Shopping for back-to-school? These are the webcam lights I’d actually turn on before a Zoom call

Between online classes, group project calls, and the occasional job interview over Zoom, your webcam will be doing lot more heavy lifting in school than it ever did at home. The problem is that most laptop cameras are bad in low light, and a single overhead bulb or a window behind you turns every call into a game of “wait, can you see me okay?”

A good webcam light fixes that faster than moving your whole desk around. I picked five, starting with the most affordable and working up to the one that’s genuinely overkill for a Zoom call but still worth knowing about.

Neewer NL-60AI clip light

The Neewer clip light is for people who want the best lighting for video calls without spending too much. It clips directly onto your laptop, tablet, or phone with a circular mount that leaves your camera uncovered. The 60 LEDs inside are rated at a CRI of 95, so skin tones look natural rather than washed out or too warm.

You can dim it from 10 to 100 percent in small steps and flip between warm and cool color temperatures depending on the room you’re in. It can run for about 2 hours at full brightness and recharges over USB-C or micro USB. For something this small and this cheap, it does exactly what a webcam light needs to do and nothing more.

Logitech Litra Glow

The Logitech Litra Glow is one of the best webcam lights you can buy. It features a built-in frameless diffuser, so you get a soft, even light, which is the difference between your face looking evenly lit and one harsh bright spot that makes you squint. It’s also been tested to run safely for hours at a time, so leaving it on through back-to-back online classes isn’t a concern.

The mount is the other reason I like this one. It attaches to your monitor or laptop lid and adjusts for height, tilt, and rotation, so you can actually aim it instead of hoping it points the right way. If you’re on Mac or PC, Logitech’s G HUB app lets you control brightness and color temperature from your desktop and save your favorite settings, so you’re not fiddling with a dial mid-call.

Lume Cube video conference lighting kit

Another premium webcam light you can buy for calls is the Lume Cube kit. It features a frosted lens and an extra diffuser panel to soften the light before it hits your face. It features a full range of brightness, along with adjustable color temperature to match any room you’re calling from. It comes with a suction cup mount that sticks to a laptop or monitor, so the setup takes only a few seconds.

What stands out is the battery. It runs for hours on its own charge, and if you’re on an all-day call marathon, you can just plug it into a USB port on your computer and let it run indefinitely instead of watching a battery indicator. It’s a solid middle ground if you want something a step up from a basic clip light without going all the way to a permanent desk fixture.

LitONES desk light

If you want something that looks like it belongs on a real desk setup rather than clipped to a laptop, this is that option. It mounts with a C-clamp instead of a clip, and an aluminum swing arm lets you adjust the height anywhere from 10 to 33 inches and rotate the head a full 360 degrees, so it stays out of your way until you actually need it positioned.

The light itself covers a wide area at CRI 95, with three color modes and ten brightness levels between 3000K and 6500K, controlled either with the included remote or the touch panel on the light itself. It also has a memory function so it comes back exactly how you left it, plus a built-in timer, which is a small but genuinely useful nudge to take a break during a long study session.

SmallRig RM120

The SmallRig RM120 might be more than most people need for a Zoom call, but it’s worth mentioning if you actually care about how you look on camera. It’s rated at a CRI of 98, adjusts across a huge color temperature range, and even lets you dial in specific colors and lighting effects through a small onboard screen and buttons, which is closer to what an actual video creator would use than a typical webcam light.

It’s also portable and packs a battery that lasts up to three hours and a USB-C port that lets you charge it and use it at the same time. If you have a class like film or media production, and you want a light that can double as more than a Zoom accessory, this is the one that earns its price tag.

Final thoughts

If you just need a basic webcam light that gets the job done, I recommend buying the Neewer NL-60AI light, as it’s quite affordable. For people who can afford to spend more, both Logitech and Lume Cube offer lights with built-in diffusers that deliver better results. 

Choose the LitONES desk light if you would rather have a permanent light on the desk and don’t want to go through the trouble of clipping and unclipping lights whenever you join a video call. Finally, the SmallRig light is for people who want more than just a webcam light, as it can also double as a good light for your video shoots.