Review: SmallRig RM-03 Macro Photography LED lights

Friday 5 December 2025, 13:26 by Nando Harmsen | 4,463 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

For macro photography, it can sometimes be useful to have extra light. There are many types of lights available. SmallRig has now introduced the new RM-03 Macro Photography LED lights. These offer plenty of flexibility, as you can see in this review.

The RM-03 Macro Photography LED lights, as SmallRig calls them, are handy LED lights on a flexible arm. This gives you a great deal of freedom when positioning the light. They are small and compact, ideal for macro photography.

Appearance of the RM 03

The RM-03, as I will call the unit from here on, consists of a cylindrical handle and a flexible tube containing the LED light. The handle is 10.5 centimetres long and approximately 2.5 centimetres in diameter. It weighs 300 grams.

Two buttons: one for switching on and off and adjusting intensity, one for the colour.
The battery with USB-C connection is inside the handle, along with the LED light controls. These are the on/off button, which is also used for the light intensity, and a button for switching between the available colours.

Although it is an RGB light, besides cool white and warm white you only have the choice of red, green or blue.
The RRM-03 is not a full RGB light. But you do have five different colours available. There is white, warm white (orange), red, green and blue. Press the C button repeatedly to cycle through the available colours.

The five LEDs have a maximum output of 3 watts, producing an amount of light that varies between 400/410 lux (warm white and blue), 1030 lux (red) and 1700/1830 lux (white and green). This can be set to 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% intensity. The CRI is 85 and the TLCI is 92.

The tube can be bent in all directions for maximum flexibility.
The flexible tube is 39 centimetres long and can be bent in almost any direction using the metal springs. This part makes the RM-03 so convenient to use: you can position the LED light exactly as you want.

The LED light is at the end of the flexible tube and is, as it were, an extension of the handle. It is 4 centimetres long and has a lens protecting the LEDs.

The head can be extended to control the light beam. Everything has an IP54 rating.
You can extend the holder with the lens by one centimetre. This changes the angle of the light beam from 32 degrees to 4 degrees wide. You can do this continuously.

The design is simple but effective. It has an IP54 rating, which means it is dustproof and splashproof. But be careful, it is not waterproof, which means you should not simply put the RM-03 in a puddle of water.

It can handle sand and a shower. But it is not fully protected against water and dust.
The RM-3 can run for 140 minutes on a single charge. There is no indication of how much charge is left, so it is sensible to fully charge the battery before use.

Charging via USB-C while using it at the same time is possible. There is no indication of the charge level.
If you find yourself with a flat battery, you can charge the RM-03 via a power bank and use it at the same time.

Accessories

SmallRig includes a number of useful accessories. These give you extra creative options. The accessory set consists of a small dome diffuser, a barndoor and a projector with twelve slides.

A nice set of accessories is included. You can get started straight away.
Besides the light modifiers, you get a 20-centimetre-long ground spike, a cold shoe adapter and a sturdy clamp with mini ball head. Of course, you can also put the RM-03 on a (mini) tripod, thanks to the 1/4"-20 thread on the underside.

A cold shoe lets you place the unit on the camera. A ball head would have been useful, as it sticks quite a long way above the camera.
The projector attachment can be used to create a focused spot. You can also insert the small slide plates to project shapes. Ten are included, including some with text.

You can create fun projections by changing the projection angle and colours.

Using it in practice

Using the RM-03 is quite simple. You place the unit close to your subject and bend the tube until the LED light illuminates the subject as desired. You can position it very close when using it for macro.

Used when photographing mushrooms. Make sure the lamp is as close as possible to get as much light as possible.
The ground spike is intended for use outdoors in nature. You simply push the RM-03 into the ground. How firmly the unit stands depends on how firm the ground is. You can of course also simply place the unit on the ground if that works better.

When using the ground spike, it is sensible to position it as vertically as possible. If you put it into the ground at an angle, positioning the tube can cause the unit to rotate. This makes it difficult to get the light exactly where you want it.

Push the ground spike into the ground at too much of an angle and the unit will rotate when bending the lamp. Make sure it is positioned vertically to prevent this as much as possible.
If you want more freedom of movement, the cold shoe can be a good choice. The almost 40-centimetre-long tube is long enough to illuminate the subject in front of your macro lens. Do bear in mind that the unit sticks out well above the camera.

For indoor use, you can also mount it on a tripod or use the clamp. The small ball head gives you extra freedom of movement when positioning it. The cold shoe could also use its own cold shoe for even more flexibility.

There are many options for changing the size of the spot. Choose whichever works best.
The light modifiers supplied give you creative freedom. The dome diffuser produces pleasant soft light, while the projector creates a focused beam. Extending the head gives you another way to manipulate the spot.

Using it in practice. The barndoors work very well. Unfortunately, they cannot be used together with the projector.
The barndoors work particularly well because the lamp is placed close to the subject. This gives you the most light output, and makes the barndoor very effective.

With the projector, you have ten slides available that can project a shape or text. The slides are very small, which makes sense. It is important to work carefully so you do not accidentally lose them.

The 10 projection slides are about the size of a fingernail. Be careful not to lose them.

My findings

When using it in the field while photographing mushrooms, the ground spike was sometimes useful and sometimes not. In the latter case, this was because the unit rotated when the lamp was aimed. This made it difficult to use.

Projection combined with green light. You can get very creative with it.
Pushing it perfectly vertically into the ground prevents this, but that is not always easy on uneven ground. A ground spike consisting of three points would almost completely solve this problem.

The light output is not particularly high, so the LED has to be close to the subject. This is of course what it was designed for. However, it barely produces enough light to overpower daylight.

One problem is the cover for the USB-C port. It does not stay in place at all. I do not know how this affects the dust and water resistance.
A grid would be a nice extra accessory for directing the spot. It is conspicuous by its absence. Fortunately, it is possible to create a very small spot with the barndoor and projector.

If you want to take all the accessories with you, it is sensible to put them in a pouch. A small accessory pouch or cable case is sufficient. This keeps everything together. If you do not, things will get lost. Unfortunately, SmallRig does not include a pouch.

All those separate attachments are nicely packed in the box. But a pouch to carry them all is recommended. SmallRig does not include one, unfortunately.
The RM-03 is pleasant to use and gives you extra options in the field. There are a few things to bear in mind, such as the rotation with the ground spike, the USB-C cover and the lack of a battery charge indicator.

What works well

• Small and compact
  
• Flexible arm offers plenty of freedom of movement when positioning it
  
• Easy to use
  
• Extensive accessory set included
  
• Projection slides offer extra creative options
  
• Barndoor works very effectively due to the short working distance
  
• Last setting (colour and intensity) is retained (no reset)
  
• IP54 weatherproof for dust and water
  
• 4000+ arm movements guaranteed
  
• Reasonable price
  

What could be improved

• USB rubber cover comes loose with every operation
  
• No display for battery information or light intensity
  
• Ground spike lets the unit rotate when positioning the light
  
• Grid as an extra accessory
  
• Cold shoe could use a ball head
  
• The barndoor cannot be used together with the projector
  
• Additional 1/4"-20 connection on the side
  
• Simple pouch for the accessories should be included
  

Lit with the SmallRig RM 3 Macro Photography LED lights. Photographed with an antique Steinheil München Macro-QUinar 2.8/100mm lens, as seen in the photos in this article.
There are a few more things that would add a lot of value to the RM-03. They are not really drawbacks, but more nice-to-haves. Instead of five different colours, the option of the full RGB spectrum would be a nice addition.

Using the RGB spectrum would require more complex controls, which would take away from the simplicity. In that case, Bluetooth connectivity with an app would be desirable.

Despite the improvements I have mentioned, I can recommend the SmallRig RM-03 Macro Photography LED lights to anyone who wants to do creative macro photography.

Thanks to SmallRig for providing this RM-03.

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