Tolifo LED Photo / Video Lights

So, I have had this YouTube channel HERE for a year or two, and have uploaded a fair amount of content (something like 25 videos), most of which have been product reviews that I filmed using my DIY overhead camera rig (pictured below). As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have found it difficult to actually appear in my videos. It's pretty normal from what I've read for new creators to feel a fair amount of stagefright.

One thing I was really worried about was the fact that I had no 'real' lighting for filming interview/vlog-type videos. Everything I've seen online said that you need good lighting, so I kept using that as an excuse not to do those types of videos - until Tolifo came along.

I started looking for lights that I could use for my overhead rig, and figured that if I could get some either for free or with a discount coupon, I'd give them a shot. Tolifo gave me some discount coupons to buy several different models of their lights, so I bought three different ones. The PT-15B Pro, the PT-176S, and the PT-C-160B. FYI - The letter designation at the end of each model indicates if the LEDs are single color or bicolor. Single color LED panels use colored diffusers to get different color temperatures.

My overhead camera rig consists of a PVC frame, the sides of which are glued together, so that I can simply remove the rear cross braces (and paper roll holder), and break the rig down for storage, as I don't have a dedicated place to keep it. The lights, as you can see above, are clamp shop lights with 5500k LED 100w equivalent light bulbs that I wired into a DIY dimmer switch. The camera is just visible in the top center of the screen, looking down on the white paper.


Anyway, it turned out that these lights really weren't suited to replacing my DIY lights, so I got a fourth, more powerful light shortly thereafter in order to attempt a vlog-type video. When playing with the lights on my overhead rig, I wasn't all that impressed with them. That all changed when I used them for their intended purpose.


The following pictures are screen-grabs from the video on YouTube with the specifics of which light I was running at the time.

'PT-176S as a 'hair light' at a 45 degree angle behind with no key or background light

PT-15B Pro (at 100%) as a key light with the 'hair light'.

PT-30B (at 100%) as a key light with the 'hair light'.

PT-30B (at about 25%) as a key light with the 'hair light' and a PT-C-160B fill light on the bookshelf set at 5500k color temperature.

PT -30B (at about 20%) as a key light with the 'hair light' and the fill light at 3200k.

For the purposes of evaluating the lights, you can see that these lights really can hold their own for making videos. As a first go-round with these lights, there are a lot of areas I could improve upon, such as dialing down the 'hair light' so that it's not quite so bright on the right side of my face in the image. 

The key lights are at the same distance (about 6 feet), and for the purposes of comparison, were both at 100% for the initial image. You can see that the PT-30B has a lot more power, so it was dialed back for the last two pics where I was looking at the fill light. The 25% power seems to be just right, while the 20% was a bit too dim, especially with the over-powered 'hair light'. It's still small enough to fit in my hard case (just under 10" wide) along with all three of the other lights plus the batteries, chargers and AC adapter:

One thing to keep in mind is that none of these lights come with batteries or AC adapters. They are sold separately, but are the Sony standard NP-F batteries that are used all over the place. I purchased a kit by of Wasabi Power that contained 2 batteries and a charger. It was around $40 here, and is great. I ran the units for almost two hours with no issues. 

So, I have roughly $150 in a set of 4 lights that I can use indoors, outdoors, anywhere, and have the flexibility to infinitely adjust placement, color temperature, etc. Going forward, I'm going to do some more playing with various elements to see what kind of effect I get. I do like the look of the last picture with the 3200k light on the bookshelf. I think it makes the books look a lot warmer, even though I'm lit by 5500/5600k lights.

I could look at a set of softbox-type lights, but for the price, they aren't going to be as flexible. They're also quite large and unwieldy, and really meant for in-studio use. They're AC-powered, and not as flexible because of that fact. Still, I'll look at getting a set of either umbrella lights or softbox lights to play around with if I can find a set that isn't too expensive.