Adding light to your images is always a benefit, though for some the intricacies of using flash scare many off using it.

A single burst of light from a flashgun can be unpredictable and difficult to control – and not just for the novice. A continuous light source is much easier to account for, you can see its effect before you take the picture and therefore the results are much less likely to surprise you. For this reason continuous lighting set-ups have become more popular for product photography and small studio set-ups.

This clever invention from a company called Litepanels can now bring those benefits of continuous light to a device small enough to sit on your camera hotshoe, like a flashgun.

The device uses 48 powerful LEDs to create a daylight balanced light source (5600K) and is powered by four AA batteries to give an equivalent power of a decent family torch (560lux at 2 foot) for up to 1.5 hours use. There’s a dimmer switch for a continuously variable brightness and even a tungsten filter to give an indoor white balance of 3200K. This is a really handy device for quick portraits or any kind of macro work but really comes into its own for video, so is ideal for any of the movie-capable DSLRs or compacts.

The only downside to this handy little gadget is the rather large price tag. At a touch short of £300 it costs more than most dedicated flashguns, and the same price as a full Elinchrom Minilite 2 head continuous lighting kit. If the price came down closer to £100 it would seem a lot more appealing, but right now we would struggle to justify the spend.