What Camera Lights To Use For Filming at Night

Blair AlleyFebruary 15, 2025 2 min read

You've been filming for hours, the skater is close to getting his trick, but it's getting darker. A familiar scenario. The clip has to be good, so you've got to break out the camera light and capture this trick the best you can. What are the pro filmers using out there? We asked a few of our contributors and friends and compiled this list of suggestions.

1. Genaray Curved LED

10 inch panel light — 10-inch panel light
*genaray.com*

These curved, mountable lights are perfect for capturing skateboarding, especially while rolling with the skater, using a fisheye lens. The 10-inch option boasts 600 LEDs and its super-wide 180-degree angle fills in what would normally require multiple lights.

Genaray has a five-inch sized option as well with 128 LEDs and a 140-degree angle.

Link to buy

Link to buy

2. Lume Cube

Lume Cube made its name several years back with its small, waterproof, super-bright lights that paired great with GoPros and all kinds of other cameras. Currently, this Panel Mini is a go-to for skate filmers.

link to buy. A small LED panel, it's reliable for easy illumination on the go. With versatile mounting options and an LCD screen to optimize everything from brightness to battery life, it's a mini-but-mighty workhorse.

3. Genaray LED Variable-Color On-Camera Light

Another go-to from Genaray, the LED-7100T offers a bright, soft light output, with precision controls, in a compact form-factor. It's lightweight and suitable for on-camera use. It's adjustable from a warm 3200K to a cool 5600K color temperature, and features 312 LEDs that deliver up to 1400 lux brightness at 3 feet (think filming fisheye). A magnetic, snap-on diffuser is included that will let you soften the light output and reduce contrast.

Link to buy

4. Phottix M200R

Light the clips with the compact M200R RGB LED On-Camera Light Panel with a USB Power Bank. This compact LED light is about the size of your iPhone and features a 3200 to 5600K color temperature range and RGB full-color and effects modes. It also features a built-in battery that can be used as a power bank.

LINK TO BUY

5. Car Headlights

Of course where there's a will there's a way. Take it old school and just pull up your car and turn on the headlights. It worked for Rodney Mullen and Jacob Rosenberg in the ground-breaking Virtual Reality video back in 1993.