I use the Sl-60w in all my videos at multiple frame rates and have no issues.The light this light puts out is worth way more then what it costs. In fact I’m looking to buy another one before the price goes up!
For sure! This light is incredible for the money. Hopefully people are willing to deal with the back and forth process in order to get one that doesn't have flickering issues.
Now I know I guess I will run the tests ..but so far...I'm super happy with it almost tempted to buy another as a spare ! Seriously thank you saved me a ton and I really needed something that does what this does...and have to say the remote is great no issues..mines way hi so don't want to up and down the light..brilliant.
you've earned my subscription. I just got the SL-60W, I was very close to pull the trigger for the Aperture 120D ii but the external control and power brick wouldn't be ideal for my reduced space where I'm intending to pop the light. Also I've heard people complaining about the color of the light being a daylight but unless you are planning to mix it with other lights, this gets easily solved by adjusting the white balance of your exposure. Thanks Tom. Gaston
Decided to take my chances and ordered one last night. Saw this today... fingers crossed I get a good one from the start. Thanks for confirming my guess about it being a QC issue
Thank you so much for this video! Your thoughts about getting one and possibly sending it back if it's flickering really helped me out! I'll follow your advice to get one of these beautiful lights :) Btw this video was again like all your others pretty high quality and very well put together, doesn't get boring at any point. I'm glad I found this channel
@@WhatAboutTom Whose girlfriend doesn't 😅 I bet even big directors like Spielberg or Tarantino have a hard time defending their work against their wives haha
Thank you so much for this video! Your thoughts about getting one and possibly sending it back if it's flickering really helped me out! I'll follow your advice to get one of these beautiful lights :)
I agree with you. I have no issue with mine. Also, in most cases when you are shooting slow motion at high frame rates you would want the power of the light to be high thus cancelling out those flicker worries at low output anyway,....
Bought this light and started using it in my videos even here in Russia. It is simply fantastic. The fan noise isn't a problem for me (it's very low) and there is NO FLICKER!
I just ordered four of them and I'm receiving them tomorrow. I doubt I'll have an issue, but Amazon is fantastic about making things right so... if one flickers, oh well.
Thanks for that video, I just got mine literally 10 mins ago and the first thing I I did, was try the light and is just fine, no flickering whatsoever, I filmed in 100% light on 180FPS and 50FPS at 180angle with a GH5 and it looks just fine. I was one of the lucky ones I guess :).
The problem wasn't actually at 100%, the majority of people said the light was fine at 100%. The problem was at lower outputs like 10%. U might wanna just test it again from 10% to 50% to make sure.
Thanks for posting this video! I did a test with my friend's Godox he recently purchased and I believe it is a manufacturing defect like you mentioned. I recently refunded mine and am getting another one from a reputable seller. Crossing my fingers! Thanks Tom
And on a side note! The video I shot for the wedding is a bit noisy on the blacks but I've fixed it a good bit crushing the shadows slightly. Can anyone recommend a good denoiser?
My guess is that the lamp uses pulse-width modulation to control the brightness so on any brightness settings less than 100 the lamp is effectively switching on and off at a high rate of speed and some cameras at high shutter speeds may see that flickering.
Hey Tom, great video, thank you! Just wanted to add a few things: turning off and on really fast is called Phase Width modulation or PWM, and that is completely normal with led lights. This is way more efficient than actually cutting power output to the led and doesn't alter the color output. Every (video) LED light I know of does that, even Skypanels, but the difference is the PWM frequency. Cheap lights use a low frequency to barely cover normal framerates, Skypanels on the other hand have frequencies of about 30kHz (so according to Shannon/Nyquist Theorem up to 15,000 fps would be possible). But theoretically 100% output wouldn't use PWM (because why should it turn off :D) so it should even work with the faulty models.
That's great to know! So I guess some units are just faulty and their frequencies are way lower. Would I then possibly be able to see flicker at 1/4000 shutter speed?
@@WhatAboutTom yes and no. sadly it's not that simple :D Even faulty ones should have exactly the same frequency because it's dead set at that frequency, i don't know how it should alter. another factor is the camera, because some cameras (especially broadcast ones, these huge and expensive ones) cope better with flickering and some worse. And yes, theoretically you shouldn't see flicker (on a flickerfree light) on 1/4000th shutter, but if you do the flicker was there all along but not seen as much.
My unit from B&H works fine 😄 - I made some wack test videos just see the atrocious flickering some people were having and was pleasantly surprised with the results.
i bought two of these a while back. one flickered, the other didn't. i think that Godox doesn't have the most consistant quality control. it's still worth it though!!
That's probably fair haha. It's only $134, so you can't really expect much tbh. The fact that it can do the things that it does for the price that it's at is amazing, regardless of consistent quality control.
@@WhatAboutTom -- Ja, ja, ja, obviously. But what part of ware? Cheap Mosfets? Slow crystal-oscillators? Wrong control-chips or even bad firmware? I am a Kaiser, not a filmmaker, but isn't it essential for a filmmaker, to at least roughly know, what exactly one is working with? If a brain-surgeon, during an operation, would tell me, you've got interesting brain cells, but I have no idea what's wrong with them, I'd be worried....
@@thekaiser4333 well, should a brain surgeon know exactly how the drill he is using works on the inside? Or exactly how the tech in the lights lighting his patient works? You don't need to know how they work just how to work with them.
Thanks for posting the follow-up video. This doesn't put me off. You're right, if you buy from B and H, or Adorama just test it right away and they'll make it right if you get a faulty copy.
I'm considering buying a set of godox lights for interviews. Would you recommend I go with the SL-100W as a key and 2x SL-60W as fill/hair or would the SL-60W be a strong enough key where I could grab 3x SL-60W? Cheers!
Flicker appears because of PWM dimmer (google it) not because of LED. PWM has its frequency. Basically the light turns on and turns of very fast so, that you cant see it. The longer it is turned off during the cycle the lower it is. Usually this kind of dimmers has frequency somewhere between 2.5kHz and 500 kHz. Most of house dimmers has a low frequency PWM. You can even hear how they work sometimes. But for video light higher frequency dimmers are used. It also means they produce more heat. Look at the Aperture power unit. It is all made of heatsink. The cheaper the video light you have the lower frequency PWM it has. The funny thing that it is very simple to upgrade.
I heard part of the issue was because of the fan upgrade a lot of people do to battle fan noise. With the provided fan from Godox I heard you don’t get a lot of flicker. Like you didn’t. Good video brah
I'm so glad you made this video! I don't have this light and probably won't get it, but I DID see the other video and thought there was something wrong with the way it was done. He certainly didn't follow the 180 shutter angle rule.
Regardless of whether or not he followed the 180 degree rule, it didn't really matter. His light flickers even with the 180 degree rule. The problem was the unit, not his settings.
he was shooting a wedding he probably was not on the 180 degree rule i'm pretty sure i have 4 of theses lights for music videos and no issues what so ever . other than 1 light temperature gets hotter than the rest but still works fine without shutting down . got mines from bnh if you shop amazon these light are used or from re sellers trust me i had one the amazon store front gave me 50$ back if i kept it . be cautions amazon need to tighten up
It's not about the 180 degree rule, it's about the units themselves. Some of them are faulty. I didn't follow the 180 degree rule in this video and mine didn't flicker. Tommy Callaway did follow it and his did flicker. It's all about the units.
I have 3 Godox sl60w, One of them was a Cheap discounted online ($100 ish) and It indeed Flicker! and the Other Two I bought was on a Local legit Store ($150 ish each) Has no Flickering.
ML60Bi has flicker on BMPCC 6K Pro regardless if BMPCC is at 50htz or 60htz, at 23.98fps at both 1/48th and 1/50th and 180 degree shutter. I tried all brightness settings. It horizontal bands that move either upward or downward.
I definitely would if I were you. Although, it seems like u only use it at 24fps, so if that's the case, the light is perfectly fine, ever if it flickers.
@@un4givingrelentless574 Not really actually. Those are one thing I don't recommend to cheap out on. I personally say to get the Neewer C-Stand because I always use modifiers with Bowens mount lights and they can be quite heavy so I always want a lot of support so it doesn't fall over.
Flickering is an easy fix in post most of the time anyway, glad to see a normal person who doesn't believe the TH-cam fanboys that want people to waste money
Sometimes, but still, not many people wanna deal with that every time they wanna shoot a video haha. I'd rather just send it back and get a new unit until I get one that doesn't flicker.
That is what I found. When I bought 2 60 W 's and a 150w, I tested all until 1000/s. No flickering found with any significance. True if there is any that will be at the dimmed values.
In the future, to find flicker you usually only need to shoot with the light dimmed (best to set to half) and try very high shutter speeds. There is no point in only following the "180deg rule". Not everyone follows that and it's not always possible due to other scene elements that can flicker. Flicker usually occurs only when not at full power and usually has a consistent PWM frequency throughout the dimming range, though some lights use a different kind of dimming for very low dimmer levels to achieve lower light levels. Frame rate doesn't really matter when testing flicker, if it flickers at a shutter speed it wil likely flicker at that shutter speed for all frame rates. You have to be careful about testing only a few specific lower shutters as the PWM frequency might happen to be a multiple of the ones you tried but not be divisible by another low shutter speed you didn't try where you'll still see flicker.
Well I did do tests for 10% to 100% by 10's. So I made sure to hit all the lower outputs. There is a point to following the 180d rule because that's what looks the best ahaha. You can't just assume that every time someone uses this light, they'll be shooting along with other sources that flicker as well. That's just absurd lol. And yes, frame rates do matter because sometimes flicker doesn't really show as much unless the footage is slowed down. I didn't just test a few specific low shutter speeds, I tested from 1/50 all the way to 1/1000. That's 14 different shutter speeds on my camera lol. I didn't bother testing higher than 1/1000 because people are going to be shooting that high, and if they are, well, they're shooting too high lol. Unless you're shooting 500fps, why would you use anything over 1/500 or 1/600? People that are shooting footage over 500fps are going to be using much more expensive lights anyway, because that requires very specific gear, and most often times have specific dedicated high speed cameras. I did various extensive testing just to be thorough and make sure there was absolutely nothing wrong with the light.
actually Noah has a good point. It is common during the filming of action scenes and sports to bump the shutter speed up to 1000th a sec and even more, while filming at 24fps, breaking the 180 degree rule. The flickering from this Godox is a huge deal breaker for me as I often shoot that. This style of high shutter speed action was made popular in the gladiator movie, but has been done on countless films, nike commericals, etc.
@@WhatAboutTom I must have missed the part where you went past 1/500th sec shutter. I'm not saying at all that you'd assume people will always shoot at odd shutter speeds, I'm saying that everyone who shoots a lot will find themselves in that situation at some point. I have been in that situation a number of times as practical LEDs often have 50hz, 60hz, 100hz, or 500hz or other random frequency PWM and TVs or other displays can have unexpected refresh speeds. And I've wanted very high shutter speeds a few times too. And some people just don't shoot the same way you do for example shooting stills where someone might use an arbitrarily high shutter speed. So you might as well torture test to see if you can make it flicker at 1/10000 or 1/8000 etc as that will also be revealing about the PWM frequency which can tell you about possible issues at other odd frequencies your particular camera might not even support. If you want your review to be all encompassing for other users then that's an important factor and may be why some people say it flickers and others don't. They may be using auto-shutter and it's cranking up to 1/2400th or something odd.
@@andrehines I hear you, but did u not watch the video? I tested it at 1/1000, and there's no flicker at all. This light should be completely fine at super high shutter speeds.
You show your shutter speed as 1/500 when shooting 180fps. Shouldn’t your shutter speed be as close to 1/360 or even 1/720? Due to that 180 rule thingy?
@@YoungBlaze and the aputure lights have a purplish tint... yet no one is complaining because it's more expensive so purple must mean better... apparently
Thank's for that precision. But what about the fan noise? Are you able to shoot video without changing the fan like Tommy Callaway did? What are your thoughts about that?
Check out my review about this light from about a month ago. It's louder than the 120d, but it's really not loud at all aha. It works fine for video, and I didn't modify mine.
Hey I bought this light over 5 years as a matter of fact I have 4 of them... works great. If you ask me ALL these people who are saying the light flickers I think they're getting a kickback through aputure... IJS
Well Tommy actually made a video about how it flickers, so it's pretty clear that his does. Although, he has modified his fan, and one person commented that modifying the fan can sometimes result in flicker, so who knows.
As a new videographer I recently purchased one of these lights due to this video and it worked wonderfully! Question: Would it matter how close the light is to the subject to show the flicker? I did a couple test runs with the light about 2 & half ft from the subject at 10% shooting at 960fps. I didnt get any flicker! Which was a blessing! I just want to make sure I'm testing it correctly and not hindering the correct results.
First, I found you in your video of why choosing Micro Four Thirds, but I refreshed the page and lost you. Here in Merida(Mexico) they only sell godox stuff and I saw the light in the store and entered youtube to find a review. And I found you again. Thanks TH-cam.
Thank you for this - perhaps you can help me identify the power of these lights: I was going to buy two to run in strip softboxes for wide open portraits - but I need the shutter to be up past shake level (200 plus) at iso 100 - I am thinking I should maybe go up in power to the Sl100 - would love to know your opinion on whether the two sl60s will do the job as they are what I can afford? Thanks, Brett.
I don't use gels too often. 99% of shoots I use Daylight, and if I want warmer back lighting I have lights that use plastic gels that the lights come with. So, unfortunately, I don't really have an answer for you :/
Liked your video bro. but want to know, Aputure 120d is 135watt and Godox's this model is 60watt. Can it perform as good as Aputure for indoor shoots??
@@WhatAboutTom yes, I was originally thinking of getting one 300D and one 120D, but now I'm thinking perhaps instead of one 120D, I can get a couple of SL60W instead, if the output color pretty much matches.
Thank u! I’ve been on the fence about this light for a minute now but I think I’ll go ahead and buy it... what should be my process in testing the unit? (I’m a rookie)
It isn't flicker related but would anyone have feedback on constantly leaving these on at 100%? I tend to leave them on for 6-8 hours at a time at 5 days a week. Any overheating concerns? Sorry for the OT bit but I have a 120d mk2 and can leave it on forever without problems. I am not a fanboy but at the price points involved, I am either getting another 120d mk2 or a few of these. Thanks
Not gonna lie that video did put me off from buying, but now I'm reconsidering after watching this. What do you think of the power output of the Godox 60? Some say it's a little less powerful than the 120d which is rated at 300 watts(?). Is that true? Should I buy a more powerful version? Plan to shoot small business/interview type of stuff with it.
From my tests, yes. It's like 1/3 - 1/2 less powerful than the 120d, which is awesome at half the wattage. I think this is perfectly fine for small business interview type of stuff. I've heard the higher wattage Godox lights have very noisy fans, so just be aware.
@@@WhatAboutTom @Lric If I remember correctly, when it's mentioned 1/3 - 1/2 less powerful, you mean stops, not total difference in full output (not like 1000 lux vs. 666 lux or 500 lux), right?
@@WhatAboutTom Thank you for the two quick replies in separate comments. You da man! I'm totally subscribing now. xD Truthfully, I was considering it already. ;)
I believed if you turn on the light 100% power it will not flicker but if you lower the power there might be flicker. I'm not sure too, but i did order the light too and still waiting for it to arrive
Here it is finaly the fan upgrade review for the GODOX SL-60W with NOISE AND FLICKERING TEST! NO PCB BYPASS,BETTER COOLING PERFORMANCE and PULSE MODULATION CONTROL! th-cam.com/video/iUD54PmF_wo/w-d-xo.html If you guys are doing videos about this mod please put a link of my video! Thank you and thanks to ArtVideo Production (i added a link to your video for the mod) for the extensive and very professional video review and upgrade procedure!
The other review said that he saw the flickering at less than 100% power output. I disagree with this the guy in this video saying "I don't believe that is true" when obviously you did not do this test under those conditions. So Tom Ryan, don't disregard the other person's experience. I don't have this light, but if it is advertised as "no flickering," then it should not happen at ANY intensity.
"Obviously did not do tests under those conditions." Go to 2:15 in this video. I tested the light at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100% output. 10-90 are all under 100%, no?
just brought mine for a slow-mo gh5 180fps shoot tomorrow. Saw this, just did a test, no flicker at all
I use the Sl-60w in all my videos at multiple frame rates and have no issues.The light this light puts out is worth way more then what it costs. In fact I’m looking to buy another one before the price goes up!
Smart! It's a great light haha
I got the tungsten and daylight, i actually married my light, we are on our honey moon now
Well said! Really summed up my thoughts on the Godox SL-60w over the past week or so after posting that video.
For sure! This light is incredible for the money. Hopefully people are willing to deal with the back and forth process in order to get one that doesn't have flickering issues.
@@WhatAboutTom Pinned a comment on my original video talking about the flicker to link people here. Cheers bro!
@@TommyCallaway Thanks brother!
What’s even better is that both of you get views 😂😂😂. I wasn’t even aware of the flickering issue. Thank you as well
@@c3calvin Yeah, communication and collaboration on TH-cam is totally additive. Everyone gains, and there's nothing to lose by just sharing. :)
Just tested... No flicker. High frames in Pal and NTSC and 24p - 24 - 180fps etc... :D!
Fantastic news!
Now I know I guess I will run the tests ..but so far...I'm super happy with it almost tempted to buy another as a spare ! Seriously thank you saved me a ton and I really needed something that does what this does...and have to say the remote is great no issues..mines way hi so don't want to up and down the light..brilliant.
Awesome dude, glad I could help
you've earned my subscription. I just got the SL-60W, I was very close to pull the trigger for the Aperture 120D ii but the external control and power brick wouldn't be ideal for my reduced space where I'm intending to pop the light. Also I've heard people complaining about the color of the light being a daylight but unless you are planning to mix it with other lights, this gets easily solved by adjusting the white balance of your exposure.
Thanks Tom.
Gaston
Nicely explained there. 👍 I just bought mine now. Waiting to receive it. And i will do the test you’ve mentioned. Thanks a lot for the info. 👍👍
Love this video! I had commented negatively before because of the flickr but I may reconsider because of this update
Sweet! Glad I could give you some perspective!
Really enjoy the work, detail, and commentary you put into these videos brother. Just subscribed.
Thanks Gajan!
Same
Decided to take my chances and ordered one last night. Saw this today... fingers crossed I get a good one from the start. Thanks for confirming my guess about it being a QC issue
No problem! Hope it works out!
Thank you so much for this video! Your thoughts about getting one and possibly sending it back if it's flickering really helped me out! I'll follow your advice to get one of these beautiful lights :) Btw this video was again like all your others pretty high quality and very well put together, doesn't get boring at any point. I'm glad I found this channel
I'm glad I don't get boring ahaha! (My girlfriend tells me my videos are boring 😋😂😂)
@@WhatAboutTom Whose girlfriend doesn't 😅 I bet even big directors like Spielberg or Tarantino have a hard time defending their work against their wives haha
@@felixmayr1303 😂😂
Thank you so much for this video! Your thoughts about getting one and possibly sending it back if it's flickering really helped me out! I'll follow your advice to get one of these beautiful lights :)
I agree with you. I have no issue with mine. Also, in most cases when you are shooting slow motion at high frame rates you would want the power of the light to be high thus cancelling out those flicker worries at low output anyway,....
Good point!
Bought this light and started using it in my videos even here in Russia. It is simply fantastic. The fan noise isn't a problem for me (it's very low) and there is NO FLICKER!
Awesome!
I just ordered four of them and I'm receiving them tomorrow. I doubt I'll have an issue, but Amazon is fantastic about making things right so... if one flickers, oh well.
Hope it works out!
@@WhatAboutTom I've been using them for a few weeks now. They work brilliantly. No issues whatsoever.
Thanks for that video, I just got mine literally 10 mins ago and the first thing I I did, was try the light and is just fine, no flickering whatsoever, I filmed in 100% light on 180FPS and 50FPS at 180angle with a GH5 and it looks just fine. I was one of the lucky ones I guess :).
The problem wasn't actually at 100%, the majority of people said the light was fine at 100%. The problem was at lower outputs like 10%. U might wanna just test it again from 10% to 50% to make sure.
Ok, I’ll check it then at 10%., cheers.
just checked it again 180FPS at 10% increments and is just fine too, so yes you are right not all the lights come with the flickering issue.
@@chamoas23 Glad to hear it!
Just bought two of these bad boys, looking forward to testing them out tomorrow. Appreciate you man! +Sub
tomorrow is 3 months old
Good on you for honesty. I picked up 2 120 d vll's myself but also a godox.
Thanks for posting this video! I did a test with my friend's Godox he recently purchased and I believe it is a manufacturing defect like you mentioned. I recently refunded mine and am getting another one from a reputable seller. Crossing my fingers! Thanks Tom
And on a side note! The video I shot for the wedding is a bit noisy on the blacks but I've fixed it a good bit crushing the shadows slightly. Can anyone recommend a good denoiser?
@@voicetheworld5369 Awesome dude! Glad to hear it! The most reputable denoiser is probably Neat Video. Its fairly pricey though.
Last time, I saw your video and bought the SL60W, great news for that the SL60W no fickering
My guess is that the lamp uses pulse-width modulation to control the brightness so on any brightness settings less than 100 the lamp is effectively switching on and off at a high rate of speed and some cameras at high shutter speeds may see that flickering.
Hey Tom, great video, thank you!
Just wanted to add a few things: turning off and on really fast is called Phase Width modulation or PWM, and that is completely normal with led lights. This is way more efficient than actually cutting power output to the led and doesn't alter the color output. Every (video) LED light I know of does that, even Skypanels, but the difference is the PWM frequency. Cheap lights use a low frequency to barely cover normal framerates, Skypanels on the other hand have frequencies of about 30kHz (so according to Shannon/Nyquist Theorem up to 15,000 fps would be possible). But theoretically 100% output wouldn't use PWM (because why should it turn off :D) so it should even work with the faulty models.
That's great to know! So I guess some units are just faulty and their frequencies are way lower. Would I then possibly be able to see flicker at 1/4000 shutter speed?
@@WhatAboutTom yes and no. sadly it's not that simple :D Even faulty ones should have exactly the same frequency because it's dead set at that frequency, i don't know how it should alter. another factor is the camera, because some cameras (especially broadcast ones, these huge and expensive ones) cope better with flickering and some worse.
And yes, theoretically you shouldn't see flicker (on a flickerfree light) on 1/4000th shutter, but if you do the flicker was there all along but not seen as much.
@@schnorg gotcha. Thanks for the info man!
My unit from B&H works fine 😄 - I made some wack test videos just see the atrocious flickering some people were having and was pleasantly surprised with the results.
Thorough content. Thanks for the info and keep the videos coming!
Thanks Brad, definitely will!
i bought two of these a while back. one flickered, the other didn't. i think that Godox doesn't have the most consistant quality control. it's still worth it though!!
That's probably fair haha. It's only $134, so you can't really expect much tbh. The fact that it can do the things that it does for the price that it's at is amazing, regardless of consistent quality control.
@@WhatAboutTom - What exactly is causing this flickering? What is, electronically, at the bottom of this?
@@thekaiser4333 Absolutely no idea. Probably just faulty hardware.
@@WhatAboutTom -- Ja, ja, ja, obviously. But what part of ware?
Cheap Mosfets? Slow crystal-oscillators? Wrong control-chips or even bad firmware? I am a Kaiser, not a filmmaker, but
isn't it essential for a filmmaker, to at least roughly know, what exactly one is working with?
If a brain-surgeon, during an operation, would tell me, you've got interesting brain cells, but I have no idea what's wrong with them, I'd be worried....
@@thekaiser4333 well, should a brain surgeon know exactly how the drill he is using works on the inside? Or exactly how the tech in the lights lighting his patient works? You don't need to know how they work just how to work with them.
Thanks for sharing, I just bought sl60w .
Thanks for posting the follow-up video. This doesn't put me off. You're right, if you buy from B and H, or Adorama just test it right away and they'll make it right if you get a faulty copy.
Totally! You're spot on
Perfect light no problems here. Thanks for posting your results.
Awesome! No problem!
I'm considering buying a set of godox lights for interviews. Would you recommend I go with the SL-100W as a key and 2x SL-60W as fill/hair or would the SL-60W be a strong enough key where I could grab 3x SL-60W? Cheers!
I have the SLB-60W, i don't do videos, but so far happy with it.
Glad to hear!
I know this is random but... where did you get that air freshener near that futuristic clock
that's his anti-flicker can spray :))
savage
The people talking about the flicker aren't considering sensor readout speed within camera variations.
Flicker appears because of PWM dimmer (google it) not because of LED. PWM has its frequency. Basically the light turns on and turns of very fast so, that you cant see it. The longer it is turned off during the cycle the lower it is. Usually this kind of dimmers has frequency somewhere between 2.5kHz and 500 kHz. Most of house dimmers has a low frequency PWM. You can even hear how they work sometimes. But for video light higher frequency dimmers are used. It also means they produce more heat. Look at the Aperture power unit. It is all made of heatsink. The cheaper the video light you have the lower frequency PWM it has. The funny thing that it is very simple to upgrade.
Thanks! My entire mood has changed today lol.
I heard part of the issue was because of the fan upgrade a lot of people do to battle fan noise. With the provided fan from Godox I heard you don’t get a lot of flicker. Like you didn’t. Good video brah
Thanks aha. Yes, I've heard the same.
I'm so glad you made this video! I don't have this light and probably won't get it, but I DID see the other video and thought there was something wrong with the way it was done. He certainly didn't follow the 180 shutter angle rule.
Regardless of whether or not he followed the 180 degree rule, it didn't really matter. His light flickers even with the 180 degree rule. The problem was the unit, not his settings.
he was shooting a wedding he probably was not on the 180 degree rule i'm pretty sure i have 4 of theses lights for music videos and no issues what so ever . other than 1 light temperature gets hotter than the rest but still works fine without shutting down . got mines from bnh if you shop amazon these light are used or from re sellers trust me i had one the amazon store front gave me 50$ back if i kept it . be cautions amazon need to tighten up
It's not about the 180 degree rule, it's about the units themselves. Some of them are faulty. I didn't follow the 180 degree rule in this video and mine didn't flicker. Tommy Callaway did follow it and his did flicker. It's all about the units.
I have 3 Godox sl60w, One of them was a Cheap discounted online ($100 ish) and It indeed Flicker! and the Other Two I bought was on a Local legit Store ($150 ish each) Has no Flickering.
Give them to me
Now!
ML60Bi has flicker on BMPCC 6K Pro regardless if BMPCC is at 50htz or 60htz, at 23.98fps at both 1/48th and 1/50th and 180 degree shutter. I tried all brightness settings. It horizontal bands that move either upward or downward.
Thanks for the info... I have 2 but never went above 24fps (w/180 degree shutter). Now I need to go check.
I definitely would if I were you. Although, it seems like u only use it at 24fps, so if that's the case, the light is perfectly fine, ever if it flickers.
@@WhatAboutTom I tested my SL60W at 120 and 180 FPS, no flicker. Great light :D
@@TonyTipsar Sweet!
Thanks for this. Definitely picking up up one from Amazon.
Sweet!
Cool video thanks for the update think I’m gonna give this light a shot and see what happens
Glad to hear it! Hope it goes well!
Tom Ryan do recommend any good cheap stands to go with it?
@@un4givingrelentless574 Not really actually. Those are one thing I don't recommend to cheap out on. I personally say to get the Neewer C-Stand because I always use modifiers with Bowens mount lights and they can be quite heavy so I always want a lot of support so it doesn't fall over.
Flickering is an easy fix in post most of the time anyway, glad to see a normal person who doesn't believe the TH-cam fanboys that want people to waste money
Sometimes, but still, not many people wanna deal with that every time they wanna shoot a video haha. I'd rather just send it back and get a new unit until I get one that doesn't flicker.
@@WhatAboutTom agreed, can't argue that.
That is what I found. When I bought 2 60 W 's and a 150w, I tested all until 1000/s. No flickering found with any significance. True if there is any that will be at the dimmed values.
In the future, to find flicker you usually only need to shoot with the light dimmed (best to set to half) and try very high shutter speeds. There is no point in only following the "180deg rule". Not everyone follows that and it's not always possible due to other scene elements that can flicker. Flicker usually occurs only when not at full power and usually has a consistent PWM frequency throughout the dimming range, though some lights use a different kind of dimming for very low dimmer levels to achieve lower light levels. Frame rate doesn't really matter when testing flicker, if it flickers at a shutter speed it wil likely flicker at that shutter speed for all frame rates. You have to be careful about testing only a few specific lower shutters as the PWM frequency might happen to be a multiple of the ones you tried but not be divisible by another low shutter speed you didn't try where you'll still see flicker.
Well I did do tests for 10% to 100% by 10's. So I made sure to hit all the lower outputs. There is a point to following the 180d rule because that's what looks the best ahaha. You can't just assume that every time someone uses this light, they'll be shooting along with other sources that flicker as well. That's just absurd lol. And yes, frame rates do matter because sometimes flicker doesn't really show as much unless the footage is slowed down. I didn't just test a few specific low shutter speeds, I tested from 1/50 all the way to 1/1000. That's 14 different shutter speeds on my camera lol. I didn't bother testing higher than 1/1000 because people are going to be shooting that high, and if they are, well, they're shooting too high lol. Unless you're shooting 500fps, why would you use anything over 1/500 or 1/600? People that are shooting footage over 500fps are going to be using much more expensive lights anyway, because that requires very specific gear, and most often times have specific dedicated high speed cameras. I did various extensive testing just to be thorough and make sure there was absolutely nothing wrong with the light.
actually Noah has a good point. It is common during the filming of action scenes and sports to bump the shutter speed up to 1000th a sec and even more, while filming at 24fps, breaking the 180 degree rule. The flickering from this Godox is a huge deal breaker for me as I often shoot that. This style of high shutter speed action was made popular in the gladiator movie, but has been done on countless films, nike commericals, etc.
@@WhatAboutTom I must have missed the part where you went past 1/500th sec shutter. I'm not saying at all that you'd assume people will always shoot at odd shutter speeds, I'm saying that everyone who shoots a lot will find themselves in that situation at some point. I have been in that situation a number of times as practical LEDs often have 50hz, 60hz, 100hz, or 500hz or other random frequency PWM and TVs or other displays can have unexpected refresh speeds. And I've wanted very high shutter speeds a few times too. And some people just don't shoot the same way you do for example shooting stills where someone might use an arbitrarily high shutter speed. So you might as well torture test to see if you can make it flicker at 1/10000 or 1/8000 etc as that will also be revealing about the PWM frequency which can tell you about possible issues at other odd frequencies your particular camera might not even support. If you want your review to be all encompassing for other users then that's an important factor and may be why some people say it flickers and others don't. They may be using auto-shutter and it's cranking up to 1/2400th or something odd.
@@andrehines I hear you, but did u not watch the video? I tested it at 1/1000, and there's no flicker at all. This light should be completely fine at super high shutter speeds.
@@noahyv Fair enough! I will definitely continue testing it and get back to you. And yeah, i tested it up to 1/1000 and no flicker at all.
Is there no way it might do this after time? So not initially.
If you cant get to lower output, solution would be to move the light further, bounce the light or diffuse the light.
You show your shutter speed as 1/500 when shooting 180fps. Shouldn’t your shutter speed be as close to 1/360 or even 1/720? Due to that 180 rule thingy?
So why no one is talking about the godox 150 or 200?
Yep as they are also very good value to money.
They tend to have a greenish tent to them from what I heard
I've heard they have some pretty significant fan noise
@@YoungBlaze No green tint at all. Perhaps the early ones did, bit I have two of them and they have almost perfect color. The 200W
@@YoungBlaze and the aputure lights have a purplish tint... yet no one is complaining because it's more expensive so purple must mean better... apparently
I love this video, Thank you!
Thank's for that precision. But what about the fan noise? Are you able to shoot video without changing the fan like Tommy Callaway did? What are your thoughts about that?
Check out my review about this light from about a month ago. It's louder than the 120d, but it's really not loud at all aha. It works fine for video, and I didn't modify mine.
Hey I bought this light over 5 years as a matter of fact I have 4 of them... works great. If you ask me ALL these people who are saying the light flickers I think they're getting a kickback through aputure... IJS
Well Tommy actually made a video about how it flickers, so it's pretty clear that his does. Although, he has modified his fan, and one person commented that modifying the fan can sometimes result in flicker, so who knows.
As a new videographer I recently purchased one of these lights due to this video and it worked wonderfully! Question: Would it matter how close the light is to the subject to show the flicker? I did a couple test runs with the light about 2 & half ft from the subject at 10% shooting at 960fps. I didnt get any flicker! Which was a blessing! I just want to make sure I'm testing it correctly and not hindering the correct results.
It shouldn't matter how close the light is. If it flickers, it flickers
Is it work with shutter speed of 1/4000?
Yeah I´m on of those suscribers, thank you!
Thanks for the subscribble 😁😁
First, I found you in your video of why choosing Micro Four Thirds, but I refreshed the page and lost you. Here in Merida(Mexico) they only sell godox stuff and I saw the light in the store and entered youtube to find a review. And I found you again. Thanks TH-cam.
@@itsBritss Sweet! Thanks TH-cam! Haha
You have flickered issue because the lens , when I put 2470GM lens no flickering , Tamron 2875 2.8 big-time flickering.
exactly , 😁👍
Hi! I have Phantom Miro High Speed Camera, do you know if this light flickers at 1000 and 1500fps? Thanks
Is it even strong enough for 1000 and 1500FPS? You need a lot of light at those FPS.
@@TonyTipsar If you shoot macro, it's enough. Anyone tried high fps?
Did you find out if it flickers? :) At high frame rates
Thank you for this - perhaps you can help me identify the power of these lights: I was going to buy two to run in strip softboxes for wide open portraits - but I need the shutter to be up past shake level (200 plus) at iso 100 - I am thinking I should maybe go up in power to the Sl100 - would love to know your opinion on whether the two sl60s will do the job as they are what I can afford? Thanks, Brett.
How were you able to test this with 240fps? My curernt camera only does 60fps
I shoot with the Panasonic GH5S which can go up to 240fps.
What do you think about ADORAMA store? I mean to buy items for video
Great channel! These are good enough for what I do. If I made a living doing high end stuff, I'd probably pass. Until then...
Totally feel u man. It's a steal otherwise!
I will test mine tomorrow so will see if mine has the problem!
Hey Tom, what would you recommend for gels to use on these? I plan on using these for interview lighting.
I don't use gels too often. 99% of shoots I use Daylight, and if I want warmer back lighting I have lights that use plastic gels that the lights come with. So, unfortunately, I don't really have an answer for you :/
Tom Ryan ahhh, well thanks for the response, I appreciate it!
@@keepyourlovesafe I'd say maybe just find a basic gel kit on B&H and roll with that!
Is it better than the sokani?
What light dome do you use with your Godox !? Also what camera do use for these videos!? Thanks
I use the Aputure Light Dome. My camera is the GH5S.
Tom Ryan thanks !
hmmm.... hmmmm.... should i buy one? 🤔
Mine flickers as f at above 1/100 and clearly visible after 1/200 :( its unusable now
Liked your video bro.
but want to know, Aputure 120d is 135watt and Godox's this model is 60watt.
Can it perform as good as Aputure for indoor shoots??
Really considering getting this light over an Aputure 120D. Wonder if it would play along with the 300D I'm also planning to get.
It's definitely significantly less powerful than the 300d, I can tell you that. Just want you to know.
@@WhatAboutTom yes, I was originally thinking of getting one 300D and one 120D, but now I'm thinking perhaps instead of one 120D, I can get a couple of SL60W instead, if the output color pretty much matches.
@@rayafahreza It's close enough. I might be making a video about this in the future!
@@WhatAboutTom that would be helpful for many. I'm really considering going 300D + a couple of SL60W now instead of 300D and one 120D.
@@rayafahreza Fair! I'll let you know my results!
Thank u! I’ve been on the fence about this light for a minute now but I think I’ll go ahead and buy it... what should be my process in testing the unit? (I’m a rookie)
Just do like I did. Test different frame rates and shutters speeds and make sure there is no flicker in any of your footage.
It isn't flicker related but would anyone have feedback on constantly leaving these on at 100%? I tend to leave them on for 6-8 hours at a time at 5 days a week. Any overheating concerns? Sorry for the OT bit but I have a 120d mk2 and can leave it on forever without problems. I am not a fanboy but at the price points involved, I am either getting another 120d mk2 or a few of these.
Thanks
I haven't had it at 100%, but I've left it on at probably 50% for 6+ hours and it was fine. I'll try to test this soon and let you know.
Thank you Tom
@@Detaileddesignsautospa No Problem! Just turned it on and will be leaving it at 100% all day.
@@WhatAboutTom
What was the result of leaving it on 100% all day? Did it overheat, slightly warm, very warm, etc.?
@@huyked Got up to 52 degrees Celsius and stayed on for 10+ hours. Ended up being completely fine.
great advice
No flicker on mine, I have 2 and both work great
Did you upgrade the fan in yours? I've seen people say it's the fan upgrade.
No I haven't, but that doesn't mean it is the fan. I've gotten comments saying that theirs flickers and they've never touched the fan.
@@WhatAboutTom hmmm awesome. I'm waiting for adorama to restock them, but definitely will have to test for flickering on all 4 that I'll buy 😂
@@michaelpohl348 Hahahaha
Do you find that he fan is really noisy like Tommy did?
No I do not. It's slightly louder than the 120d.
Great vid
Not gonna lie that video did put me off from buying, but now I'm reconsidering after watching this. What do you think of the power output of the Godox 60? Some say it's a little less powerful than the 120d which is rated at 300 watts(?). Is that true? Should I buy a more powerful version? Plan to shoot small business/interview type of stuff with it.
From my tests, yes. It's like 1/3 - 1/2 less powerful than the 120d, which is awesome at half the wattage. I think this is perfectly fine for small business interview type of stuff. I've heard the higher wattage Godox lights have very noisy fans, so just be aware.
@@WhatAboutTom Thanks brotha, really appreciate your answer!
@@@WhatAboutTom
@Lric
If I remember correctly, when it's mentioned 1/3 - 1/2 less powerful, you mean stops, not total difference in full output (not like 1000 lux vs. 666 lux or 500 lux), right?
@@huyked Right! 1/3-1/2 STOPS
@@WhatAboutTom
Thank you for the two quick replies in separate comments. You da man! I'm totally subscribing now. xD Truthfully, I was considering it already. ;)
I haven't found any flicker problems with my 60w
Very well said.
What softbox do you use with the Godox?
The Aputure Light Dome
What modifier do you use Tom?
This one! tinyurl.com/y2wayde9
Well put 👍🏽
Thanks teddy!
I believed if you turn on the light 100% power it will not flicker but if you lower the power there might be flicker. I'm not sure too, but i did order the light too and still waiting for it to arrive
That's apparently the general consensus among people whose lights DO flicker. For those of us whose lights dont, well.... They don't lol
where'd your socials go? wondering where your located!
Deleted all my socials lol. Don't use em
No flickering for my copies, recently bought on ebay.
Good to hear!
I bought this light in 2020, flickers for me. Naked eyes can tell starting from 10% to 30%.
Hahahah. What was that at the end? 😂
hahahhahaha!
Here it is finaly the fan upgrade review for the GODOX SL-60W with NOISE AND FLICKERING TEST! NO PCB BYPASS,BETTER COOLING PERFORMANCE and PULSE MODULATION CONTROL!
th-cam.com/video/iUD54PmF_wo/w-d-xo.html
If you guys are doing videos about this mod please put a link of my video!
Thank you and thanks to ArtVideo Production (i added a link to your video for the mod) for the extensive and very professional video review and upgrade procedure!
they did not use the 180 degree rule
Nice Video 👍
Thanks Julius
Tom Ryan your welcome 😉
Video really needs to be tested using 180 degrees and not shutter time.
It's the same thing...
Like and suscribe for that belch.
The other review said that he saw the flickering at less than 100% power output. I disagree with this the guy in this video saying "I don't believe that is true" when obviously you did not do this test under those conditions. So Tom Ryan, don't disregard the other person's experience. I don't have this light, but if it is advertised as "no flickering," then it should not happen at ANY intensity.
"Obviously did not do tests under those conditions." Go to 2:15 in this video. I tested the light at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100% output. 10-90 are all under 100%, no?
Well shutter speed in video ? Why ? Not a real measurement!
180 degree rule? 180 degree what? 180 what rule? what degree rule? google - 180 degree rule