Pirated ROTOLIGHT?

'PROFESSIONAL VIDEO" Roto light = $129 (here in Canada)

Isn't that the same why people are paying more than $100 for a mattebox?

I don't get it. If something is a circle and has LED's its a copy of the ROTO light?

Raylon wrote in post #12410893
I don't get it. If something is a circle and has LED's its a copy of the ROTO light?

its not just that I bought the 5.99 item just to take a look. and the are built EXACTLY the same, the back comes off the same, the battery locations - everything. they are shaped the same, the power button is even in the same place.

allu need it to remove a small plastic peice on the 5.99 one and voila you got a 24 LED rota, just as bright works just as well. except u save over $120.00

so.. did you buy 20 of them?

NivoMedia wrote in post #12409357
'PROFESSIONAL VIDEO" Roto light = $129 (here in Canada)
random LED camping light @ Canadian tire = $5.99

I wonder who copied who..... lol, I think the ROTO is great but i feel so ripped off since one of being marketed as professional gear and the other is a cehap LED camping light

There are similar items on Amazon getting mixed or poor reviews, some of them are quite funny...but in the end I guess you get what you paid for.

Here's a good one
I wasn't expecting much from this light for ten dollars, and I pretty much got what I expected. First the good parts about the light. It is very bright, and the ability to use one or both of the light rings at the same time is a nice feature. With that one nice part out of the way.....Within ten seconds of turning this light on for the first time it started smoking and the insulation on the wiring started melting. I shut it off before it actually burst into flames, but I'm sure it's not to far away from actual combustion. There's no way I'm actually gonna let this light anywhere near my tent. I read other reviews here with people experiencing the same thing. Shoddy wiring, mislabeled battery slots, wires in the way of the mislabeled battery slots, very thin brittle plastic housing, and of course an annoying tendency to spontaneously combust. While I was entertaining myself by trying to read the "Engrish" on the packaging I came across this little gem, and I quote exactly from the packaging:"Water-proof (chare strong system of water proof but prohibited to dry in water)" This piece of junk is anything but waterproof. The only thing I can think is that they're suggesting you keep some water nearby in case you need to put out the fire it's going to start... Do yourself a favor and get one of the many other tent lights on Amazon.

Raylon wrote in post #12410893
I don't get it. If something is a circle and has LED's its a copy of the ROTO light?

Exactly, just because it is round and has LED's it is the same??!

There are hundreds of cheap LED lighting products on the market and they ALL suffer from awful build quality but most importantly are typically 11,000-12-000 Kelvin (ie Blue) so are completely unusable for any photo/ video or professional useage.

Not only are Rotolights LED's unique in being 110 degree beam angle as opposed to 35-40 which creates a naturally defuse light, it is genuinely balance to exactly brighy daylight (6900K) and uses Lee Filters to achieve 5600K (indirect daylight), 4100 Kelvin - Mixed Light and 3200 Kelvin.

It is a complete joke to even vaguely make any argument that these are the same, the only vague similarity is that they are both circular and both have LED's!! You've clearly not ever opened a Rotolight if you think they are the same, my Rotolight has "Rotolight" printed all over the circuit boards and is clearly a very well built product. It is also UK Made, not Chinese!!

Maybe you should read up and do some research starting with the views of Phillip Nash - who is the current winner of Beauty and Glamour Photographer of the Year Award, and also last years International Photograper of the Year :-

http://philipnash.co.u​k/?p=221

"Maybe I’ve got a bit hardened by the mass of cheaply made, cheaply finished lighting equipment coming in from the Far East but this Rotolight LED light kit is absolutely gorgeous. It’s such a pleasure to see and touch product that’s been put together by people who really care. Everything about it screams class, and the finishing – right down to the integrated gels (and even a guide to using them) is just quality...

My advice – don’t buy an on-camera light until you check out the review or see a Rotolight for yourself."

Or perhaps a review by the British Journal of Photography - the oldest Photography magazine in the world - who reviewed just this exact point :-

Review in "The Ultimate guide to HD-DSLR accessories"

http://www.bjp-online.com …d-dslr-camera-accessories

"The difference between a £50 Chinese direct import and a £200 UK purchase looking suspiciously similar may be more than you think. The LED lights used to make them vary a great deal in specification, and cost. Despite the “daylight” rating of my low-cost video light, it does not produce the most pleasant colour, and clearly has a non-continuous spectrum with spikes in the wrong places. Similar units sold by specialist video suppliers have better LEDs and offer a more complete spectrum, which improves skin colour especially.


But there is one surprisingly low-cost, good colour quality solution – the Rotolight Professional Camcorder Video light. This is a ring light, but instead of mounting around a lens, it pushes on to the foam baffle of industry-standard microphones and sits above the camera lens. This design solves the problem of having only one accessory shoe on your DSLR, but needing to mount both an LED light and an external microphone.


Rotolight is a British product, and comes with Lee conversion filters to change its native 6900K to D5600, 4100K or tungsten 3200K. It costs under £100 and if you’ve got the right external mic to hang it on, is an ideal solution."

As for quality of the product, you can read the review of Rotolight in the Sound on Sound Video Magazine where they say :-

http://www.soundonsoun​d.com …tolight-interview-kit.htm

"The Rotolight Interview Kit is versatile, easy to use and very solidly built, and stands as the most complete package in the competitive LED lighting market. For most general purpose, close up Video work it comes highly recommended... Something that deserves special mention is the build and finish quality of all aspects of the Rotolight, especially when compared to other units of equal or greater expense."

Rotolight is a great product, you'll get some incredible results with it.

I will offer any reader of this forum the following offer- if you purchase a Rotolight and are not entirely satisified with it, or believe that it is not entirely different from the horrible chinese camping product listed here(!) I will personally offer you a refund. To take me up on this offer feel free To email me directly at rod.Aaron@Rotolight.co​m, or call me on +44 1753 422 744.I am certain that you will like our other 6000 Canadian customers last year be delighted with the results of our professional lighting product.

JimPhoto2011 wrote in post #12412468
Exactly, just because it is round and has LED's it is the same??!

I've personally used Rotolight on countless shoots and absolutely love it.

There are hundreds of cheap LED lighting products on the market and they ALL suffer from awful build quality but most importantly are typically 11,000-12-000 Kelvin (ie Blue) so are completely unusable for any photo/ video or professional useage.

Not only are Rotolights LED's unique in being 110 degree beam angle as opposed to 35-40 which creates a naturally defuse light, it is genuinely balance to exactly brighy daylight (6900K) and uses Lee Filters to achieve 5600K (indirect daylight), 4100 Kelvin - Mixed Light and 3200 Kelvin.

It is a complete joke to even vaguely make any argument that these are the same, the only vague similarity is that they are both circular and both have LED's!! You've clearly not ever opened a Rotolight if you think they are the same, my Rotolight has "Rotolight" printed all over the circuit boards and is clearly a very well built product. It is also UK Made, not Chinese!!

Maybe you should read up and do some research starting with the views of Phillip Nash - who is the current winner of Beauty and Glamour Photographer of the Year Award, and also last years International Photograper of the Year :-

http://philipnash.co.u​k/?p=221

"Maybe I’ve got a bit hardened by the mass of cheaply made, cheaply finished lighting equipment coming in from the Far East but this Rotolight LED light kit is absolutely gorgeous. It’s such a pleasure to see and touch product that’s been put together by people who really care. Everything about it screams class, and the finishing – right down to the integrated gels (and even a guide to using them) is just quality...

My advice – don’t buy an on-camera light until you check out the review or see a Rotolight for yourself."

Or perhaps a review by the British Journal of Photography - the oldest Photography magazine in the world - who reviewed just this exact point :-

Review in "The Ultimate guide to HD-DSLR accessories"

http://www.bjp-online.com …d-dslr-camera-accessories

"The difference between a £50 Chinese direct import and a £200 UK purchase looking suspiciously similar may be more than you think. The LED lights used to make them vary a great deal in specification, and cost. Despite the “daylight” rating of my low-cost video light, it does not produce the most pleasant colour, and clearly has a non-continuous spectrum with spikes in the wrong places. Similar units sold by specialist video suppliers have better LEDs and offer a more complete spectrum, which improves skin colour especially.


But there is one surprisingly low-cost, good colour quality solution – the Rotolight Professional Camcorder Video light. This is a ring light, but instead of mounting around a lens, it pushes on to the foam baffle of industry-standard microphones and sits above the camera lens. This design solves the problem of having only one accessory shoe on your DSLR, but needing to mount both an LED light and an external microphone.


Rotolight is a British product, and comes with Lee conversion filters to change its native 6900K to D5600, 4100K or tungsten 3200K. It costs under £100 and if you’ve got the right external mic to hang it on, is an ideal solution."

As for quality of the product, you can read the review of Rotolight in the Sound on Sound Video Magazine where they say :-

http://www.soundonsoun​d.com …tolight-interview-kit.htm

"The Rotolight Interview Kit is versatile, easy to use and very solidly built, and stands as the most complete package in the competitive LED lighting market. For most general purpose, close up Video work it comes highly recommended... Something that deserves special mention is the build and finish quality of all aspects of the Rotolight, especially when compared to other units of equal or greater expense."

Rotolight is a great product, you'll get some incredible results with it.

Well its a good thing that I don't read the reviews of magazines who are trying to sell me things. I have the ROTO and I purchased this cheap light - no matter what you sit here and tell me they are exactly the same. funny how you speak of "special" degree LED's do you know how much it costs to produce an LED light? You clearly dont. its pennies. that is why the cheap LED is sold for so little.

Also, I do not know how you can call the rotolight a "well built product" Its flimsy, the fact that it all comes apart the way it does feels like it was designed by a 12 year old attempting his first science project. Good luck trying to change the outputs on the liggt on the fly, ohh you cant because you have to turn it off, and COMPLETELY take it apart to apply or remove a filter, very convenient. not.
Nothing about this product I actually like, besides taking it off the camera and using it as an external light source.... ohh wait I can do that with the $5.99 light and save myself the money time and probably greatly increase my inventory.

12 extra LED's and Lee filters are not worth the extra $100 I payed for this "professional light"

If anyone here is serious about video, save your money - do not purchase this - at least not because you read a "great review" in a magazine - magazines just want to sell you stuff, nothing more.

JimPhoto2011 wrote in post #12412468
The difference between a £50 Chinese direct import and a £200 UK purchase looking suspiciously similar may be more than you think. The LED lights used to make them vary a great deal in specification, and cost. Despite the “daylight” rating of my low-cost video light, it does not produce the most pleasant colour, and clearly has a non-continuous spectrum with spikes in the wrong places.

That is so true, what many fail to understand is “white” led’s don’t start out white they are actually blue to ultra-violet led’s with a coating of a phosphor based material which shifts the spectrum to a longer wavelength and if one wants that spectrum broadened it requires multiple coatings each one causing a loss of energy “light” requiring higher power led’s to make up for the loss.

Of course additional layers increase the cost of the led’s in proportion to the width of the visible spectrum delivered. That’s one increase in cost.

Higher powered led's is a second increase in cost.

Then another major cost difference in the power supplies, low quality led lights utilize series wired led’s (like Christmas lights) and a limiting resistor. This design has a major flaw, it requires tight control over the voltage powering the led’s making batteries somewhat impractical, a weak battery may lack the voltage to light the led’s and a fresh battery may provide too much power causing the led’s to go into thermal runaway which will usually toast-up the limiting resistor(s) and the circuit board underneath of them while releasing capacious amounts of acrid smoke.

The high quality led lights will use a regulated power supply designed for type of led to be operated and being regulated it can handle a widely varying input voltage allowing it to play well with batteries. That’s a third and major increase in cost.

Wayne

NivoMedia wrote in post #12412722
do you know how much it costs to produce an LED light? You clearly dont. its pennies. that is why the cheap LED is sold for so little.

I do as I have built a couple led lights and I can assure you wide spectrum ANSI 3000-4500K white led's are more than a "few" pennies each, you want to try $8.52 each wholesale from the UK…

http://www.newark.com …?Ntt=LUMILEDS+-+LXM3-PW71

Wayne

Channel One wrote in post #12413325
I do as I have built a couple led lights and I can assure you wide spectrum ANSI 3000-4500K white led's are more than a "few" pennies each, you want to try $8.52 each wholesale from the UK…

http://www.newark.com …?Ntt=LUMILEDS+-+LXM3-PW71

Wayne

After more research - It appears you are correct. There is quite the difference between the ROTO and the cheap LED light - like I said my main concern was feeling that I bough ta cheap "pro" piece of equipment. thank you all for clearing it up, love this forum!

I was looking at the canadian tire website and the light is not there. Maybe I should drop the store to check it out and see if it really can work. if it doesnt work great on videos, there can still be other uses to it.

Ha ha I have one of those cheap LED ring lights. Had it for years. We hang it in the "storage loft" of our camping tent! Works great! Never thought to use it to light anything else.

i finally saw one. I bought it and tried it last night. it casts a slight bluish tint. It is not bad for its price. just that a slight work on the white balance may do the trick. thinking of getting a few more when they go on sale. great portable light for anything (not just video or photography).