Godox VL300 Review

[thefilmaddict]

Not that long ago, I asked you guys about getting a good light for a soft box. I was told get the most powerful one you could afford and if you get multiple lights, try to stick with the same manufacturer. At the time, I only had the budget for one Godox vl150. I really liked that light. Fortunately, I just picked up the vl300. I really love it and it pairs nicely with the vl150.

Here’s my full review:
Godox VL300 LED Light Review: Unboxing, Setup, Overview, Best Accessories and Lighting Example
https://youtu.be/4qwHsVuTWLM

 

[puredrifting]

Not that long ago, I asked you guys about getting a good light for a soft box. I was told get the most powerful one you could afford and if you get multiple lights, try to stick with the same manufacturer. At the time, I only had the budget for one Godox vl150. I really liked that light. Fortunately, I just picked up the vl300. I really love it and it pairs nicely with the vl150.

Here’s my full review:
Godox VL300 LED Light Review: Unboxing, Setup, Overview, Best Accessories and Lighting Example
https://youtu.be/4qwHsVuTWLM

Nice review and I concur, I really like my VL300, Godox has a home run with their video lighting. So much so that I bought two more VL300s for a big shoot and just ordered two VL150s to compliment the VL300s as fill and BG sources.
We really are in a golden age of LED lighting now with powerful COB lights like this that are inexpensive and have surprisingly high output.

These are the first LEDs I have owned where I feel like I am not working with a handicap of only having panel lights and relatively low output with weird skin tones. You will notice they have a slight Magenta bias when brand new but as
LEDs age, they go more green so at some point, the output will be perfect, very accurate before the light biases toward green. All easily correctable with gels or a manual white balance or easily correctable in CC.

 

[Guest]

Thank you! Great review and tun down!

How long have you been using the D&O brick batteries? With the advent of LED a lot more people on the look for cheap Watt hours.

And with less power hungry cameras an dual battery systems (often an NPf, EP6, or BP Internal for redundancy), the brick quality is less crucial, and significant money can be saved going with cheaper bricks.

 

[thefilmaddict]

Thanks, guys.

puredrifting you have a lot of great gear! I have a bunch of smaller LED lights, but I hate using them now because they don't look as good as the Godox lights. The Godox lights are clean.

The D&O brick has been good so far. I haven't used it a lot, so I don't know if it's going to have a long life, but like you said, it's really affordable. Really good batteries seem to cost more than the lights nowadays! I'll let you know how the battery does in time.

 

[puredrifting]

Setup for a live stream from a performing arts school last weekend.
Godox VL300 through the Nice Foto 120CM parabolic boxes x 2 Cross Keys, VL150 x 2 through the 90CM Nice Fotos as fills,
Godox VL300 raking across theater chairs using barndoors and honeycomb, Intellytech Light Canons w barndoors x 2 as hair lights.

Very happy with the value equation on the Godox and the Intellytechs. Not the best lights money can buy but probably the best for the
little money spent for all of them. This was using our old Sony PXW-X70 cameras hence the high output. These small sensor (1") are
pretty light hungry, even with the keys at full power, had to add 12dB of gain, we are spoiled by S35 and FF sensors, small sensors
require so much more light output to look good.

 

[Run&Gun]

Setup for a live stream from a performing arts school last weekend.
Godox VL300 through the Nice Foto 120CM parabolic boxes x 2 Cross Keys, VL150 x 2 through the 90CM Nice Fotos as fills,
Godox VL300 raking across theater chairs using barndoors and honeycomb, Intellytech Light Canons w barndoors x 2 as hair lights.

Very happy with the value equation on the Godox and the Intellytechs. Not the best lights money can buy but probably the best for the
little money spent for all of them. This was using our old Sony PXW-X70 cameras hence the high output. These small sensor (1") are
pretty light hungry, even with the keys at full power, had to add 12dB of gain, we are spoiled by S35 and FF sensors, small sensors
require so much more light output to look good.

View attachment 141629

View attachment 141630

Damn, Dan. All that light and you still had to bump-up to +12? Did someone leave the lens caps on? ; ) If those pictures are really representative of the light, even my VariCam's(2/3") would have probably been at -3 and possibly have had some ND dialed in.

 

[puredrifting]

Damn, Dan. All that light and you still had to bump-up to +12? Did someone leave the lens caps on? ; ) If those pictures are really representative of the light, even my VariCam's(2/3") would have probably been at -3 and possibly have had some ND dialed in.

Yeah, they are older technology and really light inefficient. Not sure what their native ISO is but these feel like lighting for the old days when our cameras were
native 400 ISO. No matter, I had enough horsepower with the Godox. This is also just an iPhone snap too so I have no idea of what my iPhone 8 Plus native
ISO is but I bet it's higher than these Sonys. I will say that I have been surprised at how good these cameras do with gain, they look surprisingly good without
seeing much in the way of grain and noise. I'm trying to get the owner to update his cams but these are paid for, look good enough for clients so he's not
really motivated to buy better cameras. I think something like the Panasonic CX350 with integrated NDI would be the hot ticket for us.

These Sonys belong to the owner of the company. When he bids projects, he bids with his Sonys, when I bid projects, I bid them with my X-T3s usually. The client
did want flat and bright too, not my favorite way to light but in live streaming, most clients freak out if you actually build in modeling and shadows with a decent
lighting ratio. It's been a difficult transition for me because I normally like to light pretty moody and dramatic, but live streaming is a different animal than
regular production.

 

[Peter C.]

Seems to be a heavy handed approach. Blasting the subject with a bunch of soft light from the front with no background or hair lights. You can see the shadows cast from the arm rests of the chairs.

 

[puredrifting]

Seems to be a heavy handed approach. Blasting the subject with a bunch of soft light from the front with no background or hair lights. You can see the shadows cast from the arm rests of the chairs.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I take it you have not been at this long enough to have ever lit ASA 50 S16 stock or ISO320 or 400 Betacams? This reminded me of that.
I'm a decent DP, keep in mind this is an iPhone snap, the cameras and monitors looked NOTHING like this. Actually there is a VL300 with barndoors and a honeycomb grid
raking the seats from the camera right side lighting up the seats and two Intellytech Light Cannons camera left and right as hair lights, you can barely see one of them up in the seats camera left.

I am not allowed to post any stills from the cameras or monitors as it was at a school and was a student-based live stream and the client said no social media,
he didn't care about the gear.

 

[Run&Gun]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I take it you have not been at this long enough to have ever lit ASA 50 S16 stock or ISO320 or 400 Betacams? This reminded me of that.
I'm a decent DP, keep in mind this is an iPhone snap, the cameras and monitors looked NOTHING like this. Actually there is a VL300 with barndoors and a honeycomb grid
raking the seats from the camera right side lighting up the seats and two Intellytech Light Cannons camera left and right as hair lights, you can barely see one of them up in the seats camera left.

I am not allowed to post any stills from the cameras or monitors as it was at a school and was a student-based live stream and the client said no social media,
he didn't care about the gear.

If I remember correctly, our old Betacam's (pre-D600/pre-dual turret) only had two and four stops of built-in ND(and clear). Even outside in the middle of the day, it seems like it was rare when you needed more than four stops, back then. Heck, now there are times when six stops are not enough and eight is barely there(and as you know, some Canon's have 10 stops built-in).

 

[ahalpert]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I take it you have not been at this long enough to have ever lit ASA 50 S16 stock or ISO320 or 400 Betacams?

I don't understand the criticism. Especially after you said the client wanted lots of fill.

Re:low ISOs, the native ISO on dslr/mirrorless cameras is still 100, 160 or 200 in non-log modes. (80 in some picture profiles on my a7siii). So even with new, large sensor cameras there is still occasion to nuke your talent if you want the cleanest image and richest colors

 

[puredrifting]

If I remember correctly, our old Betacam's (pre-D600/pre-dual turret) only had two and four stops of built-in ND(and clear). Even outside in the middle of the day, it seems like it was rare when you needed more than four stops, back then. Heck, now there are times when six stops are not enough and eight is barely there(and as you know, some Canon's have 10 stops built-in).

I can't recall if the old cameras were even rated with a native ISO, but if they were, it had to be really low, maybe ISO 250 or 320 or something? It's funny, when I was shooting
on the ocean for our documentary, I was pretty constantly using the 10 stop ND and especially on white sand beaches mid day. I really dislike cameras that only 6-8 stops
built in, it can be maddening to have to screw on an additional ND filter on a camera with an internal ND.

 

[puredrifting]

I don't understand the criticism. Especially after you said the client wanted lots of fill.

Re:low ISOs, the native ISO on dslr/mirrorless cameras is still 100, 160 or 200 in non-log modes. (80 in some picture profiles on my a7siii). So even with new, large sensor cameras there is still occasion to nuke your talent if you want the cleanest image and richest colors

To the eye, it wasn't as nuclear as my iPhone makes it look. It actually looked nice and flat.

 

[Peter C.]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I take it you have not been at this long enough to have ever lit ASA 50 S16 stock or ISO320 or 400 Betacams? This reminded me of that.
I'm a decent DP, keep in mind this is an iPhone snap, the cameras and monitors looked NOTHING like this. Actually there is a VL300 with barndoors and a honeycomb grid
raking the seats from the camera right side lighting up the seats and two Intellytech Light Cannons camera left and right as hair lights, you can barely see one of them up in the seats camera left.

I am not allowed to post any stills from the cameras or monitors as it was at a school and was a student-based live stream and the client said no social media,
he didn't care about the gear.

It's ok. I don't like the side light which I think is creating those shadows on the chairs. Look I know in real world situations aren't ideal. As long a the client is happy, who cares what a bunch of forum critics have to say. So are you saying it's being filmed on Betacams?

 

[ahalpert]

To the eye, it wasn't as nuclear as my iPhone makes it look. It actually looked nice and flat.

By nuclear I just meant lots of light

And to be clear (because I re-read my comment and thought it might be unclear) - I meant that I didnt understand Peter's criticism of your set-up both because I thought it looked fine and because it was what the client ordered.

I did not mean that I didnt understand your criticism regarding low ISOs. That I do understand, although I didnt think of it as criticism per se and overlooked the possibility that I was miscommunicating

 

[Peter C.]

By nuclear I just meant lots of light

And to be clear (because I re-read my comment and thought it might be unclear) - I meant that I didnt understand Peter's criticism of your set-up both because I thought it looked fine and because it was what the client ordered.

My criticism (based on the photos) looked a little front heavy with no back or hair lights. It meant as an observation not an indictment. Lol @ nuclear. Hopefully he doesn't have the rods fully exposed.

 

[Run&Gun]

I can't recall if the old cameras were even rated with a native ISO, but if they were, it had to be really low, maybe ISO 250 or 320 or something? It's funny, when I was shooting
on the ocean for our documentary, I was pretty constantly using the 10 stop ND and especially on white sand beaches mid day. I really dislike cameras that only 6-8 stops
built in, it can be maddening to have to screw on an additional ND filter on a camera with an internal ND.

Our old ENG cams were rated in a system like “Sensitivity: “F11 @ 2000lux” “F10 @ 2000lux” “F8 @ 2000lux”. My last Betacam(D50WS) was rated at F11, my P2 Vari at F10 and the D-600 was F8, in-case anyone needs any useless trivia.

I don’t think manufacturers really started publishing ISO numbers with cameras until we got into large sensor cams, although even in the HD days, I remember people (mostly film guys) rating cameras, like the F900 in their ISO equivalent.

 

[puredrifting]

So are you saying it's being filmed on Betacams?

Essentially, yes, small, 1080 Betacams, at least as far as light sensitivity.

This is why I much prefer shooting S35 sensors like my Canons and Fujis. I can light for small sensors all day but in the end, it's easier to make S35 and FF sensors
look better simply because they are so much more light sensitive, I can be much more subtle with my lighting. With slow cameras, it's difficult to be subtle, especially in live streaming type live TV setups.
The clients mostly gravitate toward modern newsroom high key, lighting, bright and flat, which as a DP, isn't the most fun to work with.

 

[Peter C.]

Modern camcorders with 1" sensors aren't bad and are always improving. Recently they've started adding backlit sensors that's what I believe in the Cx350 which is a full two stops faster than the previous generation. They don't perform as well as FF of S35 but you get all the advantages of having a regular video camera (xlr, servo lens, lanc, dof, battery, run time, etc). I also find if you crank up the iso too much that your work lights and/or ambient begins to effect the color balance. No matter what your camera low light performance is you'll always need the right ratio. But I'd agree most subjects appreciate not being blasted with light.