOTHING about flicker
Two spotlights that publish lumens where this shelf asks for lux — and gels instead of a dimmer.
Best for: Lighting a light tent or a tabletop set-up from two sides, where a concentrated beam and a folding stand matter more than a dimmer
1090 LUX AT 0.5 M — one of only three outputs on this shelf published WITH its distance, and the highest among the pocket panels · 2700K to 7500K in CCT mode · CRI 97, joint highest here with the ALTSON D6 and the NiceVeedi pair · 138 beads: 45 WARM, 45 COOL and 48 RGB · THREE MODES, CCT, HSI and FX with 17 SCENES · 360-degree hue selection · STEPLESS 0 to 100 per cent · 4,000 mAh for 113 MINUTES at full, with a USB OUTPUT that charges a phone · 15 × 8 × 1.2 cm (5.9 × 3.1 × 0.5 in), 235 g · cold shoe adapter and 1/4 inch holes · NOTHING about flicker
The brightest pocket panel on this shelf that publishes its distance — and the only light here that will also charge your phone.
Best for: A pocket key or fill light where color accuracy comes first and the panel has to earn its place in the bag twice over
