Sidewinder™ LED Flex Strip for D65 Bias Lighting

TV Background

I highly recommend it for the contrast it creates.

Convenient for lighting from complex surfaces

I bought two of these, and one is being used in a traditional bias lighting capacity, while the other is attached to the bottom of a ledge with a rather complex and weird geometry. Both of them provide beautiful light and work great. I find that one or two strips work with a cheap wall-wart power supply just as well as the fancy one from Waveform, at least to my untrained eye. The only nitpick I have is that the double-sided tape is a bit cantankerous, and tends to let go if you make a 90° turn too close to the end of the strip, but this can be worked around. Overall, I find these to be great. I was a little unsure whether the 600 lumens per meter would be adequate, but I find that I am not disappointed: the distribution of the light over a distance provides illumination comparable to what a single light bulb with nearly triple the rated lumen output could do in the same space.

An LED strip helpful for a novice learning the ropes

These strips' quality and price make them a very good entry point for novices wanting to try small lighting project. After spending a lot of time researching the basics of residential lighting to brighten up my home, it was time to get hands-on experience with LED strips. I picked these bias lighting strips because of the low stakes involved: (1) attaching them to my monitor would be a manageably small job; (2) the total cost of the setup was low; (3) the quality of the LEDs wouldn't be a limiting factor; (4) the power supply I needed to buy could be re-used for other tests; and (5) as non-critical lighting for me, my work could be good enough without needing to make major changes after I've improved. Both the time investment and strip quality were exactly what I hoped for. However, because my LCD monitor isn't bright, running the strips at full brightness is a bit overwhelming without buying a dimmer. While that will raise the total cost, knowing now that I'll need a dimmer for future test projects makes it a free lesson on light intensity. Setting aside all this stuff about its being useful as a learning tool, I really like these strips! I wrote half of this review with them on and half with them off, and having them on is so much easier on my eyes. I recommend them.