Sony HVL-RLA Ring Light for DSCF707/F717/F828/V3/R1 Digital Cameras
From Sony
The HVL-RLA ring light from Sony allows you to consistently capture impeccably lit macro photography every time. Just attach the light to your compatible Cyber-shot Pro digital camera's accessory shoe and you are able to take well-lit extreme close-ups with a minimum of fuss.The HVL-RLA features adjustable positioning so you can shoot through the ring light or have it offset from the lens. Power is supplied by either 4 AA alkaline or Ni-MH batteries. Two adaptor rings and a storage pouch are included.
Brand: Sony Model: HVL-RLA Dimensions: 3.80" h x 6.10" w x 7.20" l, 1.00 pounds
The new HVL-RLA ring light from Sony allows you to consistently capture impeccably lit macro photography everytime. Just attach the light to your compatible Cyber-shot Pro digital camera's accessory shoe and you be able to take well lit extreme close-ups with a minimum of fuss. The HVL-RLA features adjustable positioning so you can shoot through the ring light or have it offset from the lens. Power is supplied by either 4 AA alkaline or Ni-MH batteries. Two adaptor rings and a storage pouch are included.
Review Sony HVL-RLA Ring Light... First let me say that I LOVE THIS UNIT! Sony did a great job in the design of the HVL-RLA ring-light. Ring lights do not put out a lot of light as that would cause blown or washed out images with close-up photography (which ring lights are designed for). An example of a blown out image is to simply take a close up with an ordinary flash such as the pop up one that comes with most digicams like the Sony 828 which I own. Normal flashes simply produce too much high intensity, highly concentrated light at close distances resulting in a way too harsh light with close-ups thereby causing a blown, or washed out image at close ranges of a foot or two. A normal flash is great for distance subjects as the light spreads out and becomes more even and soft; they are designed for distances of greater then 5 feet or so. At close range a normal flash is almost useless for anything other then a bounce flash. Ring lights on the other hand are designed for a soft, low, but very even light output (that is why they completely encircle the lens). As a result, they generally are not usable as hand held but rather the use of a tripod is most often required as the light output is fairly low but very even. Also, a slow shutter speed is needed at very close distances as the F stop has to be set to its smallest opening to provide the greatest depth of field otherwise the image will not be in very good focus at anything but one very narrow area. This is called Macro Photography and here the ring light really does it best. Macro Photography is the art of taking very close up images such as stamps, coins, small models, insects, and any relatively small (and usually un-photographed images). There is a whole world of photography here and many people that get into it are simply amazed at the wonderful images that can be achieved that most photographers simply avoid or overlook for a lack of the proper equipment (such as the ring light, close up lenses, and a good solid tripod). The Sony HVL-RLA is unique as it has two light levels, plus either the left only, right only, or all of the ring can be turn on. This is accomplished as the light source itself is actually made up of 60 small LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes) behind a frosted light diffuser. This produces a very soft light that is mandatory for macro photography. Why would you want to turn on only one half of the ring you say? That’s simple, for increased shadow detail. On some subjects having the whole ring on produces illumination that is a little too even and sometimes a little unnatural, so by lighting the subject from one side (or the other) more contrast can be achieved on the subject thereby providing a more dramatic image; that is one very slick feature. As far as battery life goes I have absolutely no complaints as I use only Lithium batteries and so far they are holding up very well after several hours of use. Just remember, a ring light is not meant to illuminate general photography but is designed mainly for macro photography; here it does the job superbly. Sony did a wonderful job with this product; they got it right the first time. This works very good. I take photos of failed gears and other engine parts. Gears fail for a variety of reasons and you need to be able to photograph the break, crack or fatigue area to help explain the failure. This lamp, along with the Sony DSC F828 give perfect photos of these parts at very close--MACRO--views. I can see that 60LED lights will eat batteries, just have to remember to shut it down between set ups. Highly recomended to anyone doing Marine Survey work. Poor battery life, poor illumination at extreme close-up I frequently take photos of thin wire sections and need to get very close to them to get sufficient detail. The macro lens attachment on my Sony DSC-F707 camera allows me to focus with the subject matter touching the front lens element. However the light from the LEDs in the HVL-RLA Ring Light starts to drop off noticeably in the center when the subject is closer than about 2" from the front edge of the light, which is about 2-1/2" from the front lens element. At zero clearance from the front edge there is virtually no light being directed at the subject. For subjects further than 2" from the front edge the illumination was fine, but that didn't meet my particular needs. If the above issue was the only problem I had I'd just write it off as the light not being intended for my application and leave it at that. Unfortunately the battery life I got was also very poor, and erratic. The Sony specification for this light is 40 minutes of use with alkaline batteries at full power. With the first set of batteries I got 11 minutes before the lights went out; with the second set I got 34 minutes; with the third set I got 19 minutes. All the batteries were from the same batch. The wide variation in battery life makes me fairly sure that my light was defective. However I noticed that even for the set that lasted 34 minutes the voltage left on a single battery after use was 1.376V at room temperature (versus 1.596V when new). This suggests that the electronics in the light are not well-designed to make good use of all the energy stored in the batteries. Many electronic devices will run the battery down to much less than 1V before expiring. Using NiMH or Lithium batteries would have given a much better life of course, but I doubt they would have affected the wide variability in performance that I saw. One other observation was that the batteries that lasted 34 minutes were almost too hot to touch immediately after use, and at that point their voltage was only 1.285V. So, perhaps the battery life would be better if the light was used in short bursts rather than continuously, so the batteries didn't get too hot. Overall a non-defective sample of this ring light will probably meet most people's needs, particularly with NiMH or lithium batteries rather than alkaline. However it is quite expensive, it isn't suitable for extreme close-up work, and at least for my sample the battery performance was poor.
