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LATEST LEDS
NO MORE WAITING FOR GODOX There’s not always the room or need to set up a large and powerful COB light and fix a massive parabolic
softbox just to get some soft lighting. For things like talking heads, product shots, backlights and accent lights, a slight, portable LED panel can be just what’s needed. The Godox LED1000Bi II doesn’t break the bank at £345/$369, is slimline at 10cm/3.9in thick and weighs just 2.51kg/5.5lb. It can be used in tight locations or on small light stands and simply plugs into mains or uses batteries, also coming with a set of barn doors to stop the light spreading and a drop-in diffuser to make output a tad softer. Many would call this a 1x1 panel, but it’s bigger than that suggests at 46x43cm/18.1x16.9in. It’s ideal to take on location, or mount on the wall or ceiling of a permanent studio, thanks to the supplied yoke. Many 1x1 LED panels have been around for years, some at lower prices, but the Godox has more sophisticated tech that sets it apart from the super-budget brands. The Godox LED1000Bi II lets you select colour temperature of 3300
On the front of the light is a diffuser sheet slot and four barn doors to shape and direct output. If you want to use extra diffusion or colour gels, these are ideal to mount them to. However, there are no clips to attach your gels, so you’d need to fashion some way of attaching them, or cut them to go inside the diffuser slot. In use, the Godox really delivers. Controls are simple and the light output is consistent and accurate enough for most users. The CRI rating is 96 and TLCI 98. The light is soft, especially when using the built-in diffuser and keeping it close to the subject. Moving it further away, it becomes a harder light source that’s ideal as a hair light or backlight. Used like this, it’s a perfect partner to a powerful COB LED for a relatively compact and portable set-up. Or use it up close on its own as a key light. For fairly cheap, the LED1000Bi II is a versatile and compact unit with bicolour output. It’s powerful enough for most indoor scenarios and plays well with other lights. godox.com
to 5600K with a ±300K variance. Since the light is made up of some white LEDs and warm or cool white, adjusting temperature changes the output of the fixture. In the mid- range of 4200K, all the bulbs are used, so the 70W draw provides a brightness of 4800 lux at 1m/3.3ft. It’s 2200 lux at 3300K and 2600 lux at 5600K – this is a sizeable difference but not unique to Godox; most bicolour LEDs work like this. To dim the light, there’s a dial on the rear ranging from 0% to full power. There’s no quick route from zero to 100, so you have to spin the knob a bit to get there. A simple LED screen shows settings like colour temperature, intensity and channels for the built-in remote control function. You can use a Godox remote unit or connect via DMX, with standard DMX in/out as well as five-pin DMX XLR connection, but no app control via smartphone. The light is powered via an included AC mains adapter with a solid metal connector rather than generic bullet plug-in. There’s also a V-Mount connection, so standard 14.8v batteries can be used.
SOFT AND GENTLE A diffuser panel comes as standard, dropping into a slot
“It’s ideal to take on location or even mount on brackets in the wall or ceiling of a studio”
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