Picked up two of the 60W versions and used them very successfully to video boas feeding on bats in the karst region of Puerto Rico. Ran them off of two inexpensive power banks at 13% output and they ran for many, many hours... never did die.The portability and USB-C power made it a much easier task to hike them in. Huge fan.
I did have the issue that this light seems to have been modified by the latest firmware so that at 1% dim is actually 13% power. The original firmware had an issue where the CCT adjustment was way off and way too coarse at 1% but the light dimmed much lower at 1% (about 2% power) so I think they fixed it by changing the dimming curve so it couldn't dim below 13% power. So it doesn't get nearly as dim as a lot of other lights, for example my 200x goes to 0.5% power at the 1% setting so the x100 is 10x brighter than the 200x with both dimmed all the way down. I could see this being an issue in certain scenarios but only if you don't have a lower output light to use when you need very low output
I have a G200 Combo, two X100 Combos and two G20C Combos. The RGB G20Cs are superb and great for colour lighting effects and their miniature barn doors are surprisingly useful. My least used light is the G200, simply because of the requirement for the power brick.
This was probably the most useful video I've seen on these lights. I've been using the Lume Cube Studio Panels for quite some time now, and while I enjoy using them, I'm always looking for ways to make my rig a bit more mobile, and this light has been on my list. Thanks for showing some real world use cases for it and giving your honest opinion! Much appreciated!
Im so glad I asked if you have heard of the zhiyuns molus lights and your thoughts if you would use them as a filmmaker. This is awesome. Just got mine actually as my first studio light replacing my bulb lights my friend let me borrow lol
Thank you for this video with details showing how to use this light in different situations such as camp fire, small location. I love your reviews because you always MENTIONS the LIMITATIONS of the products you're reviewing. One question, please. Does the skin tone shot with the Zhiyun 100x look good enough for you? Do you have to edit the skin tone in post?
Todd! How's it going man - long time! Yeah they're great, especially for some of the stuff you do out there. Think you're going to find a bunch of uses for them - I definitely have. Hope all is well in BKK
@@LucForsyth Yes, am loving them! Also..btw - love your TH-cam channel! I started one about a month ago, more focused on photography, has been a fun learning experience!
Any battery issues with it? I’m about to pull the trigger on one but I just recently read a ton of reviews after months of use saying the batteries are dying and useless. Hope you can shed some light on this! (Pun absolutely intended).
That proprietary battery seems like an odd choice given the preponderance of V mounts. Zhiyun could have cut the price a lot by omitting it and just providing the mount since most of their customers probably already have several. At least the light accepts USB-C power delivery, so you can still use a V mount with appropriate cable, just not attached to the light unless you hack something.
It's one of my favourite things about it! I have lots of vmounts, but rigging them in weird places is much harder than with the built in battery. You can still use a v-mount with a USB cable though
@@LucForsyth But the battery isn’t built in, it snaps on, like a V mount. Would the light have been any harder to rig with a V mount battery attached than with the proprietary one?
I bought this light after reading positive reviews, but on the very first day of using it, my reflector got burned and stuck to its mount. I sent it for repairs, and they claimed to have fixed the issue. However, when it came back, I attached it to the Bowens mount, and within 5 minutes, it burned my Bowens mount adapter as well.
dude, that's terrible luck...sorry to hear it. I've been using mine on a bunch of shoots for the last few months and haven't had an issue. Thanks for flagging it though, good o be aware of!
I have noticed that power below 4% the color settings are off, daylight shifts to the warm side. I had one battery totally quite. No charge and no output. I have only had the lights on less than 30 minutes total and that was just learning how to use them and the "APP". I had to email china and send a video of what wasn't happening before I could get an RMA. I was able to get a RMA and send it Washington state and thy have promptly sent out a replacement. Getting a replacement was a bit time consuming but so far so good.
It's an amazing light indeed, but I went with the Colbor CL100X 110W due to being much cheaper, slightly higher quality light, full metal build yet around 800gm weight, and still run through PD100W USB + bought the D-Tap to USB-C cable. I think Zhiyun should dial down their pricing because competition is quite fierce.
Hi Luc, unrelated question Most Tv's and monitors and all iphones have a refresh rate of 30 or 60 hertz. So if I shoot in 24fps, there is 6 frames missing and it gets noticeable when panning and you get stutters, which you don't get if you shoot in 30fps. Unless you watched a 24fps video on a 120 or 144 hertz screen which you can divide by 5 or 6 and get 24. Everyone says 24fps is cinematic because of the motion blur. So you could just shoot in 30fps and use a shutter speed of 1/50th and you'd get the same motion blur, right? And without the stutters. I know that's not the 180 degree rule, but would it matter? Wouldn't I get a higher quality video if I broke the rule in this case and get the smoothness of 30fps on 30/60 hertz screens and have the cinematic motion blur at the same time?
I think either would, depending on how much control you have over ambient light. In a dark room the 100 would be enough, but you’d definitely want to use a bigger softbox than the tiny one it comes with. The 200 would probably be a better bet for an all round key though if you’re not always able to control the light
feels weird having the whole industry (at least those on youtube) always promoting the same chinese products at the same time and hyping them up. we know sponsors make youtube life possible, but it's getting quite bland seeing everybody make sudden ads for a company on a product they've been given. and it's always masked in a "not so telling" wrapping, but as soon as the product drops it's obvious. I know filmmaking is based solely around exploiting consumerism, and I sometimes have hard time coping with the fact that it is in fact the money that moves everything, and not the passion. but then again, pure art doesn't pay the bills.
I hear ya! And yes, there’s always a balance. But I do genuinely think think light is a huge help and I turn down all sponsors that I don’t actually think I can use in a professional capacity. So when everyone is talking about it at the same time it also probably means that people see value as well. But I also get the product fatigue as well…thanks for the feedback!
@@LucForsyth As someone who produces news/doc content, your opinion matters a lot. I don't give a damn that other youtubers are talking about it. Thanks for making this. I've been skeptical on this light, but this makes me interested in checking one out.
Yeah definitely still valuable info, especially as he's not fulltime youtuber where the pressure is greater as its the only income. Thats why i always trust parttime youtubers more as they are usually more honest and Luc really seems to be
Picked up two of the 60W versions and used them very successfully to video boas feeding on bats in the karst region of Puerto Rico. Ran them off of two inexpensive power banks at 13% output and they ran for many, many hours... never did die.The portability and USB-C power made it a much easier task to hike them in. Huge fan.
Same...super useful and open up a bunch of options!
Andyax and luc forsyth - both quality channels
Thank you kindly!
I did have the issue that this light seems to have been modified by the latest firmware so that at 1% dim is actually 13% power. The original firmware had an issue where the CCT adjustment was way off and way too coarse at 1% but the light dimmed much lower at 1% (about 2% power) so I think they fixed it by changing the dimming curve so it couldn't dim below 13% power. So it doesn't get nearly as dim as a lot of other lights, for example my 200x goes to 0.5% power at the 1% setting so the x100 is 10x brighter than the 200x with both dimmed all the way down. I could see this being an issue in certain scenarios but only if you don't have a lower output light to use when you need very low output
I have a G200 Combo, two X100 Combos and two G20C Combos. The RGB G20Cs are superb and great for colour lighting effects and their miniature barn doors are surprisingly useful. My least used light is the G200, simply because of the requirement for the power brick.
This was probably the most useful video I've seen on these lights. I've been using the Lume Cube Studio Panels for quite some time now, and while I enjoy using them, I'm always looking for ways to make my rig a bit more mobile, and this light has been on my list. Thanks for showing some real world use cases for it and giving your honest opinion! Much appreciated!
Nice one, glad it was helpful!
I
😅😊
informative lighting video. thanks Luc, informative content.
Thanks John!
Im so glad I asked if you have heard of the zhiyuns molus lights and your thoughts if you would use them as a filmmaker. This is awesome. Just got mine actually as my first studio light replacing my bulb lights my friend let me borrow lol
good luck with it!
Nice! Thanks for the video Luc…🙏🏻🙏🏻
I’ll be buying one of those next week …, I had my doubts, but your review changed my mind… thanks buddy 🙏🏻🙏🏻👍🏻
Nice one, I hope you'll like it...I love mine
This has been sitting in my cart for a while... time to keep this in the bag with my ursa 12k.
Thank you for this video with details showing how to use this light in different situations such as camp fire, small location. I love your reviews because you always MENTIONS the LIMITATIONS of the products you're reviewing. One question, please. Does the skin tone shot with the Zhiyun 100x look good enough for you? Do you have to edit the skin tone in post?
Excellent video Luc!
I actually just picked up two of these at Fortune Town in Bangkok!
Todd! How's it going man - long time! Yeah they're great, especially for some of the stuff you do out there. Think you're going to find a bunch of uses for them - I definitely have. Hope all is well in BKK
@@LucForsyth Yes, am loving them! Also..btw - love your TH-cam channel! I started one about a month ago, more focused on photography, has been a fun learning experience!
@@ToddBrownPhoto nice one! It’s fun for sure, but worth it!
Any battery issues with it? I’m about to pull the trigger on one but I just recently read a ton of reviews after months of use saying the batteries are dying and useless.
Hope you can shed some light on this! (Pun absolutely intended).
That proprietary battery seems like an odd choice given the preponderance of V mounts. Zhiyun could have cut the price a lot by omitting it and just providing the mount since most of their customers probably already have several. At least the light accepts USB-C power delivery, so you can still use a V mount with appropriate cable, just not attached to the light unless you hack something.
It's one of my favourite things about it! I have lots of vmounts, but rigging them in weird places is much harder than with the built in battery. You can still use a v-mount with a USB cable though
@@LucForsyth But the battery isn’t built in, it snaps on, like a V mount. Would the light have been any harder to rig with a V mount battery attached than with the proprietary one?
When I look for the light on amazon and your link, im not sure that the clamp is included. Do you have a link for one? Or maybe the clamp itself?
I bought this light after reading positive reviews, but on the very first day of using it, my reflector got burned and stuck to its mount. I sent it for repairs, and they claimed to have fixed the issue. However, when it came back, I attached it to the Bowens mount, and within 5 minutes, it burned my Bowens mount adapter as well.
dude, that's terrible luck...sorry to hear it. I've been using mine on a bunch of shoots for the last few months and haven't had an issue. Thanks for flagging it though, good o be aware of!
Which bowens adapter were you using please? I see there is one for the G60 which is completely different in design than the model for the X100.
What is the Matthews clamp setup used in the video?
i am super confused between this and godox 100 bi, can you guide me ?
I have noticed that power below 4% the color settings are off, daylight shifts to the warm side. I had one battery totally quite. No charge and no output. I have only had the lights on less than 30 minutes total and that was just learning how to use them and the "APP". I had to email china and send a video of what wasn't happening before I could get an RMA. I was able to get a RMA and send it Washington state and thy have promptly sent out a replacement. Getting a replacement was a bit time consuming but so far so good.
It's an amazing light indeed, but I went with the Colbor CL100X 110W due to being much cheaper, slightly higher quality light, full metal build yet around 800gm weight, and still run through PD100W USB + bought the D-Tap to USB-C cable. I think Zhiyun should dial down their pricing because competition is quite fierce.
Interesting...I'll have to check those out. thanks for the tip!
looks cool , and at 250euro is almost affordable , question is will you be able to get a new battery after 3-4 years ,
so usefull, thanks
You're welcome!
now that the dusts has settled, when do you actually use this...
You talked me into buying the Zolus. The headlamp looks useful. What is the head lamp? link?
It’s just a black diamond headlamp. I’ve had it for years, don’t even know the model…maybe Storm or something like that? Sorry!
Hi Luc, unrelated question
Most Tv's and monitors and all iphones have a refresh rate of 30 or 60 hertz. So if I shoot in 24fps, there is 6 frames missing and it gets noticeable when panning and you get stutters, which you don't get if you shoot in 30fps. Unless you watched a 24fps video on a 120 or 144 hertz screen which you can divide by 5 or 6 and get 24. Everyone says 24fps is cinematic because of the motion blur. So you could just shoot in 30fps and use a shutter speed of 1/50th and you'd get the same motion blur, right? And without the stutters. I know that's not the 180 degree rule, but would it matter? Wouldn't I get a higher quality video if I broke the rule in this case and get the smoothness of 30fps on 30/60 hertz screens and have the cinematic motion blur at the same time?
Is it bright enough to use as an interview key light on location?
If not, do you think the new 200 one will be?
I think either would, depending on how much control you have over ambient light. In a dark room the 100 would be enough, but you’d definitely want to use a bigger softbox than the tiny one it comes with. The 200 would probably be a better bet for an all round key though if you’re not always able to control the light
@@LucForsyth thanks. I appreciate the video and advice. I will be anticipating the 200
The batteries that come with these lights are absolute trash!
first!
👊🏻
feels weird having the whole industry (at least those on youtube) always promoting the same chinese products at the same time and hyping them up. we know sponsors make youtube life possible, but it's getting quite bland seeing everybody make sudden ads for a company on a product they've been given. and it's always masked in a "not so telling" wrapping, but as soon as the product drops it's obvious. I know filmmaking is based solely around exploiting consumerism, and I sometimes have hard time coping with the fact that it is in fact the money that moves everything, and not the passion. but then again, pure art doesn't pay the bills.
I hear ya! And yes, there’s always a balance. But I do genuinely think think light is a huge help and I turn down all sponsors that I don’t actually think I can use in a professional capacity. So when everyone is talking about it at the same time it also probably means that people see value as well. But I also get the product fatigue as well…thanks for the feedback!
@@LucForsyth As someone who produces news/doc content, your opinion matters a lot. I don't give a damn that other youtubers are talking about it. Thanks for making this. I've been skeptical on this light, but this makes me interested in checking one out.
What’s wrong with Chinese products ?
1:50
Yeah definitely still valuable info, especially as he's not fulltime youtuber where the pressure is greater as its the only income. Thats why i always trust parttime youtubers more as they are usually more honest and Luc really seems to be