The Ultimate Godox SL60W Review!
So more and more people have been reaching out over the last few months about the Godox SL60W as well as a number of other popular LED video lights on the market right now. In our opinion, the Godox SL60W is without a doubt one of, if not the best LED video light available at the time of writing for its price point and it has managed to earn itself an excellent reputation amongst the community that is just getting better and better with each passing month.
Now, as we have seen so many requests for a dedicated Godox SL60W review, we have decided to publish our dedicated review of the lighting unit as the subject of today’s article. Our goal is to try and help as many of our regular readers as possible while also helping anyone who finds our content via Google or social media too. We know that a large number of people are interested in the light with many considering adding it to their collection of camera accessories so we truly hope that we are able to help.
Now, unlike many other popular camera accessories that we have reviewed over the years, the Godox SL60W is pretty unique in the fact that it has no real competition at its price point. The excellent performance, solid build quality, great reputation, and low price tag seem to have deterred any real competition from other brands so the SL60W just continues to dominate.
Now, we have a small number of people trying to compare the Godox SL60W to a professional level lighting unit like the Aputure 120t that depending on the retailer you purchase the units from, can be more than five times the price of the Godox SL60W! As you can probably imagine, comparing a very budget-friendly, entry-level lighting unit like the Godox SL60W to a relatively expensive, professional-level lighting unit like the Aputure 120t is far from fair.
That said though, in all fairness to Godox, the SL60W actually does a solid job of outperforming many of the intermediate lighting units on the market while keeping the price tag of the SL60W as low as possible. In addition to this, we have also seen a number of reports saying that they feel that the Aputure 120t is a better option than the SL60W but nowhere enough to warrant a price tag almost five times higher. This is why we feel that the Godox SL60W presents such a great little bargain that is a solid investment for your camera accessories.
Performance And Functionality
The next generation LED bulbs on the SL60W ensures that you are getting the highest possible brightness output without having to use a ton of power. Additionally, the LED bulbs are excellent at providing a steady, stable, and consistent light source to illuminate your subject in low light conditions. Depending on what you are using your SL60W for, this can help to improve your image quality and reduce the amount of post producting editing that you will need to do with your work.
The Godox SL60W also has a color rendering index of over 95, its R9 is 90 and its TLCI(Qa) is over 90 while also having a color temperature of 5600. This ensures that the lighting unit illuminates your subject authentically and without that slight blue or yellow tint that some tungsten lighting units can produce.
If you are looking for a cheap, great quality cinema lighting unit for videography or vlogging then the Godox SL60W is a solid option. You can easily mount additional camera accessories to the lighting unit via its Bowens mount too such as softboxes to help customize the output of the light to meet your needs during your specific session as required.
When you take all of this into account as well as how cheap the Godox SL60W actually is, it really is not surprising that it has proven to be such a massive hit within the community. It is obvious to see why the customer base for the SL60W just keeps growing at an almost exponential rate as well as why so many members of the community have decided to publish their own glowing, independent review of the SL60W too. If you have the time then skimming over a few of those reviews offer some solid insight into the performance of the unit from people who use it on a regular basis as their go-to lighting unit of choice over an extended period of time.
User Interface And Control System
On top of this, the included wireless remote control allows you to tweak the various settings on the lighting unit remotely making your life as easy as possible when using the Godox SL60W as your lighting solution. The wireless system on the light can support up to sixteen channels spread across six different groups allowing you to smoothly integrate the Godox SL60W into a multi-flash setup if required with ease.
The LCD panel on the lighting unit is bright and very easy to read allowing you to quickly and easily see the data that it is displaying in low light conditions. As you will likely be working in low light when using the SL60W, this is another little feature that scores the light points over the competition at this price point in the market. Most compeating lighting units around this price point either simply don’t have an LCD panel or the backlight is so dull that it is a nightmare to see the displayed data in low light conditions.
Now, the Godox SL60W does support the automatic saving of settings but unfortunately, the actual lighting unit and remote have different saved modes. This means that if you set your brightness with the remote control and then try to tweak it with the physical controls on the lighting unit, the light will switch to the saved controls on the actual physical light rather than allow you to tweak your settings from what you set with the remote.
Although this can definatley be a pain, no lighting unit is perfect and considering how many strong points the SL60W has over the competition we feel that this can be overlooked. One workaround that the community has come up with is to simply tweak their Godox SL60W settings using just the remote control or physical user interface during use. This ensures that you are always working from the same set of saved settings and serves as an easy workaround for the problem.
All in all though, for the price point, we feel that Godox has managed to do a great job when it comes to the user interface for the Godox SL60W. We are confident that anyone new to using a lighting unit will be able to quickly get to grips with it while any experienced lighting unit user will be able to get everything that they need out of it too.
Build Quality And Design
This ensures that you can easily mount the SL60W anywhere you need it for optimal lighting of your subject without having to worry about exceeding the payload weights of your stands or booms as it is only around 3.75 pounds of payload weight. Its small dimensions come in at 7.9 x 8.5 x 5.3 inches too ensuring that if you do have to travel around with your kit on a regular basis, you can pack your SL60W without having to use much of your available space too.
Now, we love that Godox put such a high priority on heat dissipation for all of their gear as overheating issues can be very common problems with entry-level flash and lighting units. Over the years, Godox has managed to develop their own systems to ensure that their products have maximum heat dissipation without having to increase the size of the units or increasing their price tag.
The SL60W has a maximum usable temperature of seventy degrees before it should have any issues with heat. Now, from what we can see, most people seem to report that their SL60W fluctuates between forty and fifty degrees during use depending on what they are doing and maintains these temperatures over long periods of time with ease. This can offer you some peace of mind that you can use your SL60W on those long, extended sessions without running into problems due to any heat build-up.
Now, we have seen a number of people comment on how you can hear a slight hum from the Godox SL60W during use due to its fan kicking in as soon as it is powered up. Although we do agree that this can be a little annoying and Godox should have included an internal timer so the fan only kicks in when heat build-up is detected, after five to ten minutes of use a professional level lighting unit like the Aputure 120t will be making just as much noise as the SL60W anyway.
Another advantage of the Godox SL60W that also holds true when compared to the higher price point professional level lighting units is that the SL60W is a single, self-contained unit that has one single power plug. The vast majority of other video LED lighting units to have additional ballast, power bricks, and cables that end up taking up a bunch of space on your location and can present a trip hazard too. The quick and easy set up on the SL60W and lack of additional items while still offering excellent performance is a solid advantage that makes it a great option.
Our Verdict
That brings our Godox SL60W review to a close and as you can probably tell from the article, we really do feel that the Godox SL60W is a total steal and well worth every cent. At this price point, we feel it presents an outstanding bargain that is well worth adding to your collection of camera accessories. If you are still on the fence then you don’t have to take our word for it either, the SL60W has a ton of excellent, independent reviews that have been posted by thrid-party users that show off just how well this great little light has been received by the wider community.
