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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 138 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
189 of 193 found the following review helpful:
Great value - know your equipment! May 30, 2008
By Paul Roder
"Brokenflow"
I paid about $30 for this light. It charges fast, works way longer than other lights in this price range, IT DOES COME with the bracket to mount it on your tripod threads. A little cheap, but made of metal and quite useful. My camcorder has a widescreen display and you can angle the bracket forward so the light will not hit the screen. I got this so I could record in fairly low-light conditions, the kids, etc. Does what I need for cheap. **To the people who say it has a green tint to it. #1 its $30 - go see what a professional color correct light costs, then complain. #2 Most cameras and camcorders have what is called a "WHITE BALANCE" setting. Auto usually does ok, but if you are getting funky colors, manually set it by holding a piece of WHITE paper in the light you are using, fill the frame and hit 'set' however your camera does it. And presto! The colors should be much more accurate than before. Learn how to use your equipment!
66 of 67 found the following review helpful:
First Impressions - Great bang for the buck Mar 03, 2008
By David Ditzler
"www.ditzlerphoto.com"
I just got mine a few minutes ago and pulled it out of the packaging. Boy is it light and seems bright to me. I haven't done much testing with it. I have it on the charger now and will give it a workout after I get a full charge on it.
As far as the color it seems warmer than most LED lights. I have a few LED lights (round tent camp light and some flashlights) and it is much warmer than them.
It feels cheap and plasticy which it is but it has a clever design. It comes with a mount for a hot shoe and the shoe is all plastic which I like because you don't have to worry about it shorting out anything on your camera. The bottom of the shoe has a 1/4-20 thread mount too. Granted it is only plastic but the whole thing is so light I don't see this being a problem. The other three sides on the light have a hot shoe slot (well a non hot shoe, just a shoe). This means that you could hook another light to the Sima or several to create a multi-light setup. The lights would work separately so you could switch one light on, both or either one.
The diffuser seems to work quite well.
I could see having a bunch of these to bring with for tricky lighting setups in small areas. Trying to light inside a car this thing would be perfect. Tape on a gell if you need it and use a small suction cup with mini ball head on it or even just stick it on the dash.
Pros:
- dead simple to use
- amazing bang for the buck
- great light weight and decent run time
- clever design with hot shoes built in and included little flash bracket thing for camera's without a hot shoe that do have a tripod mount
Cons:
- no dimmer
- non-replaceable battery pack
- no standard battery option (like AA option)
47 of 47 found the following review helpful:
 It isn't perfect, but it is still a great device to have Dec 06, 2008
By Jerry Saperstein
One could pick apart the Sima SL-20LX over a number of what I consider small points. The battery can't be replaced by the user. The unit will not function as a light while being charged. The light pattern is definitely hot at about five feet or so and will overexpose your subject if you don't compensate. They should provide a clip-on diffuser: the light is very bright and will bother people looking straight at the camera.
All those "negatives" and I stil give it 5 stars.
Why?
Because this much light in such a small package at such a low price is on the order of a miracle, that's why.
Even though the close-in light pattern is hot, once you move six or more feet away from your subject, you have a nice blanket of cool white light that renders color well. It is good out to almost 20 feet.
A 2.5 to 3 hour charge gets you about 1 hour of light. It would nice if you could adjust the output power with a switch, but you can't.
At the price, you can afford to carry a couple or more of the units with you if you need mroe than an hour of light. A unique and welcome feature incorporates hot shoe mounts on three sides of the unit so you can build your own light arrays by connecting one unit with another. Very clever idea.
Sima includes a bracket with a tripod screw and a hot shoe adapter. One of the units I tried the SL-20LX wqith is a digital camera with video capability. The video, within the limitations described above, was gorgeous.
So even though some people might find shortcoming in this unit, I see it as a wonder of the age: a small, powerful, highly portable light source at an affordable price. That truly merits 5 stars in my opinion.
Jerry
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
For the price - Excellent Nov 02, 2008
By M. A. Westphal
I bought this light and used it 2 days later on a wedding with our b-roll camera, a Canon HV-20.
Plus - Lots of light in a small package. The color is cool but acceptable.
Minus - The internal non-removable battery doesn't last long enough. Barely an hour and it's out.
The small size of the light also makes it useful as a key light in odd places. Most oddly was its use in our Pumpkin on Halloween.
I only have one at the moment, but I plan to buy more. They can be snapped together to make a larger light, but mostly, I just need the backup.
Lagniappe: the included aluminum attachment bar is quite useful. It has an adjustable 1/4" mounting screw on one end and a cold shoe on the other.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Nice Light for Indoor Close Up Videos Mar 21, 2008
By Eric Williams
I bought two of these lights for shooting indoors at area skating rinks. The lights we're reasonalby priced at MCM electronics for about $42 per light. Video recording in a skating rink without a video light produces eye aching video clips. I bought these two lights in hopes that I could light subjects from about 15 feet away. Two lights do a lot better than no lights but I was maybe hoping for a miracle, so I can't hold it against Sima for this product, I need a little more light for the situations I'm shooting under. I like the product; the lights are light weight, last about an hour on a full charge and work with any standard size accessory shoe whether hot or cold. The lights are individually turned on/off by a switch on the back. The diffuser works quite well and the light seems pretty even when lighting a subject. Using two versus one light does make a difference in the quality of video clips, so I suggest you order two if not more.
See all 138 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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