Good light, accessories need improvement
Product purchased: RM 03 macro light I've only taken this light out shooting once yet, but so far my overall impression is very good, especially for the price. The light: The light itself seems well made and sturdy. It has a good range of brightness settings, and the built-in ability to easily adjust the focus and strength of the light beam by extending or retracting the sleeve on the end was really useful, especially after losing the diffuser (more on that below.) The bendy arm is fantastic! It's extremely flexible, and it stays exactly where and how you put it for as long as you need. No sagging and it doesn't easily get bumped out of shape by accident. The closest comparison i can make is with the legs on my GorillaPod. Those stay in place much more firmly, but since the arm on the light isn't supporting a bunch of extra weight, it stays put equally well. The light is much ea I do have two minor concerns: possible overheating and the USB port cover. The silicone USB cover fits a bit too loosely, and could easily compromise the light's water resistance (which I have not tested) or allow dirt and debris to get into the port. It's nothing a piece of gaffers tape can't fix, though. The light also gets hot pretty quickly while it's turned on. I haven't had it overheat yet, but it's something to keep in mind. Just don't leave it on for too long at a time to be safe. Accessories: I have mixed impressions on the included accessories. On papers, it's a solid selection, and some of them are great. The ground stake and spotlight attachments are great, and I found myself getting good use out of both of them. The slides that can go in the spotlight seem pretty gimmicky, though, and I don't really see myself ever using them. Maybe you'll get some use out of them if you do figurine photography ir something, but for the nature photography I do, they're pretty useless. Honestly, I'd prefer if this were removed from the standard kit and replaced with a second diffuser of a different opacity, size, or shape from the one already included. I think it would be far for useful for most people. The clamp is ok, but the grip strength seems a little too weak to support the weight and leverage put on it but the light. I don't have a lot of need for the clamp, so I'm not too bothered about it. The groubd stake is much more suited to what I do, and it works well. It's made of metal, not plastic (aluminum, I think?) and it works well. Great inclusion, I love it, no complaints there. I haven't tried out the cold shoe mount yet, but it seems sturdy. I don't trust my camera's hot shoe to support the weight, but if you have a bracket or frame on your camera with an attachment point for it, you'll probably find it useful. The real letdown for me is the last two accessories, the diffuser and barn door. I expected these to be the most useful out of the whole kit, aside from the ground stake, and they would be, if they actually stayed on. But no, they fall off incredibly easily. On both of them, the ring that fits over the end of the light fits a bit too loosely and is extremely short. Of the two, the diffuser stays on slightly better, but it still fell off and got lost in the tall grass almost immediately. Customer service was very helpful and offered to send me a new one, so I do want yo thank them for that. The barn door fits so poorly that the slightest touch or beeze will knock it off. I could barely get it to stay indoors on a sturdy table, let alone outside in the breeze and foliage. Both of these are completely unusable in the field unless you keep them on with gaffers tape, which is impractical if you swap them frequently, and will cost you money in the long run. Even then, the ring on the barn door is so short that I don't know how well it would stay on, even with tape. I hope the design team reads this, because this can fix fixed with a very minor redesign and would be a massive improvement on what I think is otherwise a great product. Overall, despite the complaints above, I highly recommend this if you're looking for a good macro light on a small budget. You could find a better one, but not at this price point, in my experience. If you're on the fence, I say get it, especially if they fix some of the problems I mentioned between now and whenever you're reading this.