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Neewer HB80C 80W Mini RGB Light Review | Bigger, Brighter, Longer Lasting
Nov 16, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott reviews the powerful and versatile Neewer HB80C 80W Mini RGB Light Review...a fantastic option if you're looking for a self-powered portable light at under $240. | Purchase the Neewer HB80C @ Neewer https://tinyurl.com/BuyHB80C | B&H https://bhpho.to/3Z5OisE | Amazon https://bhpho.to/3Z5OisE | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/40MdHZp | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/40DBXgk | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/40FKlf9
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro and Concept
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0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbot and I'm here today
0:12
to take a look at the newer HB 8C this
0:15
is an 80 wat RGB ww mini coob LED video
0:21
light now I reviewed several of the 60
0:24
watt level uh many units here in the
0:28
past and I really like this
0:30
configuration where it comes with either
0:32
a built-in battery like with the small
0:34
rig that I reviewed or in the case of
0:36
the Zune molus it comes with this
0:38
battery grip that attaches to it and
0:40
kind of practically accomplishes
0:42
something similar now in this case
0:44
obviously the newer HB 8C it steps up
0:47
the level to the 80 watt range and as
0:51
you can see that that does come with a
0:52
bit more size however it also comes with
0:56
much more battery life in my test this
0:58
is a 72 wat hour built-in battery that
1:02
gave me nearly 80 minutes at 100% which
1:05
means that it's going to be really
1:06
really useful amount of actual battery
1:08
life also it is brighter and it is more
1:11
versatile in terms of the light output
1:13
remember this is an RGB uh ww light
1:16
which I'll get to in just a moment but I
1:17
tested at 1 meter distance using the
1:20
included reflector SL Beauty Dish I
1:23
tested it over 8,000 Lux at that 1 meter
1:26
distance so putting out lots of power
1:28
but I think one of the really really
1:30
important things to those that are
1:31
serious about modifying their light and
1:33
want to work with multiple lights is the
1:35
fact that it's big enough that it comes
1:37
with full bow mount compatibility which
1:39
means that rather than having to use
1:41
proprietary mounts and thus more
1:43
expensive accessories you can access the
1:46
full range of accessories that are
1:48
available in a Bowen's Mount which of
1:49
course at this point is a massive amount
1:51
of them and very likely if you have any
1:53
modifiers already you'll be able to use
1:55
them right on this particular light so
1:57
as noted this is an RGB ww so that's not
2:00
just the red green and blue chipset but
2:02
it also has a warm white chipset so just
2:05
an additional option for giving you more
2:08
flexibility in terms of the light uh
2:10
that you can produce the color
2:12
temperature of that light and uh the
2:14
various effects that you can use and
2:15
even some built-in gel presets that can
2:18
be very useful as well it is coob which
2:20
stands for chip on board which means
2:22
that it's more efficient it's brighter
2:24
it's just a better more modern
2:25
technology this particular light you can
2:27
power it via AC you can uh Power it by
2:31
the built-in battery you can power it
2:33
via a vmount battery or even a battery
2:36
bank with a good power delivery uh PD
2:39
rating and so it this particular light
2:42
gives you a ton of Versatility and we're
2:45
going to dive into a little bit more
2:46
detail as to why I'm loving this light
2:49
and it is going to be a regular part of
2:51
my video production for my channel
2:53
moving ahead so a few of the
2:55
specifications to get us started with so
2:58
this is you have the ability to control
3:00
this via your a bluetooth app which of
3:04
course gives you a lot of Versatility
3:05
the newer app works quite well I've used
3:07
it for a variety of different products
3:10
and obviously at this stage I'm very
3:11
accustomed with it so it's pretty
3:12
seamless for ACC accessing this you can
3:15
do 2.4 gigahertz control if you're happy
3:18
to run multiple lights you can sync
3:19
those up and of course um sync them up
3:23
and thus control from one unit control
3:25
the other unit as well the maximum power
3:28
output is 80 Watts as mentioned the
3:30
battery parameters this is a 14.4 volt
3:34
5,000 mAh battery or a 72w hour battery
3:38
and so by there are specifications we'll
3:40
get to my actual test in just a moment
3:42
but it is tested in the regular mode
3:44
100% output the battery life is rated at
3:47
1 hour and 10 minutes or 70 minutes if
3:50
you put it into the mute mode where you
3:52
know outputs uh just diminish just a
3:55
little bit it's rated for an hour and 34
3:58
minutes and so obviously if you're
4:00
running it at lower intensity you can
4:01
get a lot more light uh run time than
4:04
that charge time is 2 hours and that is
4:07
due to the fact that unlike some of
4:09
these lights that charge in more like
4:11
the 30 wat range this will charge in the
4:13
60 wat range for input and so you can
4:15
actually charge it from 0 to 100 in Just
4:18
2 hours which is not bad at all and so
4:20
the input for power can come in power
4:23
delivery 3.0 and there are a variety of
4:26
different levels that you can run at in
4:28
terms of the voltage and amperage common
4:29
combinations it's quite versatile in the
4:31
kind of input that you can take and run
4:33
it off of now what's interesting here is
4:35
that it's not just power delivery for
4:36
the input it's also power delivery in
4:38
the opposite direction as an output and
4:40
we'll get more uh back to that in just a
4:42
moment now the maximum illuminance here
4:45
is a 10,400 lux and uh that's at 4,400
4:50
Kelvin with the reflector at a closer
4:53
distance color temperature range if
4:56
you're just choosing kind of The Bu
4:57
color options you have a good diversity
5:00
running from 2500 Kelvin on the warm
5:02
side up to 7500 Kelvin on the cool side
5:05
so definitely better than the more
5:07
typical like 2700 to 6500 range got a
5:10
little bit more uh floor room on the
5:14
warmer end and a little bit more head
5:15
room on the cool end you have a variety
5:18
of different lighting modes you can
5:20
access CCT CCT HSI rgbc ww XY gel Source
5:27
matching through the app and then of
5:29
course the various uh effects that you
5:31
can use there are 18 different scene
5:33
effects that are available the CRI
5:36
rating is 95 plus the tlci rating is 97
5:40
plus so a lot of interesting specs there
5:44
so all of that you could get by just
5:46
taking a look at the listing at Amazon
5:48
or at the newer website but how about
5:52
how does it actually play out in my real
5:53
test so first of all let's take a look
5:55
at the power output and so I used a lux
5:58
meter and I did a couple of tests in
6:00
three different configurations first of
6:02
all I test it at the 1 meter distance
6:04
that they have ratings for I also test
6:06
it at the 3 meter distance to just give
6:08
you an idea of what kind of light you're
6:09
getting when that light has spread out
6:12
like if you were lighting a set for
6:13
example and so using the bare light as
6:16
seen here at 100% um and at 4,000 Kelvin
6:22
actual brightest intensity is at 4400
6:24
Kelvin so I wasn't quite at that I was
6:26
just using kind of a midpoint so at
6:28
4,000 Kelvin at 1 me
6:30
I got right under 3500 Lux now if we
6:34
throw on the included uh Beauty Dish um/
6:39
reflector the output obviously is going
6:41
to increase and so again at 4,000 Kelvin
6:43
at the 1 meter distance I got over 8,000
6:46
Kelvin 8,31 8100 range is what I got uh
6:50
at the 3M distance I got at about 800
6:54
Lux and so still a pretty significant
6:56
amount of light that is reaching me
6:58
there even at the 3 m distance
7:00
now it is a separate accessory but it's
7:02
very well priced and by the way I just I
7:04
really really like I wanted I have
7:06
plenty of circular soft boxes I wanted
7:08
to try their actual hexagonal one so I
7:11
like the fact that it is very easy to
7:14
configure um it's a to actually get this
7:18
into the mode like that is very very
7:20
useful it also comes with a honeycomb
7:23
type Grid or a diffuser you can throw of
7:25
it but just in this configuration uh
7:28
using this obviously lights getting a
7:30
little bit softer spreading a little bit
7:31
wider but even so I was able to get at
7:34
that 1 meter distance I got about 5,000
7:37
Lux of output and then at the 3 meter
7:39
distance I got 524 and then up you know
7:43
different readings but between 524 and
7:45
up to 600 Lux of overall output and
7:48
rating and so anyway I really liked the
7:51
overall configuration of this particular
7:53
accessory and of course it is part of
7:55
the versatility that comes from having
7:57
that full Bowen mount
8:03
configuration now some of the other
8:05
tests that I did were with the battery
8:07
life itself and so using the internal
8:09
power at 100% fullon mode I actually
8:12
exceeded the rated power it's rated for
8:14
70 minutes I got 79 minutes and I noted
8:17
I was in the same room with it while it
8:19
was running that whole time I never
8:20
actually heard any kind of fans uh even
8:23
at I was about 5T away from it never
8:25
really heard any fans running so Kudos
8:27
on that uh I will also Al note that it
8:30
does charge at 60 wats of that uh input
8:33
and as far as the output if you're
8:36
wanting to charge something off of it it
8:38
it actually is rated at a PD 65 watt uh
8:41
specification so that could be extremely
8:44
useful if your phone's going dead on set
8:46
maybe even worse if your camera is going
8:48
dead on set ability to plug into that
8:51
and get a sufficiently uh rating of
8:54
power and the output to actually charge
8:55
that up could obviously be extremely
8:58
useful now I was a little bit surprised
9:00
when I hooked up to a 99w hour uh vmount
9:04
battery and so in theory that's about
9:06
31% more capacity between 31 and 32%
9:10
more capacity so I would have expected a
9:12
longer output than what I actually saw
9:14
surprisingly however though I saw the
9:17
the battery blink out at about 83
9:20
minutes so only 4 minutes longer of
9:22
runtime and I don't know if that has
9:24
anything to do with the actual uh
9:26
efficiency when it comes to the fact
9:28
that you're actually when you're using a
9:29
vmount you're really charging the unit
9:31
itself so maybe there's some lost
9:32
efficiency I will note however that when
9:34
I was running this smaller light at its
9:37
maximum output with a 99w hour vmount
9:40
battery I only got 80 minutes out of
9:42
that so I actually got a little bit more
9:43
with the much brighter higher output of
9:46
this particular light which by the way
9:48
even though it's only 20 watts of of
9:50
higher rating I actually found that the
9:52
the light output as compared to these
9:54
units was actually twice as much and so
9:57
a really impressive amount of light that
9:59
able to put out now when it comes to
10:01
using this uh for other settings so
10:03
using it for portraits for video I did
10:06
use it just to test it for doing some
10:08
portrait work that I was doing and
10:09
testing some lenses obviously having the
10:11
Bowen Mount compatibility is great
10:13
because you can shape and diffuse the
10:15
light in a variety of ways and so I have
10:17
used it for main light I've used it with
10:19
some fill and accent lighting and so
10:22
that was great I found in doing that I
10:24
was able to get really nice soft light
10:26
like for these particular portraits uh I
10:28
also I I actually like using sometimes
10:31
even a hybrid of this light maybe for
10:34
you know for key lights or hair light
10:36
and then you know strobing it's it's a
10:38
nice thing to do and for those that are
10:39
kind of intimidated by strobing a good
10:42
uh versatile fixed light like this can
10:44
really take the guess workk out of it
10:46
it's kind of like U portraits for
10:48
dummies because you don't have to guess
10:49
about the modeling of the light you can
10:51
actually see the light on the face of
10:53
your subject or subjects and so you can
10:55
see if there's Shadows being cast in a
10:57
certain direction and so very use for
10:59
that when it comes to the video lighting
11:02
I mean there's plenty of power here and
11:05
and so I also the ability to be able to
11:07
run it in RGB mode can be interesting or
11:09
gelling it uh but I found that the
11:12
biggest thing that I noticed in using
11:14
this versus these other units is that
11:16
number one because there's so much more
11:17
power output I felt like I had more
11:19
flexibility in diffusing that if I
11:21
wanted something softer I've actually
11:23
been using this light pretty much
11:24
exclusively for my channel for the last
11:27
while uh because it's it's really great
11:29
for that regard and the fact that the
11:30
battery life is longer you know I'm
11:32
typically on set recording for about 20
11:34
minutes at a time so rather than feeling
11:36
like I need to recharge it every time I
11:38
can actually shoot you know two or three
11:40
episodes and not worry about the battery
11:42
life of the light running out and so I I
11:44
really appreciate that I also appreciate
11:47
the fact that it does charge nice and
11:48
efficiently and it doesn't really slow
11:50
down in topping it up which I definitely
11:52
run into with this particular unit it's
11:55
that top end that seems to take forever
11:57
to finally get to 100% charge so finally
12:00
I'm going to give you some things that I
12:01
like some things I don't like and then
12:03
my conclusion as far as things that I
12:05
like this is the most powerful
12:07
self-powered light that I have seen and
12:09
so yes you know a little bit bigger form
12:11
factor but man it kind of feels worth it
12:13
to have that extra run time and of
12:15
course I'm not using it any differently
12:16
than what I use the small lights anyway
12:18
so I kind of like that I really love the
12:21
fact that rather than getting a a
12:23
battery time that you know that
12:26
undercuts what it's rated for in real
12:28
world use actually exceeded the rating
12:30
in real world use that was the opposite
12:32
of what I got in testing the small rig
12:34
or actually found that it cheated a
12:36
little bit by cutting down the power
12:38
output throttling back about 3/4 of the
12:41
way through the battery life to make the
12:42
battery last longer that isn't the case
12:44
here intensity kept up until the end but
12:47
we got tons of runtime out of it I
12:49
appreciate the fact that it charges
12:50
faster and so even though it's a much
12:52
Lou larger battery I can charge it to
12:55
100% in 2 hours I appreciate the fact
12:58
that it has the multiple power options
13:01
and a lot of Versatility through the
13:02
power delivery input and output on that
13:06
I like the fact that it comes with a
13:07
nice carrying case and some useful
13:09
accessories in here accessories like
13:11
that include a great grip slash tripod
13:14
that you can put out there and so that
13:17
is useful I appreciated the fact that
13:19
the actual charge cable that comes with
13:22
it is really long and so if you're
13:24
actually wanting to do some cable
13:26
management and have some kind of power
13:28
Solution that's fur further away has a
13:30
nice included cable uh there which I
13:32
appreciate obviously it does come with
13:34
the Beauty Dish SL reflector and a nice
13:38
case that is useful obviously there is a
13:41
range of accessories that you you know
13:43
that aren't included but are reasonably
13:45
priced which is kind of newer calling
13:47
card I appreciate the fact that this
13:49
actually has quite a useful interface
13:51
sometimes these things are a real pain
13:53
to navigate I tend to prefer using the
13:56
actual bluetooth app a lot of times
13:59
because the inputs on them are just kind
14:01
of confusing I I I like that and on kind
14:05
of a a practical thing here using some
14:07
of these units like this you turn it on
14:10
but then to actually power it the rest
14:11
of the way on you have to rotate this
14:14
dial until it comes on I don't know why
14:18
that's a necessary step but I really
14:19
appreciate the fact I can just turn this
14:21
on and it comes on I don't have to jump
14:24
through any Hoops uh a much more useful
14:27
screen configuration here shows you more
14:30
information it's easy to interact with
14:32
you can switch through the various modes
14:34
very easily it's just a really cool uh
14:37
setup and configuration and certainly
14:39
one that I appreciate not hard to
14:41
navigate at all I love the fact that we
14:44
have full Bowen Mount right here and I
14:46
understand you can't do that Bowen's
14:47
Mount exceeds the size of these smaller
14:49
units but the problem is is that if you
14:51
want to use any kind of modifiers you
14:53
end up using an adapter and you kind of
14:55
kill the small the smallness factor of
14:57
that so I I like the fact that it's big
14:59
big enough to go ahead and use the
15:00
Bowens right there I love the fact that
15:02
it runs quiet and cool uh RGB mode and
15:05
rgbww is useful here uh Bluetooth
15:09
control is great and their app works
15:11
well and of course you know as I've said
15:13
about newer it's really really priced
15:15
really aggressively only
15:17
$239 for this light and that's before
15:19
any kind of sales or discounts that's
15:22
great now how about some things that I
15:24
don't like just a couple of things that
15:26
I will uh point to one of those is is
15:29
that I the actual battery life indicator
15:32
is just the center circle at the top of
15:35
the unit so it's not particularly big I
15:37
would prefer just a more obvious
15:39
percentage indicator that gives you just
15:41
a little bit more of a real time
15:43
indicator of where you're at in the
15:44
battery life obviously this is also not
15:47
going to be quite as bag friendly and uh
15:51
this amount by the way that I've got on
15:53
the light standand it is included in the
15:55
kit itself um but this is this is as
15:57
small as the form factor is going to get
15:59
so yes you still could put that into a a
16:03
camera bag but obviously it's it's
16:06
probably going to need to go in flat and
16:07
take up multiple lens spots uh because
16:10
it's just not as small still portable
16:12
but just not quite as small so not as
16:14
bag friendly at the end of the day
16:16
however I feel like this is a really
16:18
amazing value at $240 it's not really
16:21
priced any higher hardly than these
16:24
smaller units in fact it's cheaper than
16:26
this unit if you throw in the battery
16:28
grip which you kind of need as a part of
16:30
it and so it's a great value I mean the
16:32
fact is that the vmount batteries in
16:35
this range that have just very slightly
16:37
higher output than this particular unit
16:39
V those vmount batteries are running
16:41
right about the same price and so it
16:43
just feels like a really strong value
16:46
for that amount of money and even though
16:48
yes the size is larger the extra size to
16:51
me it feels worth it for the greater
16:53
output longer battery life and full
16:55
Bowen compatibility I actually really
16:57
love this unit and I suspect I'll be
16:59
using a lot moving ahead so if you're
17:01
interested in having one as well or
17:03
doing a little bit more research there
17:05
is obviously going to be links in the
17:07
description down below for you to
17:08
explore as always thanks for watching
17:11
have a great day and let the light in
17:14
[Music]