The best handheld LED light panels for food photography

“The camera eats first” is no longer a cynical barb to toss at smartphone-wielding diners more starved for dopamine than the meticulously plated amuse bouche in front of them. 

Today, it is simply a statement of fact — the photograph always precedes the first bite of food.

Waiters who would once chide foodie shutterbugs now welcome them with open arms, even going so far as to warn diners ahead of the final tableside flourish of jus. The gastronomic zeitgeist demands plates that nourish the social media feed just as much as they do the ravenous customer.

All we can do is arm ourselves with the right tools — a good smartphone or point-and-shoot camera, but especially a versatile, portable LED light to better illuminate your entrée in a dimly lit dining room.

Read on for a hit list of the best handheld and smartphone-mounted lights for all your foodie photography needs.

Table of contents

Godox C30Bi. (Photo: Godox)

Everyone is a content creator, and that is especially true thanks to lightweight, no-frills portable LED lights like the Godox C30Bi. The handheld light panel clocks in at just 248g while offering a solid four-and-a-half hours of runtime across a spectrum of brightness and colour temperatures.

Other nifty features include a near-silent cooling fan and the ability to recharge it while keeping the food pictures going.

Lume Cube RGB Panel Pro 2.0. (Photo: Lume Cube)

Upgrade your food photography arsenal with Lume Cube’s RGB Panel Pro 2.0. The second iteration of the California-based company’s fan-favourite product now comes brighter, stronger and more feature-filled than ever before.

It offers a staggering 16-million palette of colour options conveniently controlled via its in-house smartphone app. Heft it in your offhand as you snap with your phone, or mount it directly on your full-featured camera of choice.

Colbor PL8B. (Photo: Colbor)

The Colbor PL8B is a smartphone food photographer’s best friend. It’s got all of the features you’d expect from a portable LED light panel — adjustable brightness, a wide colour temperature range from 2500 to 9000K, a smartphone app and a compact 186g profile that’s slim enough to fit in the pocket.

But what we really like is that it doubles up as a 5000mAh power bank to keep you going in a pinch. The light panel also features a magnetic back and a cold shoe mount for more flexible photography setups.

Photoolex X2077 Pro Panel Light. (Photo: Photoolex)

While most amateur shutterbugs only reach for light panels when they’re in the confines of a dimly lit dining room, setting the mood is just as important when you’re outdoors under the glare of flat, midday sun.

In those cases, you’d want the Photoolex X2077 Pro Panel Light and its array of 36,000 colour options, all of which you can crank up to a whopping 11,000 lux.

It yields around 40 minutes of battery life on a full charge, extendable to an additional 40 minutes or so with an add-on battery stick — which is good news, considering just how much juice you’ll need as you cycle through its 21 different light modes.

Zhiyun Fiveray M40 Pocket Light. (Photo: Zhiyun)

If exceptional brightness in a compact package is what you’re gunning for, it’s hard to beat the Zhiyun Fiveray M40 Pocket Light.

The mini-cannon tops out at a blistering 14,000 lux, though you can always use the knobs on the side to strike a fine balance along the entire brightness and colour temperature range.

There’s a cost to all that power, though — the palm-sized LED panel weighs in at a hefty 320g, with no ability to switch over to different hues.

Harlowe Sol 5 Bi-Colour Mobile Light. (Photo: Harlowe)

At 102g and a footprint that’s less than one-third the size of your average smartphone, the Harlowe Sol 5 Bi-Colour Mobile Light is about as compact as phone-mounted lights are going to get.

But what truly sets it apart is its compatibility with the iPhone’s MagSafe feature. Yes, you can use it just as easily on your non-shooting hand, but where’s the convenience (and fun) in that?

It offers up to 90 minutes of operation at full brightness, even though its luminance doesn’t quite match that of other, heavier light panels on the list.

Joby Beamo. (Photo: Beamo)

For photographers who like to split their time between food, travel and adventure, the Joby Beamo is a handy bit of kit to have in your back pocket — literally, since the LED light weighs a bijou 130g and measures 5cm across.

It’s no powerhouse, but it’s hardy, with an aluminium case and waterproof construction to a depth of 30m. Nevertheless, it packs enough of a punch to keep your plates lit from amuse-bouche and entree all the way to petit fours.

Wireless charging adds another bump of convenience to the device, which can be mounted on a smartphone or camera.

Nitecore SCL10. (Photo: Nitecore)

Homegrown company Nightcore boasts a catalogue of tech-enabled, everyday-carry essentials, including — you’ve guessed it — an LED light panel that doubles as a 10,000mAh power bank.

The kicker is that the SCL10 runs for up to 70 hours on a single charge, or three-and-a-half at its full brightness of 800 lumens.

Vitals like remaining runtime, brightness output and an adjustable colour temperature from 2,500K to 6,300K can all be tracked via a real-time display on the panel, making on-the-fly adjustments a breeze for content creators. It also comes with a six-month guarantee.

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