Elgato Key Light review: Big, bright, shining star
Elgato's Key Light isn't new, but it's still one of the best streaming lights you'll find in 2024. Read our review to find out why.
High price aside, the Elgato Key Light is easily the most complete streaming light solution of any I've used. It's bright, it's flexible, and it takes all of the hassle out of setting a lighting rig up for your desk.
For content creators, no one does it better than Elgato.
Images via Elgato
I love my office. It's a pretty sizeable space, bolted onto the side of our house, and it's nice to have some degree of separation between family life and work time.
In fact, my only issue is one of lighting. I've tried all sorts of colour-changing bulbs, cheap Amazon lights, and even Logitech's Litra Glow, but none of them quite cut it.
Video calls and interviews often feel grainy, where my admittedly excellent webcam has to do a lot of heavy lifting. Enter the Elgato Key Light, which has me not only feeling confident enough to request video calls again, but may just nudge me into the world of streaming, too.
GGRecon Verdict
High price aside, the Elgato Key Light is easily the most complete streaming light solution of any I've used. It's bright, it's flexible, and it takes all of the hassle out of setting a lighting rig up for your desk.
For content creators, no one does it better than Elgato.
Light up my life
Elgato has been a company near and dear to my heart for a while now, and it's earned that through thoughtfully designed products that tick most of - if not all of - the boxes for just about any scenario.
The Key Light is no different, arriving slickly packaged, with a variety of fixings to get it set up, plus a power cable with just about any international adapter you could need.
With so many bits and pieces attached to my desk already, and my cables recently tidied up, I was loathe to overcomplicate things. With that in mind, I attached the Elgato Key Light to a third-party tripod that I had lying around.
It took literally seconds, and means I could have it free-standing without attaching it to my already busy desk via the included clamp, and within minutes I had it talking to Elgato's Control Center application on my PC, and, by extension, the Elgato Stream Deck under my monitor.
That means the light itself is adjustable with a click or a button push, and as you'd expect from the Stream Deck it's possible to turn the light on and off and adjust any number of temperature and brightness increments as needed. With all of this convenience in mind, I've not found myself using the Logitech Litra Glow half as much.
How bright is bright?
So what of the light itself? It's been transformative in my use case, but naturally, your mileage may vary (particularly if you're in a room lit by natural light).
Still, the 2800 lumens on offer here can get retina-searingly bright, while the stand is flexible enough to angle things away from your face for that very reason.
Perhaps most impressive is the colour temperature range, allowing you to get a modern, blueish tint or a warmer orange one. If you go too far in either direction, it's easy enough to reset, too, and the diffusion makes sure the panel is excellently balanced.
It's also slimline enough to not take up too much room wherever you put it, although Elgato does offer a smaller 800 Lumens Mini version which has the advantage of additional physical controls, too.
Still, for a product you only need to think about in the moments you need it, there are few better than the Key Light.
That does come at a price, though, which anyone within Elgato's ecosystem of devices will recognise as being the price you pay for a slick operation. The Key Light will set you back $160, or around $190. If you're serious about streaming or content creation, it's likely to be more than worth the investment, but the Mini will likely call out to those who just want to feel more confident on business calls.
The Verdict
High price aside, the Elgato Key Light is easily the most complete streaming light solution of any I've used. It's bright, it's flexible, and it takes all of the hassle out of setting a lighting rig up for your desk.
For content creators, no one does it better than Elgato.
Review unit provided by the manufacturer. GGRecon uses affiliate links, if you purchase any products from our links we may earn a commission.
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