What it comes to A nineteen-dollar pocket RGB panel that publishes what matters: 800 lux at a stated half a meter, a 120-degree beam, CRI 95, both ends of its runtime, and a 2500 to 9000 kelvin range. The magnet on the back is the mounting idea nothing else on this shelf has, and three cold shoes make it the hub of a small rig. Nothing about flicker, two hours at full brightness, and sixty beads means it is a fill light.
What the maker commits to in print
Sixty high color-rendering beads, a 120-degree illumination angle, brightness reaching 800 lux at 0.5 m (1.6 ft), and CRI 95
Hue adjustable from 0 to 359 degrees, brightness from 0 to 100 per cent, color temperature from 2500K warm to 9000K cool, with a built-in LCD display for accurate readings
A built-in 2,000 mAh battery: about 2 hours of charging, up to 2 hours at maximum brightness, up to 10 hours at minimum, usable while charging over USB-C
A magnet on the back that adsorbs to most metal surfaces
66 × 80 × 30 mm (2.60 × 3.15 × 1.18 in), with a standard 1/4 inch screw and three cold shoe mounts, supporting multi-light assembling
NOTHING about flicker. No TLCI.
Eight hundred lux at half a meter, with the angle as well
Two figures rather than one, and the second is rarely given.
“The distance is part of the measurement.”
A 120-degree beam spreads the same light over far more area than a narrow spot, so
800 lux across 120 degrees is a softer, broader source than 800 lux concentrated.
Only this and the published ULANZI K20 publish a beam angle on this shelf.
The magnet is the mounting idea nothing else here has
A pocket light normally needs a cold shoe, a clamp or a tripod — all of which need
somewhere to attach and a hand to attach them.
A magnet sticks the panel to a car door frame, a steel shelf, a radiator, a
scaffold pole or a lighting stand in one movement.
What it will not do is wood, plaster, aluminum or plastic. So it is a second
option, which is why the three cold shoes and the quarter-inch thread are there
too.
Three cold shoes, which build a rig on the light
One mounts the panel to the camera. The other two take a microphone, a second
panel, a phone holder.
So the light becomes the hub of a small vlogging setup instead of competing for
the camera’s single shoe.
The limit is weight. A cold shoe on a pocket light is not a load-bearing fitting.
Both ends of the runtime
Two hours at maximum. Ten at minimum.
Which tells you it draws about five times as much at full as at its lowest setting
— so half brightness is somewhere near four hours, and a day can be budgeted.
The published RaLeno gives 90 minutes at full. The ALTSON gives 15 hours at 10 per
cent AND 4 hours at 50.
The ENEGON claims 20 hours and names no brightness at all.
Two and a half thousand to nine thousand kelvin
Candlelight at one end, deep shade at the other. The second widest range on this
shelf.
“A light that mixes warm and cool emitters usually reaches its highest output in
the middle of that range rather than at the ends.”
So the 800 lux almost certainly belongs to the middle, and the extremes will be
dimmer. The page does not say by how much — and no page on this shelf does.
Availability
About $19 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
Eight hundred lux at half a meter, distance included
A magnet on the back: no clamp needed
Two to ten hours, both ends of the runtime published
Two thousand five hundred to nine thousand kelvin
An LCD readout for hue, brightness and temperature
Three cold shoes for a microphone and a second light
Compromises
Nothing about flicker
Sixty beads: it is a fill light at any distance
Two hours at full brightness
CRI 95 where two lights here publish 97
No TLCI
Thirty millimeters thick, the chunkiest pocket panel here
Specifications
Output in lux with its distance
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
Color temperature range
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
Accuracy indices
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
Dimming
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
Flicker
NOT MENTIONED, as on all nine American lights here
Power options
A 2,000 mAh internal cell with BOTH ENDS PUBLISHED: 2 HOURS at maximum brightness and 10 HOURS at minimum, charging in about 2 hours over USB-C, and usable WHILE charging. Publishing both ends of the runtime is rarer than it should be and more useful than a single figure — it tells you the panel draws five times as much at full as at its lowest setting, which is how you budget a day
Mount
THREE COLD SHOES and a 1/4 INCH SCREW — and then the feature nothing else on this shelf has: A MAGNET ON THE BACK, which "adsorbs on most metals surface". Three cold shoes mean this light can carry a microphone and a second light while sitting on the camera, which ULANZI calls multi-light assembling. The magnet means it can be stuck to a shelf bracket, a radiator, a car wing or a lighting stand without a clamp at all
Amazon reference
B08MDQ3CJY
EAN
6972436388134
What people ask before they commit
How useful is the magnet?
More than any other mounting feature on this shelf, in the situations it suits. A pocket light normally needs a cold shoe, a clamp or a small tripod, all of which need somewhere to attach and a hand to attach them. A magnet sticks the panel to a car door frame, a steel shelf, a radiator, a scaffold pole or a lighting stand in one movement and holds it there. What it cannot do is work on wood, plaster, aluminum or plastic — so it is a second option rather than a replacement, which is why the three cold shoes and the quarter-inch thread are also there.
What do three cold shoes get me?
A rig built on the light rather than around it. One shoe mounts the panel to the camera; the other two take a microphone, a second panel or a phone holder, so the light becomes the hub of a small vlogging setup instead of one more thing competing for the camera’s single shoe. ULANZI calls it multi-light assembling, and with 800 lux at half a meter from one panel, two or three of them chained is a genuinely usable key-and-fill. The limit is weight: a cold shoe on a plastic-and-aluminum pocket light is not a load-bearing fitting.
Two hours or ten?
Two at full, ten at minimum, and both are published — which is the honest form of the figure. The ratio tells you the panel draws roughly five times as much current at 100 per cent as at its lowest setting, so a day’s shooting at half brightness lands somewhere near four hours. Most pages on this shelf give one number: the published RaLeno gives 90 minutes at full, the ALTSON gives 15 hours at 10 per cent and 4 hours at 50. The ENEGON claims 20 hours and names no brightness at all, which is the version that cannot be planned with.
Where this one places on its bench
At $19, it is the 3 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 RGB, 800 lux at 0.5 m (1.6 ft), magnetic back
$19
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, 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
1,250 LUX, stated as "the Max brightness illuminance up to 1250Lux" — AND NO DISTANCE. That is the exact fault this shelf's introduction names: "the distance is part of the measurement and a figure given without it cannot be compared with anything". Twelve hundred and fifty lux at 0.5 m (1.6 ft) is a bright pocket panel; the same figure at 1 m (3 ft) would be four times the light, and at 0.3 m (1 ft) rather less than it sounds. Of the nine American lights on this shelf, this is the only one that publishes lux and withholds the distance
3200K TO 6500K, stated as steplessly adjustable with brightness "in one switch" — a 3,300 K span, which is the narrowest of the adjustable panels on this shelf bar the published NEEWER pair’s 2,400 K. Three thousand two hundred kelvin is tungsten and 6,500 is a cool overcast daylight, so the range covers indoor and outdoor and does not reach the candlelight or deep shade of the ENEGON and the ULANZI VL49 RGB
CRI 95+, stated in the title and the first bullet, with the consequence spelled out — delivering accurate color reproduction and reducing the workload of post-production grading. That is the right way to sell an index: not as a number but as hours not spent. Ninety-five is the shelf median; 97 on the NEEWER SL90C and the ALTSON, 98 on the published Rollei. No TLCI
10 TO 100 PER CENT, STEPLESS, "adjustable in one switch". Stepless is right; the floor is not — ten per cent is as dim as it goes, where the NEEWER SL90C and the Glendan-style panels reach zero. A light that will not fade below a tenth cannot be faded out on camera, and as a background accent ten per cent of 1,250 lux is still a visible source
What sets the models apart, in photo equipment
If price decides: ULANZI VL49, 5500 K fixed, 49 beads, at $17.
Highest Color temperature range in the table: ULANZI VL49, 5500 K fixed, 49 beads (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).
Where the price stands, among photo equipment
Details checked on October 8, 2026.
What use this one answers, among photo equipment
Run-and-gun vlogging and car interiors, where sticking a light to a metal surface beats finding somewhere to clamp it
What buyers actually choose
Amazon reports what buyers took in the month before this page was last checked: at least 3,000.
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
