This is not going to be a comprehensive review of the Logitech Litra Glow. I just wanted to talk about it for a minute, because I think it’s neat and it solved a problem I’ve had since that first COVID lockdown in 2020.
I was thinking about getting a ring light.
Being the editor of a video game website means I have to sit in on a lot of Zoom meetings. Like a lot. You guys have no idea how many meetings I have to show up for in a day.
In 2019, I don’t know that I would have cared much about how I looked on Zoom. But in the two years since the pandemic began, I’ve also come to care about the little sliver of my face and space that I send to the other side.
To be clear, I shouldn’t care. I shouldn’t give a single, solitary shit what my office looks like on a video call. But I do, because I need everyone to like me, that most quintessential curse of the eldest child, and that means I want to look nice when I get on a call or a stream.
Yes, that’s a hint we want to bring the Twitch stream back. Twitch.tv/KotakuAU, keep an eye on it.
So, yeah, I was thinking about getting a ring light. The reason you get a ring light is that it casts a diffuse light that doesn’t shine on oily skin or show up blemishes. It makes you look a bit nicer, a bit warmer, and keeps you well lit when your surroundings might be a bit dark. But ring lights are usually a process. They take up space, they stand on a tripod behind or over your desk, and you need to find a power outlet to plug them into.
They’re also no good for you if you plan to stream for long periods. Streamers who have a bright ring light blasting into their eyes for 12 straight hours risk photobiological damage because they output quite a bit of optical radiation. The Litra Glow is rated for up to 12 consecutive hours of exposure without you risking anything, which is nice to know. Maybe don’t put it on full bore anyway. At a max of 250 lumens, it’s pretty bright.
Logitech’s Litra Glow wants to cut that stage out entirely and have you mount a flat, diffuse light to your monitor the way you would your webcam. There’s a slider on the rear of the light that allows you to lever, tilt or rotate it, depending on where you want to throw the light. The lightbox itself is a flat square that casts a wide beam for broad, even coverage.
It plugs into your PC (or nearest available power source) via a USB-C-to-USB 3.0 cable, and it can be controlled using the Logitech G Hub software.
Once you’re in the G Hub software, you can tweak the light to suit your setup. There’s a stack of preset light configurations across different brightnesses, cooler tones and warm, but I found few of them suited my kit. My desk is placed next to a big bright window that tends to blow out the white balance on my Logitech Brio webcam. This meant using the Manual Adjustment menu to dial the preferred settings in.
The Litra means I can close the blinds when we have a Zoom meeting, turn on the LED tiles in the nerd paraphernalia cube storage behind me, and not look like I’m lurking in a cave. All I have to do to turn it on is open the G Hub app.
That’s really all there is to talk about here, and I think that speaks volumes about the device, all of it good. It’s a no-nonsense, plug-and-play set-up for people who need to solve a specific problem quickly. At an RRP of AU $89.95, it’s also pretty cost-effective. There are cheaper ring lights out there, but they’re too bright, cheaply made, and there’s always a bit of physical setup involved. I put the Litra Glow on my monitor, plugged it in, and it was functionally ready to go. That’s valuable to me.
Anyway, it’s pretty good. If you need a light, check it out.
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