Cellphone Camera Flash Fill-in Light by Actionfly

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Ever been less than impressed with the flash on your phone? Or using it for video and it drains your battery right down? I tried this add-on flash by action fly and it can definitely add light with minor drawbacks.

Build- You get a fairly standard plastic case with 16 bright LEDs for fill light. On the bottom is a micro USB port for power and a headphone jack to mount it to a phone. The switches are straight forward with an on/off and one for 3 power levels. The plastic doesn't seem the strongest but the entire thing it pretty light so it won't have any issues if dropped. One easily missed feature is the inclusion of a lanyard loop and as no one will want to keep this mounted in their pocket is would be right at home on a key-chain.

Function- Right off the bat the main problem here is even on the low setting the thing is so bright I'm not sure how much anyone will want their picture taken. While a phone flash usually is on for a short time this one is on until you turn it off. That's right; even though it looks like the phone may trigger it the jack is really just the way of holding the flash. That complaint aside, it does what it say it doe: provide plenty of fill light. I would imagine a good way to use it would be to frame your shot and then turn it on just before shooting to keep the blinding-ness to a minimum. By having it mounted to the top of the phone that will help to make your light a little off-axis which always helps a picture.

This may not be fore everyone, and I'm not certain I'll have it with me all the time. However, if you're going out and expect to take a lot of pictures just throw it in your pocket. If you're someone that would keep it on a keychain, even better; you can use it as a flashlight when you're not taking pictures. In the end I'm just not sure I want to blind my friends this much. If yours are more easy going, give it a shot. I received this product at a discount in exchange for nothing more than my honest opinion.