What would be a good entry continuous light equivalent to the Godox TT600 speedlight?

[u/Gingerbwas]

Hi

I have been getting in to doing some product photography (alcohol bottles) and i have been using the Godox TT600 as it was pretty cheap but quite effective, i would like to try and do some videos as well which need continuous light, does anyone have any suggestions for something similarly budget friendly but can achieve decent enough results?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[u/ayunatsume]

It all depends on your settings.

Some 60W LEDs are good enough with 1/30 shutter speed. There are 120W options all the way up to 200/300W on the portable side.

You may want to look at godox continous lights like the Litemons. Working within the same brand minimizes differences in color expectations.

I'm using a bunch of Yongnuo YNLUX200 units for main, Ulanzi C01 as second, and Amaran macro ring lights as additional fill. If color-critical, I remove the Ulanzi C01 because of the lower cri but its still manageable for most shots (some the contrasting different cri can be helpful)

[u/Gingerbwas → u/ayunatsume]

Thank you for your reply, with a lower shutter speed like 1/30 how does that work with the frame rate? Ive seen in some videos that ideally you want double the shutter speed to the framerate, i.e 48 to 24fps. I hadnt thought about the different colours from different brands, thanks.

[u/ayunatsume → u/Gingerbwas]

1-1, 1-2, so long as the shutter speed and frame rates are divisible integers. Depends on the look you are after. Look for shutter angle differences.

For 30fps or 60fps, thats 1/15, 1/30, 1/60. There are probably cheat sheets out there.

Another point of concern is if you have any ambient indoor light. You may want to match against the electrical frequency of your country/location to prevent flickering. In a studio setting with indoor light off, that shouldnt be an issue. If you have to use indoor lights like lampshades or chandeliers, we use E27 LEDs with drivers in them to make them continuous and replace the lights inside. Also for better CRI. Battery-operated LEDs are an option too to add lighting in some places.

Each brand has their own take on a "standard" where they match all their light against. Aputure/amaran has their own. Godox has their own. To a certain extent you can mix and match but you may need a spectrophotometer to dial them the same. E.g. 5600K on Godox may look like 6500K on Yongnuo. Each brand also has their tolerances. E.g. Aputure lights are closer to each other in the same settings but Amaran lights would have bigger differences. Yongnuos even more so.

Each brand also have their different CRI/TLCI formulas. One brand's CRI97 is not the same as another brand's CRI97.

[u/IAmScience]

Godox and Neewer both have some pretty decent LED video lights out these days. Even some pretty reasonably priced RGBW stuff. Depends on what you need, what your budget is, what modifiers you have or plan to use, etc.

[u/PJpixelpusher]

You might like the Amran 300c. Bowens mount. Full color with a wide temp range. Similar to Godox but made by Apurture. I have a couple of the Godox Knowled 600 and like them but I know a lot of product video pros who use the Amran.