Hands-On Review: Bolt VM-210 Flexible Macro Light

The Bolt VM-210 is a macro light with two LED heads on flexible arms — continuous light you can position around tiny subjects, cheaper and simpler than a ring flash. Hands-on review below.

The Bolt VM-210 is a dedicated macro light featuring two independent LED sources mounted on flexible arms. Honestly, when it’s mounted, it looks like some kind of mechanical bug with two antennas hanging out over your lens.

There’s a small, round LED light pad at the end of each arm. It’s a fascinating, highly adjustable alternative to the more conventional macro ring-light approach, and the folks at B&H were kind enough to send me one to test in the field.

The entire rig mounts directly into your camera’s hot shoe. Each of the 12-inch arms is designed to arch out over the lens and bend into whatever configuration you need. Like most portable flashes, it’s powered by four standard AA batteries. Because the whole unit is quite lightweight, it doesn’t pose much of a balance problem when you’re shooting handheld or mounting your camera on a tripod.

The big advantage: Ultimate flexibility

The thing that makes this dual-arm approach so incredibly attractive is its flexibility. If you want the light pads pushed immediately adjacent to the lens port — acting just like a standard ring light — you can easily bend them there. But unlike a ring light, you can physically shape the light, adjusting the positions and relative distances of the pads to perfectly control your highlights and shadows.

You control the output using the panel on the back of the unit. From there, you can change the intensity of the light and switch between flash mode and constant continuous light mode. (Note: You adjust the power of both lights together — you can’t independently dim one side while keeping the other bright).

Field test examples

Here are some quick examples of how physically moving the light pads changes the shot. This first one is with both lights turned on, each positioned at about the same distance from the subject.

And now, here is the exact same setup with just the left light pad turned on to throw a distinct shadow.

And finally, just the right side light pad firing.

Where the Bolt VM-210 macro light falls short

While the flexibility is fantastic, there are several things the Bolt VM-210 Macro Flash simply isn’t good at that you definitely need to know before buying one:

• It’s Relatively Weak: The output is very low compared to a true speedlight. I’ve found it most useful when combined with at least some other ambient light. While it can help you increase your aperture range slightly, the bump is modest. If you’re expecting to shoot razor-sharp macros at f/22 in pitch darkness, you’re going to find this wildly underpowered.
• It Only Works Up Close: Because of the low output, it’s really only useful for *very* close macro shots. Once you move a foot or two back from your subject, the light simply isn’t strong enough to be useful.
• It Won’t Freeze Action: The flash mode isn’t a quick, fraction-of-a-second spark like a true speedlight. It’s essentially just an LED turning on and off quickly. Because it stays on for a bit, it’s far too slow to effectively freeze fast macro action like flying insects.
• It Lacks TTL Metering: You won’t get any automatic adjustments on the fly — the unit is entirely manual. You have to adjust the light output using the controls on the back, and the controls work more like a basic exposure compensation dial (more/less) rather than tying into your camera’s actual aperture or percentage values.

Final verdict & availability

I’ve found the flexible-arm approach incredibly useful for product shots, especially acting as a highly versatile fill light. Because the output isn’t overwhelmingly strong, it’s absolutely best used in conjunction with a tripod for static subjects. I highly recommend using a dual-arm rig like this for flower macros — like the blooming cherry blossoms — where you can snake the arms in close to fill in tricky evening shadows.

There are definitely times when a more traditional, high-powered ring light is going to work better, especially if you need completely even, flat light. But there’s a ton of creative virtue to the shadow-shaping you can pull off with the twin light sources of a rig like the VM-210.

Note: Bolt officially discontinued the VM-210, but the flexible dual-arm macro concept remains incredibly popular. You can still occasionally find them used, or you can check out newer, upgraded models like the Bolt VM-260 at B&H Photo.