Chromo CL160 LED light #Review

In the back of the Chromo - 160 LED case (bottom left) there is a button to check the battery life, it has 4 small red led’s that signal the amount of battery remaining. It also has a dimmer switch in the bottom right part of the back, that allows you to controls the brightness of the light.

It’s dual battery design, allows for 6 AA batteries and / or a few of the Sony/Panasonic rechargeable battery packs (NP-550, NP-FH70, NP-FM55H). I had to do some googling to find the batteries that can be used with this light, since neither the package or the user guide offered this information. At the back of the unit there is a little flap to lift open the battery compartment. Once you open that frame plate, the batteries will fit and you can just slide it right back on, to keep the batteries in place. The plate is open in the middle so that a larger battery pack can protrude past the frame.

It has a standard tripod mount in the base allowing the LED to be threaded directly onto a light pole. It comes with a screw-in ball-head mount with a thumbscrew to set the angle you wish to hold the light and mount in a DSLR's hotshot.

Below you can appreciate the power of the Chromo - 160 LED, the following pictures were taken at night, using as the only source of light the Chromo - 160 LED. For video using an iPad the light was enough to illuminate the entire room. For pictures with a DSLR using a Canon Rebel 2Ti you’l have to raise the exposure time or/and the ISO. I ended up shooting at ISO 400, F3.5 and changed the shutter speed just for the purpose of this demonstration. Click on the pictures below to better notice the brightens of the Chromo - 160 LED light.

There are also three filters included with this item: one white filter to soften the light (diffuse effect); a warm filter to reduce the color temperature and a Pink filter. The filter slides into place through a slot from the top of the unit, but there is nothing to hold the filter in place and secure it, if the light is tilted the filter tends to slide out.

I do a lot of products shoots, macro photography, food shoots and close up photography where a flash just doesn't cut it, and for these situations I find it to be a great light, since the LEDs emit a soft light that I can easily control. Shutter speeds will be slower than a mounted flash, so most of the time I mount the camera on a tripod.

The photos above were taken in manual mode with the same settings (Iso:200 - F:5 - E:1/200) and the light set at medium power. For each shot we changed the filter to appreciate the difference they would generate. Click on the pictures to see lager version.

As for batteries I've used the Energizer 2500ma rechargeable battery but when using them the Chromo 160 LED light suffers from significant dimming as the batteries endup running low on power fast, after about an hour of use the CI-160 was dimming so significantly that I could’t use it any more. My recommendation is to use a battery pack such as the NP-550 which has given me significantly more continuous usage.

The "Chromo 160 LED CI-160 DIMMABLE ULTRA HIGH POWER PANEL WITH FILTERS" is available to purchase: HERE

To learn more about Chromo Inc. visit them at: Website.

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