Best streaming light for your desk

The short answer

By where it goes: on the monitor beside the camera, Logitech Litra Glow or Elgato Key Light Neo; on a desk clamp for more light, Elgato Key Light Air MK.2, Key Light or NEEWER R18; as a bar on its own stand, Logitech G Litra Beam or Litra Beam LX; away from a socket, Elgato Key Light Mini, or the Lume Cube Broadcast Lighting Kit on its own stand.

For one face at a desk, one light is enough to start: in front of you, close to the camera and slightly above eye level. Choose it by where it mounts and where its power comes from, then move it while you watch the webcam test. A light that runs from USB may only reach its full brightness on a strong port or with a separate power supply.

A small desk: a light on the monitor

When the camera sits on the monitor, a small light beside it on the same edge needs no stand or clamp.

• Logitech Litra Glow: 250 lumens, a monitor mount in the box, and Logitech asks for a USB 3.0 port to power it. Enough for a face close to the screen, not for a room.
• Elgato Key Light Neo: 400 lumens from a USB-A port, 700 from USB-C and 1,000 with a 3 A supply. The monitor mount comes in its with-mount package.

More light, on a desk clamp

A larger panel on its own clamp or arm can sit back from the desk or to one side, where the camera does not see it.

• Elgato Key Light Air MK.2: up to 2,100 lumens, but only with a 30 W or stronger USB-C supply. The desk clamp is in the box.
• Elgato Key Light: 2,800 lumens from its own mains supply, on a clamp for desks up to 60 mm thick. You set it from Elgato’s Control Center app over Wi-Fi.
• NEEWER R18: an 18 cm ring light on a desk clamp and an arm that holds it up to 109 cm high. It runs from its own power adapter and has no app: you set it from the touch panel on the arm or the remote in the box.

A bar light on its own stand

A bar stands upright beside the monitor on its own base, so it needs desk space rather than a clamp edge.

• Logitech G Litra Beam: controls on the light, G HUB optional. Logitech prints no lumen figure, and full brightness needs a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port or a 5 V, 1.4 A USB power adapter.
• Logitech G Litra Beam LX: up to 400 lumens from the front, with an RGB light on the back for a colored accent on the wall behind it. It runs from the mains adapter in the box; the USB cable is for control only.

Away from a socket

Elgato Key Light Mini runs on its built-in battery for about 4 hours at half brightness and charges over USB-C, so it also works away from the desk. No mount comes in the box: add a 1/4-inch screw mount or a tripod.

The Lume Cube Broadcast Lighting Kit brings its own telescoping desk stand, 12 to 30 inches tall, and runs up to 75 minutes at full brightness or 130 at half. Lume Cube doesn’t say whether it runs while plugged in, so try a full-length session on its USB cable before a long stream.

Lume Cube’s own figures show why distance matters more than the brightness setting: 1,080 lux at 0.5 m, but only 210 lux at 1 m. Half brightness from half a metre still puts more light on your face than full brightness from a metre away, and on battery it lasts 130 minutes instead of 75.

Count your USB ports before you buy

A light that takes its power over USB uses a port your webcam, microphone or capture card might need, and on a weak port it gives less light. The USB port planner shows which of your sockets are free and which share a controller. A light with its own mains supply, such as the Key Light, Litra Beam LX or R18, takes no power from the computer but needs a socket within reach.

Side by side

Streaming lights compared puts all nine in one table: brightness, color, power, mount, weight and what comes in the box. Makers measure brightness in different ways, so read the units before lining figures up.

Place it, then check it on camera

Where the light sits changes the picture more than which light you bought. Streaming lighting layout covers height, angle, glare on glasses and a window in the room. Then open the webcam test and move the light while you watch your face, before you go live.

Equipment for these connections

Start with the kind of gear you’re missing, and read its full profile before adding it to your setup.

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