Godox 150W Video LED Light

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Godox 150W Video LED Light

Post by mawyatt »

We've received the Godox 150W 16,000 lumen 5600K LED Video light here at Mike's Labs, and did some quick tests to verify the output. This is the brightest continuous source light I've ever seen, like looking at a Xeon strobe that is continuous!!

This light is a standard studio type mount and uses the popular Bowen modifier mount for modifiers, reflectors and soft boxes.

We created a special setup with a test subject (1/8 watt axial resistor), a Mitutoyo 5X with the Wemacro Lens kit (Raynox 150) and a Nikon D850. Used the camera metering to set the proper exposure for each data set for consistency, rather than rely on my eye!! No diffusion was used, and little external light was allowed (darkened room). The light source was placed as close as practical to the resistor test subject, typical of what would be a close-in macro setup. The smaller IKEA light (Cree XPE) allowed a closer positioning, 60~70mm (LED surface to resistor) vs. Godox ~170mm with standard Bowens reflector and ~220mm for the Godox with Bowens snoot.

For starters we used the Cree XPE 220 lumen LED module in an IKEA light, and used ISO from base to 800 while changing the shutter speed for proper exposure. Here's the results.

Cree 220 Lumen LED, Godox 150W 16000 Lumen with reflector, & Snoot at 50% output

ISO - Shutter -Shutter (Standard Reflector) -Shutter (Snoot)
64 1/8 1/250 1/80
100 1/13 1/400 1/160
200 1/25 1/800 1/320
400 1/50 1/1600 1/640
800 1/100 1/3200 1/1250

The "standard reflector" is the supplied reflector with light.

The "snoot" was a standard black anodized aluminum Bowens type ~200mm snoot with inside lined with aluminum foil.

These results somewhat confirm the Godox as a ~16,000 lumen source, note the Godox was held constant at 50% output. A quick test did confirm that 100% was in fact twice the 50% output.

So a ~1ms exposure at low ISO seems reasonable with 3 Godox lights and some light diffusion.

The fan is audible but not annoying, however it does force air out the front of the light which may be a serious problem for some folks. Someone might be able to reverse the airflow by flipping the fan over, but not sure what effect this has on airflow and cooling. There is a lot of power being generated and dissipated in the LED module and heatsink around the Bowens mount.

Anyway, we liked these so much just ordered 2 more!!

Edit:

Here's hands on data collected with a Sekonic L-308DC light sensor. The Godox light with standard supplied reflector was placed 1 meter above the L-308 light sensor and the sensor was setup with the proper "Lumindisc" for reading light intensity in Lux. The ambient light was recorded at 53 Lux. Multiple readings were made and the results consistent as displayed. The Bowens mount reflector supplied with the Godox Studio Strobe 300 was also used, this is a slightly smaller reflector.

Standard Godox SL-150W reflector 180mm diameter by 120mm deep.
Smaller Reflector 160mm diameter by 100mm deep.

SL-150W placed 1 meter above L-308 sensor.

Output setting in %, -Standard Reflector Reading in Lux - Small Reflector Reading in Lux

10-1200-700
20-2200-1200
30-3200-1800
40-4200-2200
50-5000-2700
60-6000-3200
70-7000-4000
80-8300-4500
90-9000-4800
100-10,000-5500

1 Lux is equal to 1 lumen per square meter.

The specifications on the SL-150W output at 1 meter are 7200 Lux and 16000 lumens. Apparently this particular SL-150W is over achieving :D

A detailed inspection of the design and construction is typical modern Godox strobes, very well designed and made.

What is particullary interesting about the overall design is that the ~100mm square cooling fan is located just behind the massive heatsink the large LED COB is mounted on. There is ~100mm of empty space between the back of the fan and the main power supply which sits sideways across the case and is only ~50mm deep and another 50mm space to the main circuit board which mounts directly to the light rear sideways across the light (typical Godox design). Lots of empty space in the case. The LED COB has ~308 LEDs and is a large ~34 x 34mm active surface area.

I suspect that this SL-150W light has undergone an upgrade and still using the same original case with so much empty space. The electronic design looks to be a high frequency switch-mode constant current type with a very efficient switch-mode power supply and with a higher output LED COB. Switch mode power supply design experience revels the frequency can be judged by the physical size of the magnetics and inversely related and also to the main filter capacitor physical size. At 100% output the temperature indication is ~52C with room temperature of ~25C, so only a 27C rise....very good heatsink design and implementation. If there was a previous version this may have used a less efficient LED COB, requiring a more massive power supply which was also less efficient, this would help explain the empty space in the case.

With a similar setup we confirmed the IKEA LED light with the Cree XPE 220 lumen LED is ~220 lumen source. This test was done by projecting the light to create a ~1.13 meter diameter spot and reading the intensity with the L-308 light sensor. Readings were 200~240 Lux with a ambient of 7 Lux, since a 1.128 meter circle has a 1 square meter area, the Lux converts directly into lumens.

Also did a ratio test with the IKEA located at the same 1 meter height above the L-308 light sensor as the SL-150W, this produced a reading of ~120 (127-7) Lux which equates to 220(10,000/120) or 18,333 lumens (SL-150W spec is 16,000).

Anyway, very pleased with this video LED source and ready for some macro use! Only issue may be the fan, which forces air out the front of the light around the LED COB heatsink, and at full power this is quite a bit of heat.


Best,

IKEA light with Cree XPE 220 lumen LED
Image


Godox 150W Light with 16,000 lumen LED
Image
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Post by mawyatt »

Update on this Godox LED light.

Below are images of the light disassembled to study the design. Note the case is a heavy extruded aluminum frame and the massive copper cored heat sink the LED COB directly mounts on. The copper core resides inside a larger 90mm diameter finned heatsink which has a 95mm dia fan directly attached behind. This assembly securely bolts directly to the extruded case front.

The LED COB is a Lighten LTHX1230 -150-06 mounted inside a custom case with protective thin clear glass cover. These COBs can produce up to 190 lumens per watt and are nominal 36 volt at 4.5 amps.

The power supply is a switch mode type that is configured as current mode operation. Optical output commands are issued by the main control/interface PCB and range from 10-100%. Measurements show an LED COB voltage from 29 to 32.73 volts for 10-100%, this will vary some as the LED COB heats up since it's operating under constant current control (current is controlled not the voltage, the COB voltage changes to keep the current at the defined set value). The power supply has two multi-trim pots for setting the minimum and maximum LED COB output. Since the temperature only rises to ~ 52C during 100% output and the LED spec has a maximum of 4.62 amps continuous current, one might be tempted to "crank up" the output (see below) :twisted:

LED COB temperature is sensed with a thermal sensor (2 wire thermistor) which is directly mounted to the LED COB case.

After studying the design it seems relatively easy to add a pulsed capability but this wouldn't directly allow quick outputs because the current control loop is likely a slow control loop and thus limits performance, so only slow responses are anticipated. A custom controller for this may be considered later.

While on a walk the idea of using the RF remote to turn ON and OFF the light by way of a strobe type input, basically just electronically "pushing" the Main Power ON/OFF button acting like a ON/OFF remote trigger. The idea would be to use this "feature" not to directly control the exposure like a strobe/flash (although one could do this), but use the camera for this as normal with continuous illumination and turn ON the light just before the exposure and OFF just after. The concept would allow the light temperature to be lower than continuous ON, but still deliver the required illumination as if the light was continuously ON. As mentioned above possibly opening the door for "cranking up" the light output without increasing the COB average temperature. :twisted:

Of course this involves risk, and not knowing the thermal design parameters and such is at best a guesstimate :roll:

The RF remote was disassembled to investigate the possibility using it as a remote "trigger". After a brief study the button is a simple shunt to ground type directly interfaced to the micro-controller, this should allow a similar type strobe trigger (normally open, trigger to close) using an Optical Isolator, or even a direct input from a RPi GPIO output with a series resistor.

It works!!! :D

The speed isn't quick, maybe something under 500ms, but useful in the mentioned operation scenario.

The actual voltage measurements of the Lighten LTHX1230 -150-06 LED COB compared to the data sheet hint that this may actually be a much higher output COB that has been "throttled back" to met the 150W output (16000 lumens) specification. More measurements should help evaluate this speculation.


Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
ImageImage
Image
Image
Image
Image
ImageImage


This is the LED COB output radiation pattern, note the very broad range.

Image
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

bralex
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:34 am
Location: New Mexico, USA

Re: Godox 150W Video LED Light

Post by bralex »

Sorry to revive an old thread. I'm shopping for a Godox SL150W right now, and noticed the updated model claims 8X lux (58000 vs. 7200 @ 1m, specs from the Godox website) and better color rendition. Does that seem plausible? Partly, I'm wondering if your test was on an "interim" model that had - as you noted - a higher spec LED than the original.

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Re: Godox 150W Video LED Light

Post by mawyatt »

Yes it could have been the newer model, but without getting another SL-150W now, have no way of knowing. We have 3 and they are all the same, and use the LED COB & heatsink shown above and the hefty power supply shown, all well above what you would expect. They also work nice in flash strobe mode with the custom controller.

Edit: Took a quick look and the SL-150W II is the new version, it uses a different LED COB and case, plus a quieter fan. It also cost $339, whereas the SL-150W was ~$200. According to this video, the output power is about the same.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... 5QP-AQB17x

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

kaleun96
Posts: 270
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Re: Godox 150W Video LED Light

Post by kaleun96 »

Nice to stumble across this thread again as I just picked up the Godox SL-60W. While not as the same as this one, it's good to know Godox's claims hold up and to have some data on the output with different attachments.
The "snoot" was a standard black anodized aluminum Bowens type ~200mm snoot with inside lined with aluminum foil.
I'm curious about this and have a few questions. Background: I bought a snoot thinking it would help concentrate light into a spot, but it seems more accurate to say that it stops any light coming from the LED that is not parallel to the axis of the snoot. As your experiments show, the spot from a snoot is less intense than if you used the reflector.

I tried lining the snoot with aluminium tape but naturally got a lot of light escaping at all sorts of angles and the central spot didn't seem to be too much brighter. Did you do any tests with the snoot with and without thee aluminium foil? I will try do some today to see if it really does help.
- Cam

Peter M. Macdonald
Posts: 187
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:59 pm
Location: Berwickshire, Scotland

Re: Godox 150W Video LED Light

Post by Peter M. Macdonald »

I looked at the video which was linked in Mike's most recent post. Youtube took me down the rabbit hole to a more recent video by the same equipment reviewer. It seems that Godox have a new 150W LED video light, the UL150. This is silent. The video claims that it is cooled entirely passively. This would appear to solve the problem of hot air being blown anywhere near to the specimen. It will be interesting to read what the first person on here to get their hands on one has to say after testing.

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Re: Godox 150W Video LED Light

Post by mawyatt »

kaleun96 wrote:
Sun Jul 12, 2020 3:35 am
Nice to stumble across this thread again as I just picked up the Godox SL-60W. While not as the same as this one, it's good to know Godox's claims hold up and to have some data on the output with different attachments.
The "snoot" was a standard black anodized aluminum Bowens type ~200mm snoot with inside lined with aluminum foil.
I'm curious about this and have a few questions. Background: I bought a snoot thinking it would help concentrate light into a spot, but it seems more accurate to say that it stops any light coming from the LED that is not parallel to the axis of the snoot. As your experiments show, the spot from a snoot is less intense than if you used the reflector.

I tried lining the snoot with aluminium tape but naturally got a lot of light escaping at all sorts of angles and the central spot didn't seem to be too much brighter. Did you do any tests with the snoot with and without thee aluminium foil? I will try do some today to see if it really does help.

I did find the output slightly higher with the "snoot" lined with bright aluminum foil than without. However, the "snoot" does not concentrate the output as you indicate, basically just blocks the light from spreading.

I highly suspect that the small IKEA Jansjo LED modified with the much higher output LED COB, operating in pulse strobe mode puts as much light (maybe more) on the subject up close as using a snoot with the larger Godox LED.

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Re: Godox 150W Video LED Light

Post by mawyatt »

Peter M. Macdonald wrote:
Sun Jul 12, 2020 3:59 am
I looked at the video which was linked in Mike's most recent post. Youtube took me down the rabbit hole to a more recent video by the same equipment reviewer. It seems that Godox have a new 150W LED video light, the UL150. This is silent. The video claims that it is cooled entirely passively. This would appear to solve the problem of hot air being blown anywhere near to the specimen. It will be interesting to read what the first person on here to get their hands on one has to say after testing.

All the Godox/Adorama illumination devices we have don't mislead with specifications, basically equal or better than the specs. The SL-150W showed a significantly higher output than the specs indicated (and we tweaked it even higher :D ). I've been considering disabling the fan on the SL-150W when using pulse strobe mode since the LED temperature doesn't rise much, or better yet putting it under control by the stacking controller. Another option is turn the fan around so the air is pulled rather than pushed out of the mount head, which would significantly reduce the airflow around the subject.

Think the pulse strobe mode of LED operation is the best, the intensity isn't as high as a Xeon strobe, but enough to use in many cases. With the Godox SL-150W, disabling the fan (or reversing it) seems like a requirement for our macro use.

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

kaleun96
Posts: 270
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Re: Godox 150W Video LED Light

Post by kaleun96 »

mawyatt wrote:
Sun Jul 12, 2020 6:08 am
I did find the output slightly higher with the "snoot" lined with bright aluminum foil than without. However, the "snoot" does not concentrate the output as you indicate, basically just blocks the light from spreading.
I gave it another go yesterday, lining the snoot with the aluminium tape again (I took it off last time), and measured the results with my camera using the metering at the central spot of the frame. It didn't find a difference, i.e. at a fixed ISO the shutter speed remained the same. However the two images definitely show a difference so I've kept the aluminium tape in there for now. I'm also getting much less spread out the sides than I did before, I was more careful with its application this time :D

I have been using this light for some axial illumination setups so needed the bright concentrated spot of the light. The reflector does pretty well but spills a lot of light so I have to be more creative with blocking it from certain angles.
- Cam

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic