Elgato Ring Light – Premium 2500 lumens Light with desk clamp and ball mount for Streaming, TikTok, Instagram, Home Office, Temperature and…

First, be sure you connect it to a 2.4GHz-only WiFi network, the chipset doesn’t support 5.8 GHz and if they have the same SSID you might have serious connectivity problems. Second, until the new firmware update (April 2022) it was *extremely flaky* and would drop the WiFi connection every day or two. Power cycling helped some, but wasn’t a complete fix and re-pairing was necessary. I’m cautiously optimistic, as it seems to have been working for several days now. Other than that it’s a great light, and fortunately has some limited control even when its network interface isn’t working.

This is my first ring light but I decided to buy it after many searches over the internet.
The main reasons why I chose this particular product are :
– I can control it via PC Application ( Control Center )
– Or via Android Application ( Elgato Control Center )
– I can later on use it more easily with the Elgato Stream Deck ( I am aspiring to become a fulltime streamer, I just started )
– Very good quality build.
– Other reviews ( of course.. )

Now, I put in the there some photos so you can see (1) how the setup looks without any light source besides the monitor. (2) with the ring light dimmed at minimum brightness (3) with warm white at max brightness (4) with cold white at max brightness. So you can see for yourselves that the brightness is there if you need it. I personally don’t think I need any other light sources as for now.
Coming from many angles, the light doesn’t make shadows on your face ( you can say it will lack depth but even though this is considered a professional ring light, I am still an amateur that this time I needed some good exposure so my webcam can pick up the details )

Needless to say, it does it’s job very well. Now from what I would’ve liked it to have.
1. I had to unmount the table, get all cables out for that, all screws in order to get it behind the desk. The mount is very sturdy, it’s just that it would’ve been nice to make it from two pieces, where one that could’ve slid before the desk. Of course it’s not mandatory, but would’ve helped.
2. Now I feel like I cannot really put it everywhere I would need it , eventually with the webcam or a camera mounted, because the mount is a straight bar that extends only upwards. I can only choose the angle from the top of the bar to make go downwards or rotate , but from that point I can’t make it point closer to me. Would’ve been nice to have a flexible ( and sturdy ) arm so you can align it everywhere you would need it the most.
3. Would’ve loved if it had colors too. Just to spice some things if you want to on the stream or if you have a photoshooting. Regardless, people sometimes use different other transparent foils or materials to put on the ring lights to get the desired result, so that is still an option if anyone feels like improvising.

Notes :
1. It is a bit heavy but it’s also sturdy, I believe it will stay in place without problems.
2. Fortunately, even if you don’t have a Wi-Fi card in your PC, the setup was quite easy with the Android App. I had to enter the Ring’s Wi-Fi and connect it to my personal Wi-Fi. When you connect to the Ring’s Wi-Fi, you disconnect from your home one, so anyway, just remember your home Wi-Fi password for an even easier setup. Afterwards, the App from PC recognized the light instantly and also gave me an update for it. I wrote about this because on some videos people complained that it was a hassle to connect the lights to the Wi-Fi. It was actually a piece of cake.

3. Next thing what I would like to do is to try and connect it with Google Home, but for now it seems to be tricky and perhaps by using some other 3rd apps that I do not know about.
4. Yes, quite pricy sadly, maybe most of what this product has to offer can be obtained from a much cheaper ring light. But without the wireless and app control and integration with the stream deck !
5. Since I cannot adjust the position of the ring light wherever I need / want it the most, I didn’t try the mount for webcam / camera nor mobile phone but they seem to also have a sturdy base and yes, quality and heavy materials. I wouldn’t be afraid mounting them.

Have a wonderful day !

You can get similar quality ring lights for significantly less money. The pros are this connects with other Elgato products easily, such as the Stream Deck. There’s variable light temperature and brightness controls, which can be done by physical buttons on the device, the PC app, or smart phone app. It would be nice if there was Google Home / Apple HomeKit support for such a premium product.

The PC application makes controls slightly difficult, as it lives in the taskbar and requires multiple clicks. The app hides when the mouse leaves the small pop up window, which I could see this being less of an issue on small monitors. This is annoying on an ultra wide.

Nothing but good things to say. Insanely bright, great connectivity options, sturdy well built all metal constructions(including the gimbals), small footprint and even the packaging was really well done. If you don’t want to use the included arm the light has a standard 1/4″ thread on bottom you can attach to any tripod or other arm. As a hobbyist streamer, this was the best “single light source” light I could find. Very happy with the purchase.

One thing worth noting, from table to camera mount is about 22 inches I think, so not ideal if you wanted something shorter.

First off, if you’re getting into a ring light – you should know how and when to use ring lights. For example if you wear glasses this is not a good option for you. You’ll notice no one in any of the Elgato marketing materials wears glasses.

That being said, this unit is big and it’s shipped in an even bigger box. For some reason Elgato decided to lay everything out flat so the box is REALLY wide, but thin. Makes no sense and just makes it awkward and oversized to deal with. Slightly pedantic but normally the size of boxes doesn’t stick out in my mind, in this case it does.

The ring light itself has a 17″ outside diameter. That’s 3″ wider than the original Keylight is wide. The inside diameter is 12″ wide and 10″ tall (due to the base). If you’re planning on using a big honking red camera you’ll be great, anything else will be more than fine… and a webcam is just hilariously small.

The light ships a mounting stand (note: the clamp-on kind) that is the “Elgato Master Mount” system, so it supports the flex arms etc. However the ball mount on the inside of the light is not. This would have been effectively zero cost for them to make the inside flex arm compatible and made the ring light WAY more versatile. Yes, it uses the standard 1/4″-20 threading so any normal camera/tripod mounting gear should work, but the ball head they include is just… meh at best.

The biggest flaw is actually their use of the standard master mount. That has a minimum height of ~17″. The ring light alone with it’s shipped ball mount is ~7″, over all your minimum height of desk-to-camera (assuming you’re using something *very* small like a webcam) is 23.5″. If you’re a streamer who isn’t looking at the camera and doesn’t care about making eye contact with it regularly, this is probably fine. However if you’re using this for more “talk to your audience” type stuff (or video conferencing) – it makes it very difficult… unless you’re 6’3″ tall at least. You could bring it down to more normal eye level, or just above your monitor, but you’re going to have to get a totally different stand for the unit.

Overall, the light is very well defused with no apparent bright or dim spots. It goes from very dim to blindingly bright. 7000k to 2900k without issue. Just like the other Elgato lights it does the light great and you won’t be disappointed for that.

I would strongly recommend against this unit for any sort of video conferencing uses, as ring lights aren’t good for that. Remember, when you’re looking into the camera you’re looking into the center of a potentially blindingly bright light. Uses that are more distant than desk to keyboard, this would work much better and the height would be less of a problem.

Definitely the best. We’ve bought like five for my wife’s Tik Tok videos. Most are usb powered and cheap. This is hefty and quality. We bought the base and arm to mount the phone. All in it is pricey but definitely worth it. We are at over 250k followers and growing. People always comment on how good the lighting is. We even grabbed a second one to mount on the desk and one we can move. We also use the supporting key lights to add side lighting.