Let there be light!
Some say that photography is writing with light, and as such the right light is more important than anything else! Here the Ninja 10B LED light from Viltrox comes in handy. It was kindly sent to me by Viltrox for review, but the review here is by me and not Viltrox.
Some prefer flash light in a studio, but for video that is not of much use and also steady light has the advantage that you can see how the light hits your subject(s) before you start shooting or recording; you don’t have that convenience when shooting with flash. In that sense there are many advantages to using steady light over flash light.
The Viltrox Ninja 10B comes in several variants, and if you want to go mobile say because you shoot outdoors, you should definitely take a closer look at the options with battery supplied over at the Viltrox homepage.
In the box
In the box the main items is the light itself, a reflector (Bowens interface) and a power supply – and it is all delivered in a nice little bag for easy storage and travel. There is also a lamp cover that protects the LED lights during transport – it is important that you remember to always put to cover back on the light during transport so the LED panel is not exposed to dust or hit by anything.
My copy came with a handle to use the light handheld. Weighing less than 500 grams, handheld is a good option, although I often mount my light on a stand.
A really useful item is the so called adapter retaining clip, that allows you to secure the power supply to the stand, so it is not hanging in the power cable on the rear of the light. It may sound like a small thing, but when you first get used to this adapter, you wonder how you could do without it!
The light is delivered in a nice bag that you can use for both transportation and storage.
The light
The light is a 120 watts (!) LED light with a color rendition index above 95, which is bound to give you precise colors at any color temperature. The kelvin values ranges from 2800K to 6800K.
My current studio light is around 100 Watts and I have never felt that 100 Watts was too little, so 120 Watts is more than sufficient if you like me work in a small studio.
Controls
Other than the on-off switch, the control that you will use the most is the big dial on the rear of the Ninja 10B: Turn it to control the brightness of the light (0-100%) and push it once to switch to control the color temperature (2800K to 6800K). Push it again to switch back to brightness control. A nice clear LCD on the rear will show you your selections.
You have 19 channels and 6 groups (A-F) to choose from, so I don’t think you will run out of options for finding an available combination.
Remote control
You can buy a remote control as an additional item – it is not supplied with the light by default. But I doubt you will miss the remote because Viltrox has an app to control the light entirely. Download the app, and you have a remote control at your disposal!
The number of options and details you can control with the app is much better than what the controls on the rear of the light offers, so I quickly got in the habit of using the app for controlling the light. If you like to have many pre-defined options to choose from, then you will love the app: you can choose between pre-defined scenes such as a campfire, an ambulance, candlelight, etc
A cool detail is that the app for this light is exactly the same as for the Weelight light sticks, and it works via bluetooth communications. I don’t know how they do it, but when you download the app, the app and the light is connected automatically. Not setup or connection procedure required! A cool detail is that you can turn the light off using the app!
Price and conclusion
The price of the Viltrox Ninja 10B here in October 2022 is around 330 USD (there is an introduction offer – you can take a closer look at Viltrox homepage to get the details). I think that is a fair price and you get a really good solid light with good build quality.
The only issue I can find with this light is that the fan is quite loud. Even though it is possible to adjust the fan speed into 3 levels (50%, 80% and 100%), it did not really change the fan speed, and the fan kept on going when the light was dimmed down to 0% or I had turned off the light via the app. For video recording, this is an issue, as the fan noise is picked up by the microphones mercilessly and it is difficult to edit out with noise cancellation in post. So you may find that this light is primarily for photography and video where the sound is added later.
Video link
