Ulanzi I-light wands

This is getting out of hand

For 15€ a piece I chose to buy two of these 6W light wands. At first I thought I should have ordered more, but perhaps these are enough. A word of warning: I've seen these sold with a 50€ price tag.

Both ends have a magnet and the standard camera mount. The magnet is strong enough for waving a few of them around together, but a real bolt might be preferable if you intend to pretend it's a lightsaber.

The battery provides light for a few hours, depending on the brightness setting. This should be fine for any kind of minor hobbyist photoshoot. At 6W, I don't think it's a great substitute for desk lights and such. The light can be used while charging, though.

For video chat sessions, the wands can give some added lighting but again perhaps not as the only light source, unless going for some kind of dramatic effect. Setting them to low brightness can be helpful and doesn't use so much power.

The typical unsubtle colors you'll go for the first few days

USB-C can be used for recharging the 2000mAh battery, this can take a couple of hours.

Despite the USB connector, the lights can't be externally controlled nor are they even very hackable. As yet, I didn't find anyone providing ways to change the firmware.

There's no screws visible so I couldn't get them open either. There could be screws under the very thin rubber feet.

The interface gives some light effects "scenes", Cop Car, Ambulance, Fire Engine, Lightning, Fireworks, TV, Candle, Party, Fault Bulb, Pulsing, Strobe, RGB Strobe, Paparazzi, Emergency, H/L beam, Red Flash, Green Flash, Blue Flash, HSI Slow, HSI Fast. 

These effects only have a brightness parameter (0-100) so they are sadly rather one-dimensional.

As the lights are not very powerful, I'm not sure how large areas can be covered with the scene effects. But for videos of miniature dioramas etc., these live effects could be a fun addition.

Hue reminder

The other modes are more practical, you can have a light of specified color temperature ranging from 2500K to 9000K, with brightness 0-100.

Finally, you can adjust the color of the light using Hue (0-359), Saturation (0-100) and Brightness (0-100). The device has a helpful diagram showing each hue and its corresponding degree. 

There's a tiny display on the opposite side of the lamp, easy enough to read. A combination of four keys is used to navigate the different modes, options and parameters.