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Photographer Dustin Abbott reviews the powerful and versatile Neewer CB200C RGB LED video light...which does a bit of everything! Is it a great option if you're on a tight budget? | Purchase the Neewer CB200C @ Neewer (Use code DustinA22 for 22% of the whole site), https://amzn.to/3ZTv761 or Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3XSVjec
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro and Concept
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0:00
Hi, I'm Bestin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you my review with the newer CB200G-RGB light
0:17
In a nutshell, this is an extremely powerful and versatile 200-watt RGB light that is rated up to 23,000 luxe at one meter
0:25
I do test that. It has chip-on-board technology that allows the light to
0:29
to be smaller, although in this case, smaller is a relative term, but more importantly
0:35
for the size of the light, it allows it to be much brighter and also for the quality
0:40
and the focus of that light to be a little bit more intense. So today I'm going to give you
0:45
a look at the specifications and the features of the lens. I'm going to show you the different
0:49
ways that I tested it. I'm going to tell you some things that I like, some things that I don't
0:52
like, and then give me my conclusion at the end. As far as the specifications go, one thing that
0:57
does stand out to me is that if you're going to use the light in bicolor mode, it has a
1:02
broader range than I typically see in lights like this. A lot of times I'm going to see a range
1:08
something like 2,700 to 6,500 Kelvin. In this case, it's broader on both ends. It goes as
1:14
warm as 2,500 Kelvin and as cruel as 7,500 Kelvin. So a little bit more flexibility in the
1:21
color temperature of the light that you can produce. It is a full RGB light, which means that
1:27
through the various color combinations, you can achieve up to 36,000 different colors
1:33
which obviously is going to give you the versatility to produce basically whatever color of light that you're looking for
1:39
You can dim it at 1% increments. There are different dimming curves
1:44
and abilities to control and shape the light. All of that is very useful
1:48
It does have app control via Bluetooth, which is very useful. I'm more on that in just a moment
1:54
It can also be controlled, however, via 2.4 gigahertz. remote control, and so you can sink multiple lights, control them as a group
2:02
control maybe a light lower down on the set. You can use controls there, and at the same time control lights that are maybe a little more inaccessible
2:11
And so that's also a useful feature that I personally enjoy, particularly for just trying to quickly match temperature and intensity of lights
2:19
The fan on this particular model is impressively quiet. It's never going to interfere with it
2:24
In fact, I've been filming with this light. the last about five or six weeks on set
2:30
almost all of the videos that you've seen on this channel, have been lit with this light
2:34
I have yet to hear the fan in any of those settings, which is really, really remarkable
2:40
As noted, the maximum power output is 200 watts rated. Max Lux at one meter is 23,000 Lux
2:50
And by the way, that is with the beauty dish attached. The weight with the reflector attached is right under six and a half pounds
2:57
or 2.93 kilos. So that does make it heavier, it's considerably heavier than the last
3:04
newer bicolor light that I reviewed. But one principal difference between the two is that this
3:08
doesn't have a power brick. You're just plugging right into the unit itself with an AC cord
3:13
Whereas the last unit that I tested, it did have a separate power brick. And so you have to
3:18
account for that and the overall weight because if you're going to actually use the light
3:23
you're going to have to use it with the power brick. So I actually prefer units like this
3:27
where it's the power brick is internalized and you can just plug in and off, just makes it much easier to use in that sense
3:34
It comes with both the reflector or beauty dish you see attached and then also just this small cheap diffuser However it is bowens mount and so of course that means that there are any number of accessories that you can very easily mount onto it maybe even some existing ones that you have
3:51
It does have 17 different scenes, which obviously scenes are far more versatile on RGB-type lights
3:58
because they just have a lot more flexibility in what they can do in the actual color of the light
4:03
that they can produce intensity of the light, etc., etc., etc. And so if those scenes effects are your thing, this has got a broad number of them and can do them a little bit better
4:14
It also has a very nice build quality. It is all aluminum alloy and you can just, everything feels very sturdy
4:21
I even noted that when it comes to the adjustment handle, rather than just having the teeth to where you have a more limited range of adjustment because you have to line the teeth up
4:30
This actually has a like a rubber gasket in between that allows you to pinch in any position
4:37
So it just gives you more flexibility rather than having to line things up perfectly
4:42
Wherever you want to lock it, you can lock it down and it does the job. The actual yoke or harness that amounts to very, very sturdy, making the light
4:49
very, very stable. And obviously that's going to be really nice if you need to put it up high or hang it or anything like that
4:56
So a lot of things that I like about the overall build quality itself. There's even a nice sturdy handle here at the top that makes it very easy to carry it with one hand
5:07
So let's talk about some of the tests that I did on the light itself. One of the things I always like to do is to test the actual Lux values to see if the manufacturers' ratings line up with what I actually see
5:18
And so I actually tested with all three possible configurations with what comes in the box
5:23
Now, obviously, you could add a snoot. You could add other type diffuser softbox, whatever
5:28
and the light intensity is going to change relative to what you're putting around the light itself
5:34
However, when I tested with the bare bulb, I did two tests. I did a test at the rated one meter distance, and then I also did a secondary three meter distance
5:43
just to give you an idea. So a little over three feet, and then a little bit over 10 feet, just to give you an idea of
5:50
what the lux values would be if you were maybe needing to diffuse the light over a larger area
5:55
So with the bare bulb and at one meter, I measured at one meter, I measured at one, right under 10,000 lux. And then out at 10 feet or three meters, I measured at 1,265 lucks at that point
6:09
When I put the diffuser on over the bare bulb, I got at 1 meter 5,940 or right under 6,000 lux
6:18
And then at the 3 meter distance, I got 807 lux. You put on the beauty dish, and of course it focuses and intensifies the light pattern
6:26
And so I actually got a little bit higher than the rated 23,000
6:31
I got 23,500 luxe at one meter. And then out at the three meter distance, I got 2,470 lux there
6:40
And so I have found particularly for this kind of setting, this set, so to speak, that I'm shooting at
6:47
I have had to actually use really low power levels. It's quite intense, particularly for an RGB light
6:53
Sometimes, you know, a bicolor light is obviously going to put out more. intense quantity of light
6:58
RGB gives you more flexibility in the color of the light. And so sometimes in the past, I've really seen quite a hit when you go to an
7:04
RGB type light. This is a light that gives you RGB plus it's very, very bright
7:08
So I really appreciate that. So just to give you some kind of very basic math, if you put on the diffuser, it will roughly
7:15
half the light output. If you put on the beauty dish, it will roughly double the amount of light output that you have
7:23
Now as far as the rated power draw this is a in theory a 200 watt unit at maximum power and I put that at about 51 5200 Kelvin and so I was basically at the what should be with a bicolor light
7:37
somewhere about the peak in between the two extremes. I found that I drew as much as 211 watts at max
7:44
So just very slightly over the 200-watt rating. At 50%, I saw basically right at 100 watts, and then when I dialed it all the way down
7:53
down to just 1%. It was drawing less than one watt of power from my power station. And so
7:59
the power station was showing zero, though it still was outputting light. So it's not zero. It's
8:05
somewhere underneath that at a smaller degree than what it can actually measure. So as noted
8:11
I have used this in a variety of different lighting settings. I did test it on my set for just a lot of
8:17
different videos. And so obviously I'm dealing with the ambient lighting. And so in some cases
8:21
very bright and intense, I needed to turn it up brighter to allow me to be properly front-lit
8:26
And in those situations that had plenty of power, I had zero problems. In other situations, however, I needed much less light
8:32
Today is a rainy, overcast kind of day, so ambient light is lower
8:36
And in that case, I was working at low intensity levels, and I might want to add a diffuser
8:40
just to make sure that the light is really, really soft. A beauty dish is even, actually not a beauty dish, but an actual soft box is better still
8:47
because it really just makes that light very, very soft. and makes for less kind of hard shadows anywhere
8:54
But I found that there's an extreme amount of versatility. I also found that using the app
9:00
I could actually automatically color match the scene. And so by using the app and actually using the camera built into my phone
9:07
I could actually, it would evaluate the light of the scene and it would set the color temperature accordingly
9:12
which is a really cool kind of feature there. If you're, you know, don't necessarily understand all of that
9:17
and you're just trying to color match, maybe a more difficult seam has the ability to do that
9:22
The app itself is nice and robust. It's not hard to use at all
9:26
You can control a wide variety of functions from the app itself
9:30
and so definitely a well worth downloading. It's free and using it
9:34
And of course, advantage of the app also is that it's going to give you some remote control of the light itself if you've got it in some kind of an accessible position
9:43
And with the scenes themselves, I don't really use scenes so much myself
9:47
I'm more using the quality of the light. I like to use colored light for some of my product type shots
9:54
and different things like that because it gives you just very cool effects
9:59
So I appreciate the ability to do that, you know, kind of to replicate gelling
10:03
All of that is very useful. And I was able to actually use this in a setting
10:07
where I did some direct portrait comparisons of some of my lens reviews
10:12
And so I'm not looking for so much of a strobing output. I want a very consistent light output
10:17
to see how the lenses behave in its identical situation as possible
10:21
This worked really well for that. Really nice quality of the light worked very nice
10:25
as a fixed lighting source for portraits as well. So how about some things that I like
10:30
I really appreciate the fact that this has very powerful output for an RGB light
10:35
It doesn't feel like I'm compromising a lot in light intensity to get the versatility of light that this unit provides
10:42
The quality of the light is very nice. Chip on board technology was obviously really
10:47
huge for advancing these LED lights, for allowing them to not only be more intense, but I feel
10:52
also that the quality of the light is better. This is just extremely, extremely quiet. And you
11:00
can see in this video here, you can hear as I click changing through the various settings on the
11:05
fan And what I did is I selected the highest intensity to where it would be making the most noise And as you can see as I move the camera Up near the actual output itself the place where the fan is running
11:28
you can still only... Really can't hardly hear the fan at all in the video itself
11:34
So it's really, really exceptionally quiet, even at its loudest, which is very, very, very. which is very, very impressive
11:39
I also find that the rear-mounted physical controls are more robust than what I often see
11:45
It's quite an easy light to use and to go through out the various settings and the combination of buttons and dials and a clickable dial
11:52
It works quite well. You do also have a reset button that allow you to just kind of jump back to base menu very easily
12:00
Sometimes you get lost in the weeds on lights like this. So I do like the physical control setup
12:05
And also the build quality itself is it stands out as being really, really good
12:10
It's very nice without being too bulky and heavy. You know, it's got room to add on, for example, an umbrella here at the bottom
12:17
Everything about it feels well made. And I've been, as I said, I've used it quite extensively over the last five or six weeks
12:23
And it just feels sturdy. I've had zero issues with anything like that
12:27
Obviously, I always appreciate the full Bowen's versatility. It just means that there's a lot more accessories
12:32
And the fact that they're not proprietary, they're universal. is very, very useful. I also love not having a power brick. Biggest reason for that is it makes
12:41
cable routing a whole lot easier. Rather than having to strap a power brick somewhere onto a
12:46
light stand, you're just dealing with a very simple power cable. It also means that it's much
12:51
easier to bring along. So I appreciate all of that. So how about some things that I didn't like as much
12:57
Well, I do appreciate the fact that you can remote control the unit. You can use the 2.4 gigahertz
13:03
control, but what it doesn't have is any kind of input for DMX. And so if you're wanting to actually
13:09
run it from a console, this is not going to be the light you're looking for to put in to some
13:15
kind of lighting array where you're controlling it from a console elsewhere. This is more designed
13:20
around, you know, Bluetooth app type control. And, you know, so that's one kind of lost opportunity there
13:27
And I would say that if you don't need the full RGB setup, there are smaller and lighter options
13:33
than this and probably also cheaper options, even from Neuer itself if you don't need the full
13:38
RGB control. By conclusion is this. Newer does really, really well, particularly in like the Amazon
13:45
type space. And the reason for that is that they're basically always really great value for money
13:50
And they've really carved out a, I think a well-regarded section of the market to where they're
13:57
giving you value-priced products that are actually very good. And that's very true here. This is a very
14:02
versatile light that you can get for around or right under 300 bucks and for all that it can do and
14:08
the quantity of the light that you can do that's a very very strong value and so i think that that's the
14:13
sweet spot for newer and once again i think that they've hit their target here i love the versatility
14:18
of this light i love that it is full rgb and so you can do a lot of extra things i think it controls very
14:23
well and the quality of the light is excellent so if you want a full rgb light at this about this
14:29
intensity. They do have a brighter one as well, but the 200 watt unit here for around 300 bucks
14:35
feels like a pretty strong value. If you want more information, you can look in the description
14:39
down below. I do have links to product listings, buying links for it as well. So you can check out
14:44
more there. As always, thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in