Introduction
I was doing some cleaning up today and found the Yongnuo LED Video light YN 160 that I have not used for a while, so I figured out that I may actually play around with it and do a kind of a review of the product. When I bought it a couple of years ago there were not a lot of options for an affordable LED light available and this was one of the very good choices for the money it cost. Now I'm looking to get a new more up to date LED light for photo and videos, so I also wanted to test the important parameters that this one provides, so I will know what areas I need to look for in order to actually get a better light than this one. As a side effect you get to see more about the Yongnuo LED Video light YN 160, the first original version as apparently there have been two newer models also released with some additions and improvements, but you can still find the first model as well for like 50 bucks or something like that.
The Yongnuo YN-160 LED Video light comes with 160 white LEDs, offers 16 steps of light level adjustment, adjustable light reflectors (can also be detached), a couple of color filters and a soft carry bag. The LED light can be used with the included hand holder or attached to the hotshoe of a DSLR or video camera. The idea of the product is to provide additional light in situations where the ambient one is not enough and although it can also be used for taking photos, the main usage is for video recording where you need continuous light.
Yongnuo YN-160 Specifications:
- Color temperature: 5500K
- Light gears: 16 lever microcomputer dimming
- Average Life time: 10000 h
- Working voltage: DC6.0-9.0V
- Power: 3-9W
- Illumination: 1m - 1480lum, 2m - 450lum, 3m - 178lum, 4m - 101lum, 5m - 63lum
- Suitable battery: 6x Hi-MH or 6x AA battery, Panasonic CGR-D16S/D220 rechargeable batteries, SONY NP series rechargeable batteries (No battery is included)
- Filter: 4 filters (white, blue, red, yellow filters)
- Size: 150x116x56 mm
- Net Weight: 310 grams (without battery)
One of the main reasons I choose this LED light is the flexibility it offers in terms of batteries that you can use to power it up. You can go up for regular AA size batteries that are easy to find and I do use in a lot of other things, so I already have a large number of rechargeable AAs. I also have some Sony NP series FH60, FH70, FH100 batteries as well as a couple of the larger NP series F960, F970 batteries and I can also use them along with the light besides my other photo and video equipment.
The light reflectors on the sides allow you to change the direction of the light or focus it better, or even to reduce the light output to certain area only. If you don't need them you can also detach them from the main body, though that requires the removal of a couple of screws.
The build quality is quite good, even though the whole thing is pretty much plastic. The standard stand for the video light that can be used to attach it to a camera or a tripod is also plastic and is a bit flimsy, making the light shake a bit when you move around the camera and you probably would not want to have that. You can use the handle provided and have somebody hold the light by hand while you shoot, that one can be useful especially if you have multiple lights. The later version II and III have the standard stand changed - shortened and probably sturdier and less shaky, though I have not tried them personally.
The back of the LED light has all the controls as well as the multifunctional battery mechanism. It is pretty straightforward to use, power it on and adjust the level of light output you need, by default it is at the medium level of the 16 available, so you can go up or down in terms of light output. There is a battery charge test button that lights up to a 5 red lights depending of the percentage of the change available inside the battery you are using, so that one can be quite helpful.
Lets Do Some Tests...
Time to do some measurements of the actual light output that the Yongnuo LED Video light YN 160 provides, starting up with the spectral analysis of the maximum light output with all of the following measurements taken at 1 meter distance in a dark room with only the light pointed at a spectrometer. The maximum light output was 2060 lux with a color temperature of 5831K, so pretty bright light at a very good "neutral" color temperature for video recording especially. The average CRI was at about 77 Ra which is not that great if you need to have a light source that is very close to a natural light, but you should deal with that and not forget that this is a pretty affordable LED light and probably does not use the best LEDs out there.
Moving on to the default level of light you get when you switch on the LED light, definitely less brighter, but almost the same color spectrum. The light output in this mode is 730 lux and the color temperature is slightly lower at about 5650K. This mode should be still good if you don't need that much extra light, but still need some.
Moving on to the lowest level of light output available, it provides you with just about 171 lux, so not that much and the color temperature is down just a bit more to 5623K. Remember that by specifications this LED light should be at 5500K or neutral white light, though so far it has been a bit higher than that level, but pretty close, so it is fine. Do note that the minimum level of brightness from the 16 available is pretty dim and you probably will not use it much, unless you really need just a bit of extra light.
This is how things change when I add the white color filter to make the light a bit softer. The spectral distribution graph does not actually change much, but the other important parameters actually do. The maximum light level output at 1 meter with the white filter drops a bit down to 541 lux (1620 lux at maximum brightness level), but the more important parameter is the color temperature that hits the perfect spot of 5550K. So you will most likely want to use the LED light with the white filter attached most of the time as it provides softer light as well as really accurate color temperature that is easy to adjust and fix in the camera for best results.
This is how things look like with the orange (yellow?) filter applied, as you can see it really kills off the blue light providing you with a warmer light output. The level of brightness at the default light output setting you get with it is 487 lux and the color temperature is at 3040K.
The red color filter is similar in the results it gets you to the orange one in giving you a warmer image, though you would still probably want to stick to the orange one for warmer light output. The brightness you get with the filter attached at the default level of light output is 270 lux and the color temperature that I have measured is at 2656K.
The blue filter is something that you probably would not need to use much, though it is still there should you need it to. The light output is pretty low with the filter attached and using the default light output level of the LED light, measuring at just 152 lux and with a color temperature that goes out of range of the spectrometer, meaning that it is probably going higher than the limit of 40,000K that the device can measure. So again, probably not very useful, unlike the white and the orange filters that really do well their job.
Conclusion
The Yongnuo LED Video light YN 160 is really a nice and affordable constant video light for everyone that needs one and is on a tight budget, it is built well and offers good functionality and should last you for long if you are careful when using it. It has some things that could be better like the flimsy stand that translates into the light shaking when you have it attached to a camera and you move it around. You can go for the version II of the light that has the stand redesigned and apparently fixed along with some other small changes and improvements, but retaining the basic functionality. The even newer version III has some significant changes including in the LEDs used and other things, so I cannot comment on what to expect from it before actually testing it. The light output from the 160 LEDs is really good and the fact that you can easily adjust it in 16 steps make things even better. The white and orange color filters do a great job and you might want to use them, though the other two are probably not that much useful for most people most of the time. Using better LEDs with higher CRI would've been much better, but usually these are more expensive and the end price of the product will have to go up as well and this is something that you can also pretty much fix in post processing. Still the next LED light I'll be going for will definitely have a higher color rendering index than this one... I'm already eyeing some LED lights from Aputure that do look very interesting and promising and are still pretty affordable in terms of price.
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