Do you take a lot of selfies, use Facetime, or make talking head style YouTube videos? Then you already know how important good lighting is when it comes to making good videos and images. The front facing cameras built into our laptops and most of our smartphones donβt have a flash to bump up the lighting. Is there a solution? I was sent the Chatlight. Letβs see if itβs a good tool for the selfie-obsessed.
What is it?
TheΒ Chatlight is a rechargeable continuous LED light that has been designed to fit on laptop displays over the built-in camera to provide additional light when recording video or capturing images. It can also be used with tablets and smartphones.
Whatβs in the box?
Chatlight
micro USB charging cable
Velcro mounting sticker
Design and features
The Chatlight comes in black or silver. It is made of plastic with a cylindrical LED light bar at the top. According to the packaging, the LED bulbs used in the light bar will last for up to 50,000 hours.Β TheΒ Chatlight can run for 90 minutes on a single charge andΒ recharges in only 15 minutes using the included USB cable.
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The light bar can rotate 180 degrees to focus the beam.
The Chatlight has a spring loaded clip that allows it to fit over the tablets, phones and the top of laptop displays as long as they are no thicker than about a half an inch.
A switch on the side of the Chatlight turns on the light bar. There are two settings, low and high There isnβt a huge difference in the brightness level of each setting.
Note: I actually didnβt even realize that there were two settings until after I finished doing the demo video and writing this Β review. I went back and tested to see if the lower level made a difference in my results and it didnβt.
To use the Chatlight, you just slide it over the top edge of the laptop display. Thereβs a cut out in the bottom of theΒ Chatlight rail for the laptopβs built-in camera. For this review I did my testing with a 13β³ MacBook Pro with Retina display.
If you have two Chatlights, you can place one on either side of the display. Youβll need to use the included Velcro strips or some paper to wedge between the Chatlight rails to prevent them from sliding down.
See it in action
Final thoughts
The Chatlight is a great idea in theory, but it didnβt work well for me. The light is too harsh even when using the lower setting. Thereβs also a lot of glare which isnβt great if you happen to wear glasses like I do. The ChatlightΒ gave me a βdeer in the headlightsβ kind of feeling after staring at it for a few seconds so I canβt imagine using it while recording long videos.
The Chatlight might be useful as add in light for other things like macro shots or to make your own tiny light box, but using it to capture Β video while clipped to the top of a laptop or tablet, I wasnβt impressed.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Chatlight. Please visit their site for more info.
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