Used it once, and the battery cap seams to be opening. One of the little clips that keeps it closed at the end is broken and soon I will have to tape the whole battery door. Left brand new batteries inside for two weeks, and next time I used, batteries were completely drained ( probably it has electronic problems)
Im giving this a one star review because while it worked, it was great. I purchased this item Dec 2016, so its not that old and has barely been used. If it wasnt in use, it was in the case that was included in the purchase. However, even though this product was taken care of, the cheap build made itself apparent one night when I went to use it and discovered the issue. The supports to the battery holder had broken. They are thin plastic and when trying to hold the battery door closed myself, realized how much force the batteries were constantly putting on the door. This caused the plastic to shatter. I couldnt hand hold the door closed, thats how tightly the batteries are packed in there. If you purchase one of these, take the batteries out when not in use.
This is a great ring flash, the build quality is good, works great, offers variety of lighting options, really made a difference in my macro shots. used it to photograph rocky shore species (barnacles, limpets, crabs, anemones, etc.) and I can see the difference between the shots before and after I have started using this. I have a few disappointments with the build/design of this flash though that I have listed below in cons, which is why I gave 4 stars. Pros: various power settings makes it easy to shoot macros in different focus distance and lighting conditions. The two lights on either side and the ability to turn off one makes it really easy to light macros when there is natural light coming from one side. The build quality is good, with well built cable attachment and secures well on hot shoe. Cons: Battery door is asking to break off, you really really need to be careful opening/closing the door, the batteries fully push the door off while you try to close the door. This is a poor design and could be easily fixed if the manufacturer had used a mechanism to secure the batteries to the body before the door is closed rather than using the door to secure the batteries. The ring mounts on lens using filter thread: there are two critically important flaws in this design: 1. once you mount the flash metal ring you cant close lens cap. Every time you need to unscrew the metal mount from the filter thread and screw it back again (not easy as you have to align it really exactly to be able to screw it). It could be much easier if the flash could be mounted using some type of push mechanism with soft/elastic ends that holds on the lens head. 2. You can only mount the flash on lenses that the ring has the metal ring available (52mm, 58mm, 67mm, 72mm), so for example if you use an extension mounted Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens (which has 49mm filter thread) for macro use, you wont be able to use this flash (unless you use a filter adaptor). Summary This is a good quality flash with affordable price, but has a few design drawbacks which could be easily fixed. I like it and I am happy I bought it, which is why I gave 4 stars, but I also thought to include constructive critics that could potentially help the design to be improved if the manufacturer takes feedback from the customers. UPDATE: Ok, after less than 2 months that I had bought this flash, what I was expecting happened last week: all of a sudden for no reason I noticed the battery door is open while I was shooting macros, tried to close it but realized it does not stay closed, checked then realized that the little plastic nub that was holding the door is broken and fell off while I was inspecting.. There had been no shock to the flash or anything, this just came off! I suppose the pressure from the batteries just breaks the door after a while. What a poor design for otherwise an excellent flash!! So long story short, I wasnt going to throw it away as I am not making money from photography and I have a decent hand in DIY, so I got to work with my limited tools in my apartment. After pondering how I can hold the door in place, I came up with a plan to screw the end of the door to the body (result in 1st image). Before making the screw hole I had to make sure that there is no electronics behind the plastic inside the body, so I had to open the 4 screws that hold the base of the flash to the body (2nd image). Then looked inside and made sure that there is no wires or electronics on that area. I used my iron soldering gun to make a hole in the side of the battery door then screwed a screw in it while the plastic was soft. Next, I was going to make a hole in the door, but I realized that the door has two layers, one plastic which is on top, and there is a metal layer which sits on the batteries and clips to the plastic top cover. After trial and error, I worked out how to take the plastic cover off the metal layer (there are holding nubs in the metal layer that I had to break them off to make separating the plastic cover easier next time). The metal layer was covering the screw hole that I had just made, so I had to break off the edge of the metal cover by pliers (not easy, the metal layer is decently thick, but I made it at the end). Once I removed enough of the edge, the screw could go through the plastic hole and, once tight, held the metal cover tightly while the batteries in place. Now the challenge was to put back the plastic cover. I figured out there are small nubs on the plastic door that hold on the metal cover, sliding on it. However, the challenge was that the plastic door had to be placed before the metal cover was secured in place by my DIY screw, which wasnt practical with my DIY adjustment as I had to tighten the metal cover while the plastic cover was off. So I had to adjust the plastic holding rails of the plastic door by screw driver so the plastic door slides to the metal while the metal is already screwed in place (sounds complex but really easy). With this adjustment in the plastic door, once the metal cover is secured (as in image 1), I can easily slide the plastic cover in place and the flash looks as original! Now if Youghoo had done its job properly I didnt have to go through this with my primitive tools, but what I can do. And I didnt take any stars off for the hassle that I went through, the original 4 stars are still shining. Update Jan 2018: I have used this flash occasionally since last update as above, one major issue that I havent mentioned above is this flash drains the battery very quickly, one set of 4 AA batteries barely last 30 shots. Another major issue is that it doesnt work on my Canon 6D mk 2, very disappointed as I needed this to work on my 6D2. The Canon version is ridiculously expensive so Ive been looking for an alternative, cant sell this one to save the money to buy another one as the battery door is modified after it broke as explained above. Essentially my 100 USD plus shipping lost without getting much use out of this.
I bought this ring light last August because I needed one and could not afford the Canon brand ring light. It worked very well. After I had it awhile the weak plastic edges on the battery compartment broke off and the battery door would not stay closed. Looking at it I could see that the little plastic lips had broken off due to the force of the springs in the battery compartment pushing on the battery compartment door. I went on line to see if there was a solution and found that countless people had the same issue of the little plastic lips breaking off. You can buy a new compartment door for $20 but the bloggers have said that the new door is just like the old one and will eventually break just like it did the first time.
The ring light worked great. Right up until the plastic latches on the battery for broke in the middle of a shoot. The batteries popped out and hit the floor and rolled over to my subjects feet. AWESOME. this was 3 months into owning it and maybe the 7-8th time I used it so it having a one year warranty I attempted to get a replacement from the company I purchased it from through Amazon Tay Sun Express they told me in broken English it wasnt broken and it wasnt under warranty. They have not responded to any other emails Ive sent them. so. Im out $102 USD Buyer beware.
JUNK. As other reviewers have mentioned, the battery door is extemely brittle. Its actually beyond brittle. It will self destruct in a matter of days. Since I was aware of this problem, I took utmost care installing batteries and during use of this unit but after few hours of use the battery door could not take the pressure of the batteries themselves and broke right off. Once that happened, we tried rubber bands, tape, cable ties, etc, anything other than superglue but nothing worked.
For the first month or so I would have given this 5 starts. Unfortunately, the design on the catch on the battery cover is extremely poor and after 2 months in no longer latches tight and requires rubber bands to hold it closed. Of course, this puts it a month beyond the Amazon return time, so I am stuck with a piece of garbage. If you want a ring flash, buy one from a better manufacturer and skip this one.
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