GODOX VL150 Review

I just bought the VL300 and have shot two projects with it. Other than the slight Magenta bias, it's a lot of light for hardly any money. I may be picking up a VL150 to accompany it.
 
I agree. It’s amazing what you get for that price. I really am blown away with how bright it is, even through a soft box. I am curious, the 300 must be really bright. Do you find yourself dimming it a lot in most situations? What type of situations do you need it full power? I plan on getting another one eventually. Just seeing if it’s worth stepping up to the 200 or 300.
 
I specifically bought the 300 because I needed maximum output in a few situations like shooting outdoors.
I lit a talent outdoor, after the sun had gone down, using my two Aputure LS-1S through my medium Chimera
and with both lights up all the way, I still barely achieved the exposure I needed. That made me look for a COB light with
more power.

On another shoot, on a darkened stage, shooting UHD 29.97 at ISO 800 with a 180 degree shutter with the VL300 placed
with a Nice Photo Parabolic 45" softbox with the 40 degree egg crate as my key, about 12' from talent, I had to run the light at 55% output
to achieve proper exposure for three cameras. This light is like having two of your VL150s in one instrument
and it's physically not that much larger.

Most DPs and gaffers will tell you to always defer on the side of having too much power versus not quite enough.
The output of the VL300 is impressive for the size and cost. The VL150 would probably have handled it, but definitely
would have been at 100% output and possibly still not enough.
 
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That’s a wonderful explanation. It’s always great to have more than you need. Competing with the sun is always tough. Thanks!
 
My pleasure. I have a bunch of lights. We have the 120d at work. I didn’t think I could afford one for home, until this Godox light came along. It’s awesome.
 
Yeah with the more powerful light you can use more diffusion, light a broader area and/or from farther away, and battle the sun more effectively. The only issue is that some LEDs don't dim down below 50% or so, making it trickier to jettison extra light

I have a Nicefoto 330w cob, a Godox sl 150w cob, and a studio essentials 100w cob. The Nicefoto and Godox dim well and mix well. The studio essentials is crap - green tint and doesn't dim enough. But it was cheap
 
Good points. The VL150 dims 0-100, which is great. The color is really good. Some say a slight bit of magenta, but I couldn't see it. I mainly balance with the daylight preset and it looked pretty darn good.
 
NorBro said:
This is another amazing value. Insanely powerful.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod..._ph300_led_powerhouse_daylight_monolight.html
Click to expand...

Interesting. I've never seen this or heard of the brand. Have you used it? Wonder about the fans, noise, tie down/yolk (the Godox is the best I have ever used, single sided, big knob, with rubber washers and an Arri type rosette,
holds the huge 45" Parabolic softbox at any angle without a complaint). We are spoiled for choice. The Godox are very good for the money.

As far as the color bias, the COB LEDs tend to bias greener as they age and are used so with the VL300s slight magenta bias, at some point, the green will kick in and at least for a while, it may be perfectly color balanced. Shooting
daylight pre-set, I had to bias the hue -15 degrees in FCP Xs Color Wheels to nail the skin tones. I am shooting a black/white/gray card and a X-Rite chip chart on anything that's not run & gun so no big deal to correct it.
 
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I'm not much of a lighting person, but I bought one last year.

No flicker, no tint, no fan noise (but I never used it at more than 40% because it's so bright for my purpose...but I wanted to get more than less).

I don't know what people exactly look for in the tie down/yolk, but it works fine for me.

Genaray has been around for close to 10 years now. They've made over at least 50 different lights. But they are what they are, and won't be viewed in the same light as Aputure is. I don't know much about Godox, but those lights above are getting great reviews.
 
NorBro said:
I used it with this thing, which is such an awesome design (tension-based quick release).

Ready in SECONDS.

I don't know how people manually took the time and put them together years ago. What a pain that must have been.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1484381-REG/aputure_lantern_360_degrees_softbox.html
Click to expand...

If you like that lantern, check out this 60" umbrella-open softbox with grid for $109. Similar set-up, much more control. And it'll light 4K with a quarter the bitrate ;).

https://www.adorama.com/glsbez60octa.html?utm_source=adl-gbase-privatelabel
 
Looks nice if you need that size, but adding the diffuser manually is still more work than I would like to do, vs. the built-in one in the Aputure.

When I said seconds above, it was literal.
 
True but it velcros in quickly. And I leave mine mostly built, just a corner undone for me to reach my hand in. And they have a range of sizes, I think that's the largest. For what it is, it works dope. And an imposing presence on set (assuming you have room for it). Very very nice light quality. 2 layers of diffusion spread it very evenly and the grid is tremendously helpful with control
 
NorBro said:
...I don't know what people exactly look for in the tie down/yolk, but it works fine for me.
Click to expand...

The ability to hold a big and relatively large softbox or Parabolic at any angle you want to affix it at. Most lights and tie downs cannot, the softbox ends up drooping down, messing up your lighting and
then you end up having to do something dumb like having to prop it up at your desired angle using a C-stand arm or something. Very lame. Arri fresnels, at least the smaller instruments like the 650
fresnels and the 1K open face are famous for NOT being able to hold up almost any softbox without it sagging. This is a HUGE deal for us who use softboxes a lot.
 
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