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Godox is stepping up to compete with Aputure with the new M600D 600W Bowens mount LED light

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First teased in October at the P&I Shanghai International Wedding Photographic Equipment Exhibition, the Godox M600D presents what appears to be Godox stepping up to the plate to take on the likes of Aputure and Nanlite. Well now, it’s been announced. Sort of. Information still seems to be a little patchy, but European Godox distributor, Disnet has just posted a teaser video for it to YouTube.

At 600W, it’s going to be a pretty beasty light and even last month we could see that it used an external control unit and isn’t the all-in-one system of other Godox lights like the FV200 and SL200. It doesn’t look like there’s any word on a price yet, but for comparison, the Nanlite Forta 500 retails for $1,299 and the Aputure Light Storm 600D Pro is $1,890. As well as the video, a few new photos of the light have popped up, too.

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Nanlite PavoTube II 30X is a light tube to rule all light tubes

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Another day, another tube light. And today, we are looking at the Nanlite PavoTube II 30X, a four feet (114cm) tube light. The 30X is an upgraded version of the Nanlite PavoTube 30C. The main difference is support at pixel lever lighting, but there are more improvements like wider CCT range, better build, and Bluetooth support. Hit the jump to read our full review.

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Spotted in the wild – Godox is releasing a 600W Bowens mount LED light

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At the P&I Shanghai International Wedding Photographic Equipment Exhibition Godox were showing off some new toys, including a powerful 600 Watt Bowens mount LED light with external ballast. The show was actually in July, although the photos from the show seem to have only just come to light.

The images were posted as part of a series to the website Wakwb, which appears to be some kind of blog or social network based in China. Most of the images show the Godox stand and the usual equipment we’re familiar with, but two of them showed a Godox M600D light and what appears to be an M600D-CL ballast and controller.

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DIYP reviews the IWATA master tube lights series

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Tubelights are becoming ever more popular. The last player to join the game is IWATA (whom we remember for their excellent mini panel). Actually, the mini panel was so good and ubiquitous that “IWATA panel” became a generic name for those mini bi-color lights. It seems that that panel was retired, but we were thrilled to learn that IWATA is now making tube-style lights. They sent us two of their new light panels, the 32 cm Master-R light and the 23 cm Master-S light. TL;DR – we were impressed.

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Nanlux introduces The Evoke 1200 – a 1200 Watt LED Spot Light

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After a 600-Watt light from Aputure and a 700 Watt from Maxima, Nanlight is introducing a 1200 Watt beast – the Evoke 1200 LED Spot Light. And it truly is a beast. Under the square body lies a 1200 Watt COB LED. It will offer either daylight (6500K) or tungsten (To be announced) flavors. While you probably want the light to be Bi-color, you have to remember that with Bicolor lights each of the temperatures gets half the surface. The Evoke 1200 is using the entire LED chip. As with most COB lights, this light has a 120 degrees angle and a proprietary modifier mount.

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Litepanels announces the new Gemini 1×1 Hard with its brightest output yet

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Litepanels has announced their new Gemini 1×1 Hard RGBWW LED panel. Litepanels says it’s “the brightest and most accurate 1×1 light ever”, which is a pretty bold claim, but boasting a bright 3,000 lux at 3 metres (10ft) with a 46° beam angle there might be something to it. It has 0.1-100% flicker-free dimming at any frame rate or shutter angle, wired or wireless DMX and Bluetooth remote control and can be powered by either 100-240VAC or a DC input from 13-33 volts.

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Maxima 3 LED spot announced – Maxima 7 sunlight simulator LED spot finally available to buy

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This one’s taken a while. Initially announced in February 2020 to much fanfare, the Maxima 7 LED spotlight is now available to buy. And it’s brought a little one with it, the Maxima 3. All the specs of the Maxima 7 were previously released at launch, and you can see those here, so let’s talk about the new Maxima 3.

The Maxima 3 is a 300W COB LED light with a CRI of 96+ and a TLCI of 97. It’s available in two versions that are either tungsten or daylight balanced, with a COB LED life of 50,000 hours. As with the Maxima 7, the Maxima 3 LED contains a focusable 8″ Fresnel lens and accepts Bowens mount modifiers.

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The DigitalFoto Tree Frog is an awesome pocket LED light for small products and macro

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Over the last few years, I’ve become a big fan of small pocket-sized LED lights. They used to not be as good as they are now, offering pretty limited functionality and they just didn’t produce great colour. But LED tech has come a long way since in a few short years, leading us to where we are today with products like the Digitalfoto Tree Frog.

I have two DigitalFoto Tree Frog lights that I’ve been using to light my 3D printer for live streams and for shooting small product photos and b-roll. We’re still in lockdown here, so that’s pretty much all I can point my cameras at right now. One of Tree Frogs I have is a pre-production model and the other is a final retail version. For this review, I’m only going to focus on the retail version.

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The Godox ML60 – The ultimate lightweight and portable interview light?

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The Godox ML60 is an interesting little light. I say little because it’s similar in size to the company’s AD300Pro strobe, which is really tiny. The ML60 isn’t a strobe, though. It’s a 60 Watt continuous LED light and it can be powered either from an AC adapter in the studio or a pair of NP-F style batteries out on location.

For its size, it puts out a whole heck of a lot of light, and with the Godox S2 modifier, you can use it with Bowens S mount modifiers. It’s also near-silent, too, which has been a big problem with a lot of LED lights over the last few years. But how good is it? Let’s take a look.

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Litepanels has announced a brighter Lykos+ bicolour LED panel

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Litepanels has today announced their new Lykos+ Mini LED panel. They describe it as a broadcast-quality bicolour light with 40% more light output than the previous generation, claiming over 2,000 lux (@3ft) of accurate white light at any colour temp from 3200K up to 5600K. It incorporates the lensing tech from its larger 1×1 Astra siblings, with a CRI of 96, but weighing a mere 1lb.

If the weight and the “Mini LED” descriptor hadn’t given it away, it’s a small and compact light, designed for use in remote locations or in tight spaces. They say it offers up to two hours of operation off a Sony NP-F style battery (presumably an NP-F970), and comes either on its own or in a kit including three lights, stands, filters, softboxes and Pelican case.

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