Elgato Key Light Mini

One-minute review

Lighting is a hugely important part of any streamer’s setup. There’s no point in investing in a great streaming setup if you haven’t also budgeted for proper lighting. Good lighting can make a world of different with how your camera picks up your features and background, so you’ll want to make sure you have the best lighting you can afford for your stream.

Elgato offers a myriad of lighting options in its line-up,  but its latest addition is the most portable one yet. The Key Light Mini is roughly the size of a smartphone, yet is bright enough to light up any stream. Its built-in battery also makes it a perfect lighting solution for photoshoots, and it can be easily mounted to a camera as well for filming.

This kind of versatility makes it a great tool to have, as you can pop it out and illuminate pretty much anything. The physical controls also make it easy to adjust brightness and temperature, and the magnetic backing makes it easy to snap onto certain surfaces for more unique filming opportunities.

What’s a bit of a grey area is trying to use the Key Light Mini for your streams. If you’re using one of them for a Zoom call, you’ll look great, but for a stream setup, you’ll really want to get two of these for the most even lighting. At that point, you might as well just buy one of Elgato’s larger offerings instead, which also come with mounting equipment.

Price and availability

The Elgato Key Light Mini is available now, and is priced at $99.99. Compared to Elgato’s own Key Light Air at $129.99 and Key Light at $199.99, it’s a very affordable option for a single, portable light. But if you’re buying two of the Key Light Minis for your stream, then it really doesn’t make much sense and you might as well just buy one of the larger lights instead.

Design

The Key Light Mini features a very sturdy build quality, with a single ¼” thread mount at the bottom to attach it to a compatible tripod or camera mount.

On the right side you have all of the device’s controls, along with a USB-C port to charge the battery. A small button lets you power the device off or on, while a jog wheel lets you adjust either brightness or temperature. You simple hold down the wheel to switch between the two, and the Key Light Mini will flash either once or twice to let you know which mode it is currently in. Lastly, there’s a rest button which will reset the Key Light Mini to factory settings.

At the back are a series of LEDs that indicate the currently battery level, as well as a small blue LED that notifies you if the Key Light Mini is connect to Wi-Fi or not.

While the Key Light Mini is mostly meant to be attached to an arm or similar mounting device, its rear is also magnetic. Elgato says that this is useful for when people want to illuminate their stove during cooking streams, so the Key Light Mini can simply magnetically attach to a stove hood. This might seem like a fun idea, but might not be the best to have the light directly near hot foods or steam.

Setup and Performance

The Key Light Mini can be set up and controlled using the on-board controls, but can also be controlled wirelessly via Elgato’s Control Center mobile or desktop app. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the Key Light Mini to pair with our Wi-Fi network, despite trying two separate lights and a full factory reset. If you’re able to connect the Key Light Mini to your network, you can then use the Elgato app to control brightness and temperature with ease. There’s also a ‘Studio Mode’, which you can activate to disable the light’s battery and run it exclusively on AC power instead. The Key Light Mini is also compatible with Elgato’s Stream Deck, so you can easily turn it off or on or adjust settings that way as well.

When it comes to lighting performance, the Key Light Mini is nothing to laugh at. Despite its small size, it’s powerful enough to pump out 800 lumens of brightness, with a temperature range of 2900 - 7000K. That might be a bit too bright for having it right in front of your face, so we mostly kept it running at around 35-40% brightness for Twitch streaming. 

While you might get away with using just one Key Light Mini for your stream, you’ll ideally want two of them to even out the lighting, which might not make much sense if you’re trying to keep to a budget. The 4,000mAh battery is good for about 4 hours of lighting at 50% brightness, and the 300g weight of the Key Light Mini makes it easy to carry for any photoshoot or filming. We can definitely see food bloggers using this for better photos at restaurants, though of course we wouldn’t encourage someone to be shining something so bright when you’re trying to enjoy a meal.

One thing to keep in mind about the Key Light Mini is that it doesn’t come with any mounting equipment, so you’ll have to factor in an addition cost if you’re picking up this light.

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…