Best Studio LED Light Under $200

The cl100 is a light that ive been using in my studio since about well september of last year, so its been about four months of heavy use and ive been using it as a studio light right here. So i did the review and ive been using it ever since its currently set to 5600 degrees, which is what i have my front studio light set to and the level of power intensity is at around 55 percent, both of these lights. They come in at around 199, although they do come with different parts and attachments, but essentially, at the end of the day, both can be set up to have an umbrella diffuser on it and can both be controlled by an app and while the ninja 300 didnt Come with a remote control for the 199 ill, be honest with you. I didnt really care for the one that came with the cl 100. I would set it up id sync it and then id be shooting and id decide to change it and it lost sync. So i didnt really care for the remote, but using the smartphone. I find it to be very, very capable now in terms of power. The cl 100 comes in at 100 watts and the ninja 300 comes in at 80 watts. The cl100 has a range of 2700 to 6500, whereas the ninja 300 has a range of well 2500 to 8500. So it has a greater color range, but when it comes to effects the cl 100 has more effects somewhere right around 30 and the ninja 300 has around 22 effects and the app for controlling both really makes life a lot easier.

Once youve set it up once youve paired, it turn it off turn it on and its remembered everything well, except for one thing which ill get to shortly and of course you can have multiple different settings, so you can have one set for a studio like. I have here in the basement and you can have one for set up stairs or one for outside or different type of lighting situations, which is really really nice, but there is one thing about the ninja 300 that well might be a challenge for some of you. I know what youre thinking well wait a minute simon were talking about lighting here, not audio correct. Well, no, not exactly you see right now. I just have the cl100 turned on and a ring light and then, of course, ive got these lights behind me and, as you can hear its absolutely silent, i cannot hear any fan coming off the ecl100 in normal operating mode. It has a db level of 25 dbs, but it also has a quiet mode of 10, dbs and ill be honest with you, ive been shooting. I dont know how many videos, since i did the review video, but its probably close to in some of those sessions. I did live streams where i was actually had the light on for a good two and a half to three hours, and i never once heard the fan at all and when i first turn it on.

I put my ear right up to it and i cant hear anything so when it does come on it comes on slowly and it has a smart automatic mode where you dont hear the fan. Now, if im, shooting upstairs and im doing product or photography type shots where i dont really care about audio ill turn, it right up to 100 ill get the light that i want – and you know the audio doesnt matter, but the ninja 300, if youre in a Studio setting like i am where all front lights are about six feet away from me, which is about three or two about two meters. You can hear the fan and when you first turn on it defaults to high, you can change it. You have to go into setup, so you have to hold down the, i believe its the mode button. Then you press it twice once you get into setup, then you tap the dial button until you get the level you want and it your choices are low, medium and high. You cant turn it off. Now, if youve been watching some other videos about the ninja 300, the current version that they have that theyre producing that theyre shipping out doesnt, allow you to turn it off. So when you first turn it on it defaults to high and the app they dont allow. You to change the fan, speed and the app and thats kind of annoying. So as soon as you turn it on, you have to change it if you dont want it on high and heres the situation so where im shooting right now in my studio, theres carpet everywhere, so it helps absorb the sound ive got insulation behind me, which further Absorbs the sound, so i dont really have any audio issues.

Both lights are six feet away. So ive got the cl100 here and right now, ive got the ninja 300 and its turned off and im going to turn it on shortly and test it out for you showing it letting you hear how it sounds on high medium and low and ill turn off. The ring light, so i dont over, expose this side of my face. One of the things i find is when im shooting in the studio setup im a one person show. I have a huge checklist of things i want to do and the fact that when i turn this light on, i have to then go into setup mode press a couple of buttons press. The dial button a few times, set it to low its just more steps that i have to go through so its not ideal for me and especially when they both cost around 199 dollars. I find that for the studio setting for me, its well not ideal, so lets go ahead and turn it on and im going to start it off the test in high mode, which is what it defaults to when it turns on all right. So its now on its set to 5600 and ive turned the ring light off, so you will notice a slight difference in the lighting, but this is more of an audio test, its not about calibrating it, because i would go through a whole other test for that.

Right now, i just want to test the audio, so its set on high lets. Listen for a minute now for me, its quite loud like its distracting how loud it is and what i noticed when i first started testing it out. Is it made me want to talk louder to talk over it, so i found that a little bit annoying all right lets, try it set to the middle mode or medium, so, the same color temperature only now its set to medium lets have a listen all right. Now lets go ahead and set it to low all right, so lighting is back to normal. When i first started this video, the cl 100 is at 5655 that hasnt changed. Ive got the ring, light back on at its normal intensity and color, and the ninja 300 is turned off now. I want to tell you about my experience, because i did several test edits. I took it upstairs and i started editing on the computer and when i start off editing the audio, i always have a headset on because im listening to hear how it sounds in the best scenario, if youre watching this on a bus or a plane or someplace, Where theres a lot of noise, and even if you have headphones on, you might not notice the audio at all. Coming from the ninja 300, when shooting in low mode, you might even havent, have trouble hearing it in high or medium.

But for me, while i was editing, i could definitely hear it in the low mode, not so much when i was talking, but if there was a pause like right there, you could definitely hear a slight hum. If this is for youtube, then you know most people, probably wouldnt notice a difference and you could probably get away with it. But if youre doing corporate videos or youre doing videos for people where they have a good audio system, youre not going to want that hum. The last thing you want is any hum in the video whatsoever, but high and medium was definitely an issue, but this is for one particular scenario: if youre shooting, like me, youre in a studio situation where you want to have quiet or you might be doing, asmr Type work the ninja 300 really isnt best for that now, if youre shooting outside forever forever, for example, i wouldnt really worry about it at all, because the ambient noise you get from shooting outside is going to more than drown out. The fan noise, if its on low or medium high, not so much and again, if youre, shooting outside youre, definitely going to up that density, where youre going to need to be able to put it at either high or medium. But you can probably have a little bit further away, theyre, both priced at about the same point and while they come with different attachments, so, for example, to put a diffuser on an umbrella diffuser on the ninja 300, you do need to have the vp.

Was it the vp05 yup the vp05 attachment, and then you can just easily thread the um attach the umbrella diffuser right through, which is the same way that i have the cl100 set up, and so i found them to be comparable in terms of price. They were pretty comparable in terms of the capabilities, but i do like the ninja 300, how it gives you a wider temperature range and that might make a difference, but where the audio doesnt matter in any way whatsoever is where youre shooting in scenarios where youre not Capturing the audio youre doing product shots or product video, youre, doing food, photography or video, where you dont really care about the audio in any way whatsoever and if youre doing stills and youre not doing any video work. Well, who cares about the audio its not going to get in the way its not really going to be annoying, but for studio work? I would go the cl 100 over the ninja 300 um nine times out of ten well pretty well, every every chance i was given because its quiet, i cant, even hear it now this studio, the ambient temperature is around 65 degrees fahrenheit, which is about 17 celsius. It rarely gets over about 68 or 18 degrees, so i dont really worry about ive, never heard it. As i told you at the beginning of the video, i just dont hear the audio from this thing. I dont hear the noise from it the only time this one does make a lot of noise is when im upstairs and im doing product shots and because the lighting is a little different ill.

Put this thing all the way up to 100 percent and, of course, the fan, because its got a smart mode, itll automatically ramp up the fan to protect the unit. It also is a little bit bigger and i think its got more. Its got an ability to cool it, a little quicker, but also the frequency of the ninja 300, its a higher pitch and that kind of really gets in the way. When i set out to do a video, a review video, i never really know how things are going to go and what i always hope for is, i hope, for a scenario where im going to fall and love the product and im going to be happy about It and im going to recommend it to you, because i always find that easier to do, but when i first started out doing this review, i turned it on and i thought oh, my god that fan noise is loud, so i figured out a way to turn It down and i watched some other videos where say you could turn it off, and i thought well okay. That sounds a little risky to me, but lets try it out. Well, in the version i have which is 2.1, you cant turn it off anymore. Now there are some videos out there which show you how to take it apart and disconnect some wires from the pcb. So the fan wont turn on. I dont recommend that the reason why the company forces it on high is they dont want to put it in a situation where it could burn out now they have to replace it so setting it on high and not being able to turn the fan off should Tell you something: the fan is there and its important to keeping the product working time after time, but if only they had to put in some sort of automatic or smart mode like the cl 100 to be able to operate at 25 db, which is actually quite Low and in quiet mode to be able to operate at 10 db to be able to ramp up as needed.

I really kind of fall in love with this, because this is one of those lights where i dont really have to think about it. I dont have to its its like angel bird, its like final cut pro its its like several technologies that i purchased. They work so well that i just dont think about them and thats very important to me. I have i have one two: seven. I have nine lights that i have to turn on for every video, and sometimes i forget to turn on that one or that one or that one uh this one. I never forget, because its kind of blurring me right in the eye ive got multiple points of audio ive got to make sure ive got the camera set up that its framed properly, because i quite often take the r5 off and take it with me in different Places put it back on and i got to frame it up right, theres, so many checklists that i have to do and of course is the audio on am recording ive, actually screwed, that up too and believe it or not. The other day i forgot to turn the ninja on, and now i know what youre thinking. How could you not know the ninja is not on when you have that big red recording button no tally light on the r5, but the ninja more than makes up for that it just happens sometimes. So this was one of those videos where i was really hoping to say.

You know, i think the ninja 300 is a great light, its just as good as a cl 100 and in certain scenarios it is but for those studio situation. I was kind of disappointed and i was really hoping that i could replace my ring light. Put that back upstairs, because i stole it from my wife. She does like cosmetic type, stuff and um. So, sadly, because of the audio from the fact that i have to hold down the mode button press, the dial press, the mode button twice to get to where the fan is then tap the dial button twice to get it to low. To have to do that. Every time i know its not a lot of work, but still its annoying and even in low mode, its a little bit loud. So i hope this video does help. You understand the difference between these two lights and which one might be better for you at 199. I think theyre a really really great value, thats 199.99, for each light. I have experimented with all sorts of light. Ive got a bunch of godox flat panels and theres one right above me. So ive actually got 10 lights, its just amazing how many lights i have for the studio. Ive got two more here that i dont use. I used to have them out in front, but they didnt work as well as a cl 100 with a diffuser on it. So i keep them as spares in case this goes or in case.

One of these guys go, and i need to put in another light lighting is one of the most important things and even now, im talking a little bit loud, because the cameras six feet away. Seven feet away and its like im projecting its like when youre on the phone. I raise my volume because youre so far away and having that fan noise even on low it had me almost not quite shouting, but you know when youve heard somebody theyre on the phone theyre right there with the phone and theyre shouting like the persons 20 feet Away thats what i noticed i started doing with the ninja 300, but as far as issues i didnt have any it worked as designed. The manual was easy to follow. They have a manual that you can download. I didnt have any operational issues. It was just in that one scenario where im shooting in a studio. I found that the fan noise was well louder than i expected loud enough to the point where uh for studio work, id highly recommend the cl 100 once again over the ninja 300, and as an update to my review on that. When i did it about four months ago, it hasnt caused me any issues working in the studio, ive got a program mode set up, and then, when i go upstairs, i just adjust things to whatever i need to do for product shots and the product shots. I did at the beginning of this video again using that light its just very, very flexible and is very easy to operate.

The buttons on the mac make a whole lot of sense, no jumping through hoops to adjust the fan. In fact, it has a fan button. There and ive never touched it thats how ease of use this is ive, never had to worry about fiddling around with a fan, and we, like, i hope you can just in a future update. You – can provide some sort of automatic fan, feature uh. That would really really help. Then we dont have to worry about setting it to low and is low too low, or should i be setting it at medium and maybe a fan that doesnt have as high a pitch sound so when it does come on it, doesnt make as much noise but Thats it for now. Thank you so much for watching. If you have any questions about any of the tests or any of the products in this video go ahead and drop them in the description down below and ill get back to you shortly thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1MdTveaRMI