YONGNUO YN360 LED Video Light, RGB Colorful Professional Photo Ice Light, with Adjustable Color Temperature 3200K-5600K

I had been toying with the idea of buying some new lighting to change things up with some of my photos. After looking at the Icelight by Wescott, I decided that I was not ready to spend $$ on something that I wasn't entirely sure that I would end up using. I already have some Yongnuo wireless flash triggers and a Yongnuo speedlite and have been pleased with them so far, so I decided to take a chance and buy the YN360 light wand.Thank you Amazon Prime! It arrived the following day and I excitedly unpacked the YN360. It arrived in a nicely designed box with a soft black carrying case with a strap. and I was immediately impressed with how solid it felt. I expected it to be pretty lightweight and perhaps even a little flimsy, but it was not at all. One note to keep in mind is that the YN360 does not ship with a power source (no battery, no plug). It accepts standard Sony NP-FXXX style batteries which can be ordered cheaply on Amazon. I ended buying two DSTE brand batteries that have worked perfectly with the YN360 so far. There is a threaded opening on the bottom of the light so that you can mount it on a stand (which I have not tried yet).In terms of performance, once I slipped the battery on, the YN360 was pretty darn cool. The white light was surprisingly bright and highly adjustable with the use of a small knob. Then when I switched it over to RGB color, I was immediately mesmerized by the colors. The first thing I used the light for was to do some macro photography of a caterpillar. I was pretty impressed with the light and I had fun moving it around and testing out what I could do with it. The YN360 is very portable and I end up taking it with me whenever I go to a shoot, just in case I want to add a little extra something. Then once day last week I got asked to go help out on a small video project and I took it with me just in case. I ended up doing a mini photoshoot when I got there. We were in a tiny office and it was getting dark outside. I decided to use the colored light from the YN360 as my only light source and the artist was very happy with the results.So far the YN360 has been pretty amazing. No performance issues whatsoever. I plan on buying 2 more shortly so that I can get even more creative with my photoshoots.

There are two white light colors 5500k and 3200k. These LED's are independent of one another, and you can vary the intensity of both sets of lights on a scale from 0 to 99. Zero being off and 99 being full power. With the LED's being independent, you can adjust their intensity individually. This gives you the ability to mix colors to match natural light. There's also another bank of LED's. These are RGB lights which it's possible to mix lights to get a specific color. All that you do is to press the RGB control button; which will cycle through the Red, Green, and Blue lights. As with the white lights, you can vary the intensity of all three lights on a scale from 0 (off) to 99 (full brightness.) By changing the values, you can mix the lights to get a color and brightness that you'd like. These lights you would have to adjust the colors by a ratio, so it's possible to mix a special color and intensity. Oh, and there's also a control for the adjustment of the LED's. Fine control adjusts the intensity one number at a time (1,2,3,) and Course control which jumps ten units at a time (05,15,25,) and so on. This version doesn't include any batteries, but that's just how I wanted it. I ordered the big SONY batteries. They take over twelve hours to charge, but they provide almost three hours of light when the light is on full power. But, that's not all! (I sound like an infomercial.) But, there's an amber light modifier that's held on the back of the light with magnets. It can be easily placed over the light to match sunrise or sunset. When you're finished, just slide it back over to the other side. Only one small problem, if you drop the light, it's gonna fly off of the light. This is more than I expected. It's an excellent value, and an important and useful tool for my photography. I'm gonna go ahead and say it. It puts the ICE Light to shame, and for a fifth of the price to boot.

I don’t think too many people have mentioned much about the performance aspect of this product, other than its “bright”. I took the YN360 and measured the performance using an Asense Tek and the Spectrum Genius Essence app. I was skeptical on the advertised specs and rarely do you find a product with high CRI at a low cost.The YN360 actually exceeds what I expected for the low price tag.At full power 3200K, it measured at ~3000-3100K, CRI at 96, TLCI at 94.4. R9 was at 74. On the CIE1931 Chromaticity diagram it is perfect on target.At full power 5500K, it measured at ~5900K-6000K, CRI at 94, TLCI at 95.3. R9 at 81. On the CIE1931 Chromaticity diagram it is slightly off towards magenta but still very good on target.To achieve 5500K you will need to mix in approximately 10% 3200K. At the measured 5500K (5434K), CRI at 94, TLCI at 95.8. R9 at 82. On the CIE1931 Chromaticity diagram is is slightly off towards magenta but still very good.100% 5500K and 50% 3200K will yield a 5000K mix.This was measured in complete darkness about 6” away, foot candle measured in between 1300 to 1600.I did not notice any flickering using a Samsung S7Edge in video mode, or a Canon 6D in 24, 30, or 60 FPSIt’s bi-color, R, G, B. Color mixing using manual controls is a troublesome if you dont know how to color mix, but easier with the YN360 app via bluetooth.So far, I have only used it for a few product shots and light painting. Battery life is solid.Overall, I am very impressed with the YN360, it lives up to the specs for a very affordable price. The battery is external but there are plenty for a reasonable price.