We use a plethora of lighting tools on the day of a wedding… one tool that we’ve found to be the most reasonably priced and has the best throw (for running off of AA batteries) is the R-50 LED Video Light Panel by LCD4Video.com.

The R-50 is most closely compared to the popular Litepanels Micro LED light. We ran a few tests and found that the R-50 has a much better throw than the Litepanels Micro. The only thing we wish was better was the dimming switch on the R-50. The Litepanels Micro has a finer tuning dimmer – but if you have time and the right stuff, you can achieve the look you’re going for with the right filter.

The R-50 sells for $189.99 which is a little more than $100 cheaper than the Litepanels – and that’s probably what makes us most excited. It runs on 4 AA batteries on full blast for over an hour… but once it’s done – it is done. You’ll need to make sure to have plenty of batteries (regular or rechargeable) if you will be shooting for an extended amount of time where you need additional light. Because we are turning the light on and off throughout a reception, it’s pretty standard that we don’t go through more than four that we put in the light at the beginning of the day.

The other thing that is totally rad about this thing is that it’s LED… if left on in your camera bag or sock drawer should not burn anything because of the heat-free LED technology… TOTALLY different than the Sony HVL-20’s that are extremely popular in our industry – these things will burn your soft little fingers if you’re not careful.

If there is an update to this model, we’d like to see a more fine tuning capability as well as a little more rugged design. I like the light-weightiness of both the R-50 and the Litepanels Micro, but I wish they both felt a little more rugged… it’s just a personal preference.

Here are some of the test pics we took while using  it.  Click on the images to enlarge and get the specs:

You’ll also notice in the pics that the Litepanels Micro is warmer than the R-50… this is easily solved with some minor color balance tweaking or with a gel.

Overall – for $189 and some change – there is no better option that we’ve found that can produce a nice soft fill light in LED-style.

There are some other great lighting alternatives on the LCD4Video site… be sure to check them out!