A Long-Term Review of the Ben Q Screen Bar E-Reading Lamp

I am often wrong, and my initial impression of this rather cool looking light was no exception. I couldn't for the life of me work out why you would spend so much money on a USB lamp. A few weeks later, all became clear.

In this video I review the Ben Q Screen Bar E-Reading USB Lamp, which is a bit of a mouthful. My initial impression of this bit of kit was that it was an absolute waste of money. Who in their right mind would spend that much money on a screen bar lamp? Thankfully, my filming slot ran out of time, and I was unable to do my review when I should have. Three weeks later, I did another batch of videos, and by that point, I had noted some amazing effects.

Before going any further, this is not a technical review. There are lots of people reading the specs online who do a far better job of it than me. And for me, the benefits of this lamp are huge. I often edit for extremely long periods of time, staring intensely at a screen, and I have found these devices to be worth their weight in gold, as I discuss in the video. However, they do come with a few drawbacks, and having to use one of my Mac's USB ports is certainly not ideal, as they are so sparingly supplied. Nevertheless, I would thoroughly recommend this product to anyone else who finds themselves spending entire days at a computer in far from ideal lighting conditions. 

This LED lamp manages to avoid any glare or monitor calibration issues; it is so simple to use that even I didn't need to read the instructions, and I actually like the fact that it saves on desk space. I certainly wouldn't work without one going forward. 

Scott Choucino's picture

Food Photographer from the UK. Not at all tech savvy and knows very little about gear news and rumours.

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1 Comment

interesting --- I had an aerial photography client who had a plain desk light above his screen and he said the images looked brighter and easier to look at . And that would have been 10 years ago ! Now why didn't I patent his idea before I forgot about it :lol: