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Archive 2021 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?

  
 
jzucker
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


In their ads, they mention that the bicolor (3200k-5600k) version doesn't put out as much output as the single color but I cannot find any information about the single color version. Nothing listed on their site and no replies to email or their social media pages.

Anyone have the scoop? My concern is that with 330 yellow leds and 330 daylight balanced leds, I'll only be getting 1/2 power since I don't intend to use anything other than daylight balance.


https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Professional-Bi-Color-Photography-3200-5600K/dp/B072QB3K9T/ref=asc_df_B072QB3K9T/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241898902709&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1039884695304862273&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052869&hvtargid=pla-522692939424&psc=1



Sep 27, 2021 at 05:48 PM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


Video typically requires far less light than stills - y'know - with effective shutter speeds of 1/24-1/30th and often using higher ISO's as well. The lights you're referencing are only a buck sixty. Buy one and try it out. Amazon has a great return policy unlike a place like Best Buy. You can't lose. But having a couple of fully adjustable Nanlite's, being able to adjust color temperature is not something I'd soon give up. You think now that you're only going to use daylight but so many times you actually might need something else for effect. And then there's your Zoom meetings.


Sep 29, 2021 at 11:47 AM
jzucker
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


it turns out they no longer make the single color version of this light.


Sep 29, 2021 at 12:08 PM
CharleyL
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


I have three of the bi-color 480 LED panels from GVM and have used them for both video and still shots, but their App for controlling them via a cell phone had been a bit quirky, so most of the time I was adjusting them by the controls on their rear panels. Today I was attempting to use the App again, and discovered that it has been updated. It works with the panels via a WIFI link-up and each light had to be given a different WIFI name if you wanted to be able to adjust them separately and turn them on and off all from a smart cell phone. Today I discovered that they have improved the App and made switching WIFI addresses much easier, and all via the App. With this discovery I ended up playing with my 3 GVM LED panels this afternoon, quickly switching the App from one panel to another and adjusting each one, even turning it on and off via the App. Their App has always had good and fast control of the light. It was the switching from one WIFI address to another that made me reluctant to use it.

I had purchased two SL60 Godox LED studio lights a week ago, because all of my studio and field flashes are Godox, but the remote that comes with them works on 433 mhz and the design of the remote is not at all photographer friendly.

So today, I ended up sending the Godox LED lights back to Amazon today and I ordered two of the GVM 80 watt LED lights, because they will work with the same smart phone App as my 480 bi-color light panels through WIFI. These now on order are only single color at 5800k but 80 watts (20 more than the Godox). I'm rarely wanting to shoot at any other light color in my studio anyway. At least I'll be able to use my Bowens mount GOBOs on them, which I can't do on the square GVM panels.

I know that the LED lights are not as bright as flash, but I have had pretty good success moving up the ISO settings to make the panels work for me. The constant light does make a difference in the model's eyes, since they are showing more color in the shots and I get the benefit of seeing the result of the lighting before I take the shots, so can get the light positions "just right". I'm hoping that these new GVM LED studio lights will allow the use of my flash GOBOs for even better and softer lighting.

I have no intention to get away from flash, but there are some occasions when constant lighting is just better. Pets and infants are what I'm mostly using my LED panels for now, and I have also used them for video work, which was my initial reason for buying them.

Charley



Sep 29, 2021 at 08:41 PM
bjhurley
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


For future reference, I think Newsshooter is the place to go for reviews of lighting for video: https://www.newsshooter.com/category/lighting/. They do amazingly thorough reviews and comparisons to other similar products, and they seem to keep a close watch on what's new.

It's a general rule that bicolor lights have lower (often much lower) output than single-color daylight or tungsten lights; with single-color lights you use gels to adjust color temperature but matching is faster with a bicolor light and you don't have to carry around gels.

I bought my lighting system for doing video interviews and subsequently realized it could be useful for stills portraits as well, but I'm not a studio photographer and it's a lot of gear to haul around.



Sep 30, 2021 at 04:11 AM
jzucker
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


Hi, Thanks for the great info. I ended up buying a pair of the bi-color 600 lights. I like the idea of the big aperture LED lights but my music studio is very small and I don't want to take up space with softboxes. Earlier this year, I sold off most of my photo studio equipment which consisted of buff einstein, godox 600 flash units, a tone of softboxes, etc. I still have 2 or 3 of the bowens mount softboxes but would prefer not to use them for this application though I know the light quality would be better.

CharleyL wrote:
I have three of the bi-color 480 LED panels from GVM and have used them for both video and still shots, but their App for controlling them via a cell phone had been a bit quirky, so most of the time I was adjusting them by the controls on their rear panels. Today I was attempting to use the App again, and discovered that it has been updated. It works with the panels via a WIFI link-up and each light had to be given a different WIFI name if you wanted to be able to adjust them separately and turn
...Show more




Oct 02, 2021 at 06:58 AM
CharleyL
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


I just added two more of the GVM 480 LS light panels to my studio. These were bought because my existing three panels were barely acceptable in total brightness for the studio video work that I have been doing. The studio shooting room is only 18 X 26' with an 8' ceiling so it's a bit tight to do videos, but it works. Since I already had three of the GVM 480 LS LED panels, and had figured out two years+ ago how to make the three that I had work via remote control from my cell phone via the GVM WIFI App, it just seemed like the right thing to do was to buy two more LED panels and get them working via WIFI as well.

Setting them up and getting them remotely controlled via WIFI, after doing this with the first three, went very well. GVM's latest version of the App, downloadable from the Play Store or the GVM website made it quite easy. I had everything working together, both old and new, in less than an hour. Their App and the instructions for using it were terrible when I bought the first three panels two years ago, but the latest version of the App works much better, although it could still use a few improvements.

One thing that they don't tell you in the manual is to only power one light panel on at a time when using the App to change the LED panel WIFI name. It will first show as GVM-LED on the WIFI list on your cell phone. Then, after selecting GVM-LED in the phone's WIFI list and getting connection, you go to the App maintenance menu and rename the WIFI address for that light panel. The password is "gvmled-admin" Then you go back to the main screen and test that you have control of the light panel. After it has a separate name in WIFI, and it's working fine, then you can turn on the other panels and they will all play nicely. If anything goes wrong in this renaming process, there is a reset button on the back of the light panel, and if you hold this button in for about 5 seconds, the panel will reset and name itself GVM-LED again. I used GVM-LED 1-5 as my naming scheme. If you have more than one GVM-LED panel, you cannot remotely control them unless you give them separate WIFI names. Trying will only randomly allow control of one panel, and it may be a different panel each time they are powered on, when all have the same name. There is supposed to be a "group control function", but I was never able to get this to work and there is nearly no information available on this.

I have built a ceiling mounted lighting support grid system in my studio. These lights, and my studio strobes hang from this ceiling grid to almost eliminate cabling and tripod stand trip hazards. I still use tripods for my strobes and these panels as well, until I find the right position for them, then attach them to the ceiling grid in that position, if I expect to continue using that lighting arrangement. Having all of the lights remote controllable reduces the necessary ladder work. Ceiling mounted electric outlets every 6" along both sides of this lighting grid all the way to the backdrops gives me an electric outlet within 5' of anywhere on my studio ceiling, and one main switch turns everything connected to the ceiling grid off every night. When power is turned on, these GVM-LED panels default to manual control and turn on, if their power switch is on. If you have the WIFI App working, you can then bring up control of each light and make adjustments or turn it off from the App. With 5 of these Lights, I get to bring up each WIFI address for each light and turn it off one at a time. This is a bit frustrating, but it's only necessary to do this once, and as long as the power remains on, it isn't necessary to do this again.

These LED light panels are mostly used for Video work. I have a daughter-in-law who is starting a business and we are making instructional videos for her business. It's mostly just her talking and demonstrating the products, and she is either sitting and/or standing behind a banquet type table while holding and demonstrating the products. The LED panel lights have been pretty much stationary since we began this, so I leave them stored on the ceiling grid, all set up and ready for making the next video with her, or for any similar work. Now that I've added two more panels, some repositioning of the 5 will likely be needed, but it shouldn't take long to get them right when getting ready for the next video.

I sometimes use these panels for product photo shooting sometimes using a translucent shooting box. For this work they usually need to be taken down and moved to suit the need, but they are pretty much stored between uses, just hanging from the ceiling grid.

I don't use any modifiers with these LED panels other than the included diffuser and barn doors, but do have some colored gels that are cut to fit into the slot where the light diffuser is inserted, and I have done this a few times. The light is output is quite soft without any modifiers at all, but only 30 watts per panel, so I adjust the ISO of the camera to be able to use the shutter speed and F-Stop settings that I prefer for still shots. 4-600 are the usual ISO settings when I was using the three light panels and doing stills. For video, I have so far been letting the camera control the ISO. I just space the panels 5-8' from the subject for even lighting and elimination of shadows, or at least those that can be seen by the camera. Mounted on the ceiling grid with a horseshoe shaped positioning of them seems to work best for video. The additional two panels will be side lights, extending the legs of the horseshoe.

Charley



Oct 15, 2021 at 07:53 AM
jzucker
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


charley, i got the 660 panels last week, I hook up to my lights via bluetooth. Works very smoothly though limited in distance compared to wifi


Oct 15, 2021 at 07:55 AM
CharleyL
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · anyone using the Neewer 660 LED panel light for video?


I've now added even two more GVM LED 480 LS light panels to my studio for video work. I have them suspended from my DIY ceiling lighting grid in kind-of a U shape around where the subject of my videos will be located. Since my studio ceiling is only 8' I debated on buying the larger LED panels, but was concerned with their larger size with so low of a ceiling. They (all 7) are now up and adjusted. Today, if all goes well, I will be making a few test videos to see how well they work. So far, I'm quite impressed with how little shadowing that I'm getting. The relatively soft light from each panel and the U shaped positioning seems to be working as planned. Right now I have 5 spaced about 18" apart and the other 2 toward the backdrop on either side about 3' forward from the row of 5. All are set at 5600 and 95% and are attached to the ceiling grid with their yoke horizontal and the panel pivoted down, and aimed at the subject position. In this position, I think I can just close the barn doors and tilt them flat with the ceiling and am hoping that I can leave them up there and out of the way when doing photo shoots. I think I'll be finding that out soon, since I have to set up for a shoot on Tuesday. With the light panel to subject distance of about 5' average, I'm getting around F-8.2 at 1/60 and ISO 400 with my Sekonic L-308 light meter. Without actually trying the camera on it yet I am quite happy with the panels and the result that I'm getting from them. I just wish the WIFI remote control had a feature that turned all on, and all off, as well as separate control of each LED panel.

I have a main power switch that powers the ceiling electric outlets, so I don't leave anything on when closing up for the night. When I turn this switch on in the mornings, all of the LED panels turn on by default. Turning them back off then requires using my cell phone and their WIFI App to turn each panel off one at a time, or climbing the step ladder to switch each panel's power switch off, which I will likely do for periods between video work, since I use these same ceiling electric power strips for powering my studio strobes.

My DIY ceiling lighting support grid keeps my studio floor almost completely free of tripod stands and power cables. Using radio triggers for the strobes keeps sync cables off the floor too. My camera tether cable runs along the ceiling grid and drops down to my usual camera location with enough slack to allow me to move around easily, and that is the only cable that does touch the floor during a shoot. When first positioning lights, I do use a tripod or two, but once the perfect light location has been decided on, I hang the light in that position from the ceiling lighting grid and the stand is gone again. Light stands and cables are not a trip hazard in my small studio. If I had stands under these 7 LED light panels, there would be no place to walk or shoot between them.

Charley




Oct 23, 2021 at 09:32 AM





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