Although we have noticed a number of people reaching out about the Yongnuo yn360 ii for a few months now, we have seen a sudden spike in people interested in the video lighting system due to some excellent videos on YouTube by large creators using the Yongnuo yn360 ii as part of their mood lighting.
Due to this, we have decided to publish our dedicated Yongnuo yn360 ii review to help any of our readers who are wanting to or are considering picking it up. Now, from what we have seen, a fair amount of people showing interest in it are small YouTube creators who may not have large budgets. If this is the case for you then consider picking up a second hand or refurbished Yongnuo yn360 ii (Click here to check for product prices and availability) as you can save a fair bit on the list price helping to keep costs down.
Due to the Yongnuo yn360 ii being a popular LED light, a number of independent photographers and videographers who have picked it up as part of their lighting kit have posted their own reviews (click here to read some of them) of the stick online. Reading some of these can provide a great insight into how the system is performing for other people and help you decide if it will fit with your photography or videography style.
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Table of Contents
Performance
Yongnuo has really built on the lessons identified from the first generation yn360 to ensure that this second generation LED light system offers some of the best possible performance on the market right now. The RGB LEDs are able to generate almost any color required for your photographs or video footage in a matter of seconds and the free smartphone app lets you tell the yn360 ii exactly what color light to emit.
This makes it the perfect lighting strip for any time of mood lighting or experimental photography that you may wish to use it on. You can add excitement to an otherwise boring photograph or add a feel of mystery to you photographs depending on what you are trying to capture.
Although not its primary purpose, you are also able to use the Yongnuo yn360 ii for light painting as shown in the image below and it actually does a pretty good job. Just keep in mind that it is a bulky LED unit primarily designed for lighting up your location rather than for light painting.
Build Quality
It is no surprise that the first generation Yongnuo yn360 had some issues with its build quality and although we are pleased to confirm that the yn360 ii has overcome these initial problems with the previous generation video light, it does have one major build/design issue of its own in our opinion.
The photograph to the left shows the top of the video light and as you can see, this is where the power input socket is. Now, if you are planning on running the Yongnuo yn360 ii from its built-in battery then this is not an issue for you but if you are planning on powering it directly from a wall socket then it can be a total pain.
Having to string the power cable up to the top of the light makes it top heavy and more difficult to balance to get the kind of light you may want. Additionally, as you are wasting cable length by stretching it up the whole body of the light, you have to place it closer to the plug socket.
You may be thinking, why not just hand the light the other way up so the power outlet attaches to the lower end of the light. This is a possibility but keep in mind that by doing this, the control system for the strip will now be at the top making it awkward to tweak the lights performance mid-session, especially if you are shorter. One workaround to this is to use the free app available for Apple and Android devices to tweak the color of the light remotely.
The battery of the yn360 ii is now internal so you are unable to hot swap batteries out as required too but on the flipside, you can now power the unit from a wall socket indefinitely provided you overcome the issue with the power input covered above. That said, depending on your settings you will easily get between two and four hours of battery life at a time and the unit can be charged relatively quickly too.
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User-Interface And Control System
Thankfully, the Yongnuo yn360 ii is extremely easy to use. You have two options to tweak the performance of your lighting system with the first being its manual control panel shown in the photograph above. It is very easy and based around four buttons as well as a rotary dial, even if you have never used an LED lighting strip before, we are sure that you will be able to quickly pick this up and get it working just as you want.
The second is the free smartphone app that makes it even easier to use as you can literally just touch the color that you want to light wand to emit for you. At the time of writing, the app is only available for Apple and Android devices and with the Windows phone market share shrinking each year we doubt a Windows phone version of the app will be released.
Our Verdict
That concludes out Yongnuo yn360 ii review, we hope that we have helped you with your decision on if adding this lighting system to your collection of camera accessories would be beneficial or not. All in all, it really is a great bit of kit that retails with a fair price tag in our opinion and provided you use the phone app to control the emitted light then you can hand the unit upside down to make powering it via a wall socket very easy too.
Click Here To Read Independent Third Party Reviews Of This Product!
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The video below offers an additional third-party, independent review for the Yongnuo YN360 II to offer our readers an independent opinion of the product.
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