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How To Build An Uber Strong Ring Light For $25

by 31 Comments

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OK, OK, I am a sucker for ring lights, don’t hate me. This build by DIY Perks combines the benefits of LED lighting (i.e. bright, continuous, cool) with the awesomeness of a ring light (smooth light, no shadows, glamorous look).

If you’ve been around the blog for a while, you know that we consider ring lights to be one of the best creative tools, and we have featured ring lights as big as 4 feet, and as small as 4 inches. This one is in the middle of the range, though probably brighter than both.

The makers at DIY Perks (who also made this LED panel) made one of the nicest ring lights I have seen to date.

 

Why This Ring Light Rocks

While I will probably like any ring light project there are some features on this project that makes it unique and worthy of your afternoon.

  • It is incredibly bright – it uses a combined light equal to 200W. Those are coming from 20 10-Watt LEDs which is just about a small pro LED panel’s worth of light.
  • It is incredibly cheap – Taking time aside, the components will only take about $25. Not bad for that amount of light
  • It is a proper DIY project – If you are new to the makering scene, this project has a bit of everything (LEDs, soldering, reusing materials) but they are all on the beginner level. If you have completed this project, you will probably be ready to go on with more complex projects.
  • Since there is no PWM dimming on the ring, it will be usable for both video and stills

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What You’ll Need?

Most of the components on this project are eBay-bought so plan ahead :)

How To build one

One thing to note on the video is the fact that if you heat your LEDs to much they will both lose brightness and their lifespan will decrease dramatically. Make sure you set them to the right voltage

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Here are some sample shots, if you missed them on the video

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[How to make an AMAZING video ring-light for just $25 | DIY Perks | Thanks for the heads up, Ophir]

Related posts:

How To Build A Kick Ass 4 Feet DIY Ring Light How To Make A DIY Square LED Ring Light How To Build A Mega 84cm, 480 LEDs Ring Light For $35 How to build the world’s brightest, craziest, LED light serving 1800W

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is the Founder and Editor in Chief of DIYPhotography, he is also a photographer, a relentless entrepreneur, a prolific inventor and a dad, not necessarily in that order

  • tattooeddad

    Can someone explain to me why every damned DIY tutorial is an overproduced video these days? I rarely have the time to watch a 7 minute video to see if it is a worthwhile build for me – versus a doc that I can skim in 30 seconds. I just don’t get it.

    • Mooey

      Yeah, who do they think they are putting loads of effort into producing a great video, b*stards!

    • Jim Johnson

      Videos are the way of the internet, and yeah, they annoy me too (especially on news sites). However, I think your anger may be misplaced this time, mainly, because you can skim the video using the slider. You can also run the video in the background while you continue to surf (which is the main advantage I can see in video).

      If you are going to make this (and need more info than a skim or half listening can provide), I would think that you could spare 7 minutes before you start.

      • tattooeddad

        It’s less anger than frustration. I’ve wanted to build one of these for quite a while now. Divining if it will fit my needs and skill levels is not something that will take 7 minutes. Skimming the video might work – if it were tightly and cohesively edited for content -and would still take longer than skimming a page.

        • How dare he waste 7 minutes of our life showing off the work he did and wanted to share with the world. He should have spent hours writing a doc and drawing diagrams so his share of info is actually worth our 1.5 minutes of attention span.

        • Gerry Vinet

          I think you’ve wasted 7 minutes complaining about not having 7 minutes to view the video . . .

          • Matt

            I’d just like to point out that making videos is MUCH more time consuming than writing a document, and that the video was as long as it was because you literally *can’t* make it and more concise without throwing out important information. I may set up a website with my projects at some point, with text tutorials along with the videos, but for now the videos are all I have time (and motivation) for.

          • Dushko_B

            yes you can make it 2 minutes. It’s the gay chit-chat which makes all damn videos long. A quality video has no robot sounding narrator, too.

    • NotReallyHere

      Because it’s easier to make a video with your smartphone that to sit down and actually write some decent information – no matter how simple it is.

      • Matt

        I hope you’re being sarcastic ;) it takes WAY more time to film, edit, write a script and narrate for a video, than it does to simply write a text document on your PC.

        • Dushko_B

          If there was any effort in the video, it wouldn’t take so long in the first place. These lengthy boring “for dummies” videos are only favoured by people who aren’t able to use google and never will be.

    • doge

      YouTube now pays based on how long people watch a video and not on the amount of clicks the video gets. So now all these videos are getting longer because everyone is trying to make more money.

      It sucks.

      • Dushko_B

        but will they? as soon as I do realize it’s just talking with no content, I just skip to the next. CAD design videos = 15 min, dumb simple led soldering 6:30 – that’s a joke!

        And yes marketing is the way of making money when you have no product to offer (or one of crappy quality)

    • Robert Teed

      Sure, Go to this video page and I will explain everything!

    • Dushko_B

      It’s not about information. It is about getting acclaim from people who can’t even turn on a soldering iron. And of course get a few cents for ads display.
      These are the same people as the ones who bore the hell out o their co-workers with colorful “cool” presentations designed like it’s 1995, just more free time, so they do a lengthy boring video with no content to annoy better.
      I just took a look at the outcome and was sure, the person doesn’t want to improve his photography and apparently knows nothing about it. And not using PWM as an excuse for stills…well PWM is quite easy and a part of a serious LED project (so that the images don’t end up blown out.
      And believing that 200W rated LEDs will really be 200W with small batteries…I’m speechless.

  • I thought about building a ring light and using infrared LEDs as I like macro photos and night photos, this eliminates the issue with animals as like 90% of animals can’t see infrared. But cameras can

    • Some cameras. Many DSLRs have a filter on the sensor to block out infrared.

    • Well.
      Fuck.
      I’ll have to experiment haha. Thanks for the heads up.

    • There are ways to remove this internal filter though. It you wanted to make your camera a dedicated night camera or astro photography setup.

    • Yeah, Nah, not that bothered ay haha.

  • Ok really nice but what about cooling? in this setup lifespan will be really low cause there isnt any alu cooling on the back of the leds :/

  • JC Torres

    wow this is great!! buen here in mexico the UV filter is around $18 dollars :( so its not cheap to build this

  • Jaros

    Well, AA batteries can’t give you 200W.
    6 batteries = 9V. To make 200W the current should be 200 / 9 = 22A. In real conditions AA will give you 1,5A. So real electric power will be about 13W.
    13W LED output is similar to a 75W incandescent globe.

  • here’s a project for you Rob, would look great on the end of the new camera!

  • Adam B

    There was a very interesting comment on the youtube video, wondering what (if any) improvements could be made.

    Fabian Feilcke1 month ago

    Interesting project but from a engineering point of view a bit weird. Here a few suggestions to make the design better:
    – If you run the LEDs@ 24V-25V they run at 3.xx Watts rather than 10W, so you might use 5W LEDs to begin with..
    – 6 AA Battieries can only supply around 100W safely. If you draw more power thy might explode. Not exacly safe to carry around in your pocket.
    – Usually you should run LED with a current source not an voltage source. Leds don’t like voltage sources. The 5W version runs on 8V@700mA so no need for an inefficient voltage booster
    This might even work without current source (Directly connected to 6 AA Batteries) as the internal resistance would limit the current automatically.
    – Why on earth would you use paper clips?? Just use 2mm-copper wire, wrap it around an bottle and solder the ends – done…
    – You can get small LED Heat-sinks with sticky-pads on them to cool the LEDs this will increase their lifetime greatly. Good cooling is imperative if you run LEDs in parallel mode as they tend to destroy themselves (LED gets warmer – draws more current away from the other LEDs – gets warmer- melts….)
    – There are plenty of plugs you cannot connect the wrong way (Like Molex). No risk of burning anything…
    – Just use a racing-battery pack. They are more stable and easy to charge. Usually they already come with a Molex connector.

  • Well, this is really a creative idea to make a LED ring light yourself. But if you are a professional photographer, filmmaker then you should go for Rotolight LED lighting systems, a revolutionary on or off camera LED lighting equipment designed for the most demanding of professionals.

    • Going through blogs posting free self-promotion comments, nice, very classy. But if anyone reviews or comments negativity about your product, you go after them and try to have their review videos removed from the Internet claiming “copyright infringement”.

      No thanks Rotolight. I will pass on buying any of your products.

      • Sammy

        Well said. Look like rotolight isn’t big on ethics…

  • Ryan M

    I found some 10w white led chips and paid $3.66 for 20 pcs shipped. As long as you don’t mind waiting a few weeks when shipped to the US and sure they come from China, but for the price who cares. I buy a lot of leds and electronics from aliexpress.com for dirt cheap and never had any issues heres a link https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-10pcs-lot-10W-LED-Chip-Bulb-10w-led-900lm-Lamp-Light-White-Warm-white/32647674880.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.0.fd73K7

  • Vinny

    what is the chip size? and what color? white or warm light?

  • Is there anywhere I can find a schematic for this?

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