GVM 80W Video Light, Studio Lights for Photography, Softbox Lighting Kit with Bowens Mount, CRI97+ 5600K Colour Temperature , 22in Softbox, Tripod Stand, YouTube, Video, Wedding

This is a wonderful studio/photography/video (whatever) light to join the collection with. We actually have a number of these GVM lights and they all get along quite well. This one is no different. The light can get pretty bright and stand its ground within your setup. It's not the brightest, but those cost a little more anyway, so its to be expected. This is a good mid-range light (not nearly as dim as some of the ultra-affordable options that don't give much at all). The build of the light is pretty sturdy and operation involves one simple knob that turns it on and off and controls brightness as you continue to turn it. Setting everything up doesn't take much time. Tripod->light-> plugin it in! The softbox is what takes a little time to set up. At first, you might scratch your head on how it goes together, but the poles slide into the softbox enclosure with the end with the attached tip sliding through the loop and into the little black pockets toward the front of the softbox. The other end slides into the round holes of the mount. Run all of them around like this and you'll start forming the softbox out. Then attach the two diffuser sections (this part is obvious and needs no intel to accomplish). Then the mount spins and locks into place on the light. The tripod has good height to it, which should get you through most situations. Anything higher and you'd likely be hanging it from a bar or stick of truss. The tripod feels sturdy enough to take the weight of the light just fine. For what you get with this kit, we found this to be a good deal for an LED solution like this. It is really user-friendly and simple to use (no apps or anything, just turn it on). All-in-all, we really liked this light. **If you have found our review helpful, please vote it as helpful below so we know. This helps us to provide quality feedback in the future.

Disclaimer, I'm using this for shooting video. I'm an amateur and still learning about lighting. My use case is using this in a small office for shooting fitness videos. The office is about 15x10' and has one wall that allows some natural light through, but some days are pretty dark. The miniblinds need to be shut for privacy, so only a little light comes through. The light and stand seem to be well made. I'd say it's a solid value. Better than the super-cheap $60 light kits. No carry case, but you can disassemble to pack back into the padded cardboard box it was shipped in. The softbox is a bit of a pain to assemble. It comes with a link to a video showing you how to do it, but they make it look easier than it is. The video shows the woman installing the rods into the metal center ring first, then into the fabric. I found it much easier to do it the opposite way - fabric ends first, then into the center ring. The light is pretty bright. An 80W LED is equivalent of about 250W incandescent. I have now way to test this, but I'd say that's about right. Now this is half of the wattage I was getting from when I was using a 500W halogen shop lamp for my lighting, but it hasn't affected the footage as much as I thought. The camera has to adjust to lower light levels now, but I can't visually see the degradation in video quality. (I'm using two of these 80W lamps as I was using two of the 500W halogens). Now being able to adjust the light brightness (can't do that with the shop lamps), I had no idea how useful this would be in helping to reduce harsh shadows. This lamp has an LED readout of the level (0 to 100%). The included stand isn't pro-grade sturdiness, but it's not a flimsy piece of junk either. I was impressed at it's quality for the price. The power brick will dangle in the air if you extend the stand all the way up. I use some elastic hair ties and rubber bands to secure against the stand to support it and keep it from dangling. Probably some industrial velcro would work as well. The included power cord (from the brick to the outlet) is fairly long. Not mentioned in the description but included in the box was a waffle diffuser. I don't think I'll need it, but a nice addition. The fan is audible but not too loud. It has not been picked up by any of my microphones, but I'm also not standing right next to the light either. It seems that being just a couple feet away is good enough, even with an omnidirectional lavalier mic.

The light quality and output of this GVM 80W LED Light is really wonderful for the money. While the stand and case are adequate, they are not up to a lot of abuse. The included soft box, with optional double diffusion is a big addition in value. Color temperature is not adjustable, but brightness is adjustable. On the unit I received, the output is 5550K at full brightness and 5200K at about half brightness. The bigger brother of this light has all the features for color adjustment, along with a built-in transformer, but it also has a much, much louder fan at full output and not all that much more light. For the money, two of these, or this kit and another kit that has just the reflector and a small diffusion sock would be ideal. The light quality is so good as a main light that it makes iPhone, iPad and cheap cameras look remarkably good. Noise levels go down, sharpness goes up, and color rendering quality goes up. The main drawback of this light is that it has a fan that makes some noise. The noise is about the same as a laptop fan when the CPU on the laptop is working hard if the light is at full power. Fan noise goes down as one turns down the brightness. At full brightness, I measure <=38db at 7 feet from the light in a normal pretty quiet room -- which is about +1 over the room and I'm not sure if my reading is accurate. As fans go, this is very quiet. If you have your subject close to the microphones or you use directional microphones, you might be okay for most things. In normal recordings of acoustic guitar and talking, the fan is inaudible. That said, the fan IS there, and you will know of it when you are recording. The Bowen mount makes using traditional light modifiers, such as reflectors, easy and standard. Also, unlike larger LED arrays, this light, with a reflector attached, is pretty directional - it appears in the shot as a point light source instead of a used car lot at night. If this light holds up and does not fail early, I will bump the review to 5 star for value and light quality. In time, there will probably be fan-less versions of this light. My wish would be to have this light with a large heat sink and no fan, plus perhaps a built-in power supply. The 5600K color temperature is quite workable as it isn't too far from window light depending upon time of day and direction.

I really like GVM photography studio lighting products. In fact, for nearly all my indoor photo and video projects (and sometimes outdoors too) I use GVM lighting. This was my most recent acquisition, a 'softbox'. If there's only one lighting tool in your 'tool kit' this should probably be it. The soft box is used more often than any other light, because it's the most versatile. For it's size, it has brighter light than many panels, and can be adjusted for sharpness as well as intensity. In your studio, you will probably want to leave this one assembled and standing in the corner or somewhere out of the way. The 'dish' or the umbrella looking part is NOT easy to assemble and it takes a little time. Each rib must be fed through the fabric and stopped in the pocket. At first, the ribs might keep falling out of the hub (very loose fit). But, at the end, you will be straining to get them in place. The fabric is very taught and those fiberglass ribs are very stiff. The light is really bright at the high end. There are two diffuser panels. The large one that covers the entire reflective dish. And, a smaller one that just covers the lamp and still allows SOME brighter lighting from the dish. Then, using both of them together would soften the light much more. The electronics could get very warm. But, the lamp has it's own excellent, super quiet, built in cooling fan that prevents overheating. (Very nice!) The set comes with a carrying bag that is big enough for the cords, power pack, fabrics and ribs. And, the boxes are good enough to use for storage and even carrying to a remote location. I think that a carrying bag or case big enough to carry the whole kit would have been nice. The boxes WERE NOT DESIGNED for constant use like a bag or case would be. But, over all, I'd say that GVM has yet another great product to their line up, and my studio. I'm very pleased. Five stars.

I bought this to use for video work and one of the best features is that it is very quiet, with a barely audible fan. I used a db meter to check the fan loudness and with the meter right next to the unit it measured an average of 27db, which is very quiet. It is not noticeable if you are further away from the light and this makes it useful for quiet interviews in a studio. The light output is also very good, comparable to other units that are actually higher wattage. The control is very simple, a single dimmer knob. I love that it also has the Bowens standard mount so I can use my existing soft boxes and modifiers. GVM also has some great accessories. The kit comes with a small soft box and basic light stand. The box is a little time consuming to set up, so I just leave it set up all the time. It then quickly attaches to the light when needed. The light stand is very basic, but should work and hold up fine for light duty use. It makes a very portable location lighting kit for indoor supplemental light or main lighting (when used with fill light). I ordered another kit so I’ll have two units to take on location. Note that the light temperature (color) is fixed at 5600K which is natural daylight. If you need to match tungsten lamp lighting, you may want their more expensive model which has variable white balance and remote control too.

I purchased this light box to do remote and online music lessons. It was packaged very well but the instructions could be much better. There are good tutorials about how to set it up for the first time. A bit tricky but I usually keep it together, even when doing remote shoots. The build quality is fantastic. Many other boxes in this range have flimsy legs or don’t represent color well. I find that most shoots with this box require very little color grading or correction with plenty of natural contrast. This is honestly the cheapest you can go to get an entry-level professional unit. There are a few gripes though. The transformer is hanging off the floor when the stand is extended past about 5 feet. Not a deal breaker and expect to get a Velcro tie to secure it to the stand with some slack. Also the box can be frustrating if you decide to break it down fully and go to a different location. That being said, the actual light fixture is of fantastic quality with no heat. There is a fan that is audible on the full setting but honestly I’ve never picked it up on a recording. Overall, highly recommended! Extremely true and rich interpretation of color and will last a long time if you take care of it!

I am just assembling this light for the first time, so here are my thoughts based on that. First impression is that the light output is good, but the materials are definitely on the cheaper side. I would not want to be taking this light from location to location and trying to set it up and break it down on a regular basis. For someone who is setting up a vlogging setup at home or in a studio and going to leave it set up, I think this could work well. The chassis is mostly plastic and it wouldn't take a lot of moving around to find its weak spots. The soft box is OK for something basic. No chance of adding a grid or other modifiers to it. The dimmer doesn't give you a smooth ramp from dim tp bright. All of this means that if you are working in a small studio and need something for product shots or in-house interviews, etc. it can be very useful. Light output for $$ spent is unbeatable. And, yes, the fan noise is very low. That in itself makes it very useful in interview or talking head situations. It will work for my needs now, but I'll probably ultimately go for something a little sturdier later on.

One of my most disappointing purchases on amazon. I bought this because it seemed like a nice lamp with a nice soft box to go over it. The soft box they give you comes with 8 metal sticks and no instructions on how to set up the umbrella. So the shade that goes around my lamp basically hangs and sags because it is completely unclear were the metal framing goes to hold the lamp shade out and stiff. The light is also too bright, but it doesn't get dim. I have seen soft boxes that can be set so dim you can hardly tell their on and yet this one is either bright or eye searing...not dim at all The thing to be most upset about again is the awful soft box that comes with this light. I feel like I paid for an over priced lamp, some cloth, and some metal sticks.

Actually exceeded my expectations. Value for money

Putting together the softbox was a bit of a struggle. The available instructions show an older model. Once everything is put together, the colour of the light is great. Soft and very close to a white daylight. It's fairly bright too. However, after about a week or two of light indoor use, the bolt that tightens and holds the softbox at an angle has stripped and if I don't prop it up, the light goes limp and points straight down. After emailing and calling Customer Support, they were able to resolve the situation and send out a replacement part. If you're careful with it, then it might not break on you. If you are rough with your equipment, you might be better off getting something more rugged.

I initially thought allof the slots to slide the poles into on the softbox umbrella had been sewn shut. Not the case. The opening just blend in, black on black. The softbox is sturdy, app works brilliantly and customer service was quick to help me find the slots on the softbox

I purchased this light for product photography and videos for my food blog. The product looked great on the website, but the product was no where near what was advertised. To start things off, I was suspicious looking the package. It appeared damaged from the outside and moreover, was not sealed (Open-Box). Upon careful inspection, this may have been a returned product that was sold to me. The lamp itself appears to be okay in terms of brightness and build quality, but not worth the price. The worst part was assembling the soft-box, which was a nightmare. The soft box comes with 8 metal sticks and no instructions to set it up. There is a video on the product website shows a short video that is far from what is actually required to assemble the soft-box. After trying for almost an hour, I finally decided to look for help on Youtube, and was lucky to find a gentleman post a detailed video on the softbox installation. It took myself and my wife 30 mins to the box together. At the end of the day, it was an experience filled with frustration and painful fingers. Furthermore, the tripod is flimsy at best and can easily tilt and fall with the weight of the light. All in all, I would suggest looking at alternate products in this price range. The Godox SL-60W looks pretty impressive and I might give it a try.

It is good