Ring flash or LED ring

[Di Stone]

Whilst at camera club last week, the speaker showed some results with using a ring flash. Having looked for costs, there does seem to be a variety out there including LED rings. Has anybody compared the two or which would be the better option to go for :shrug:

Using flash would be something new to me so I'd only be doing stuff like water drops and alike. I don't as yet have an external flash on the 40d but am now thinking one of these would be a good investment but with trying to keep costs down.

Di

 

[Figge]

A ring flash has it uses, but imho for most purposes the light is to flat and dull. Better to get a system like Nikon R1C1 which uses one or several small individual flashes around the lens. Much more flexible for general macro work. The concept is great but the system is expensive and only works with Nikon gear.

For macro a cheaper alternative is to use a really small cheap flashlight on a homemade bracket. The guide number should be as small as possible. Ready-made flash brackets are available but increase the cost.

Led lights will not freeze motion like a flash. You will have to rely on the camera shutter. You will probably run into problems due to the fact that getting enough light is a big problem in macro photograpy.