Metz, the German lighting manufacturer, has announced a new light specifically for use with mobile phone cameras. The Mecalight LED-72 is a response to the “specific needs of smartphone and tablet users” — a headphone jack-mounted LED lamp that illuminates photos and video shot with your handset’s front and rear facing cameras.
The design is similar to the Pocket Spotlight we reviewed a while back: an insulated 3.5mm plug mounts the light in your handset’s headphone jack. The mount swivels in the port so you can use it with either your front-facing “selfie” camera or with the main camera on the back. It can also tilt 90° up and down for fine-tuning (or optimistic ceiling bounce) of your light. There are three operating modes: full power, partial power and a stroboscopic flash mode.
And don’t worry: it’s available in pink. As well as black, white, green and blue variants.
The Mecalight LED-72 is powered by an internal lithium battery that charges via USB and will supposedly last for four hours on one charge. There is no fine-tuned brightness adjustment but the 72-lux output should be an improvement on your phone’s built-in flash (unless maybe you have a phone like mine).
The price is about £25-30. Get yours on Amazon here. For more information, visit the Metz “selfie light” product page.