If you’re subscribed to this channel then you know that I recently wanted to upgrade my old CFL lights to newer LED style lights. In fact, in the spirit of new I ended up ordering a set of Neewer LED lights which cost me about $200 USD.
After receiving them I was shocked at just how bad the quality was, even after exchanging my first set because it had some broken plastic pieces in the kit.
I was honestly quite devastated because I knew that I was ready to upgrade to something a bit more professional but something like the popular Aputure 120d was just completely out of my price range at a whooping $745 USD for just the light.
That’s when I ran across a light people were calling the budget-friendly Aputure 120d, the Godox SL-60W. It was a bit more than I was looking to spend but I decided to pull the trigger as I just couldn’t find anything in the $200 range that included 2 lights and didn’t seem like it was going to be a complete waste of money!
The Godox SL-60W cost me just $134 USD per light compared to the $745 USD I would have spent on an Aputure 120d.
But the real question is, is it any good and how does it actually compare to an Aputure 120d?
Well, let’s roll the intro and jump in to the review!
ROLL THE INTRO
If you’ve ever watched any of my reviews on this channel than you know I’m not big in to going over the technical details of products. I do like to run through the specs real quick but then I like to dive in to my experiences with the product as I think that’s what actually helps people decide if a product is the right buy for them or not.
Also, there are tons of videos out there that can go over the specs and even validate with tools those specs and whether they live up the claims presented by companies.
So with that said, let’s run through the claimed specs from Godox and then jump directly in to my experiences with the lights after using them for about a month thus far.
The SL60-W is a daylight balanced light sitting at 5600K with a 60 watt chip on board led light. This is loosely equivalent to a 600W Incandescent or 300W halogen bulb.
The brightness of the LED can be adjusted from 100% down to 10%. I’m not sure why they limit you to 10% as the Aputure 120d is able to adjust down to 1% output, however, this hasn’t been an issue at all for me and 10% is able to get the light dim enough for any needs I’ve encountered thus far.
It has a CRI of 95+, a TLCI of 90+, and a R9 of 90+. Basically this means that the light causes colors to be accurate to real life and the light won’t cause colors to look differently on video. All of these ratings are considered in the excellent range and while others have talked about a magenta hue to the lights or other weird quirks like flickering, I’ve personally had zero issues with either of the two I purchased!
It has an LCD panel on both the light as well as the included remote which allows you to operate 6 different groups of lights over 16 different frequencies.
Some reviews made complaints about the fan noise that these lights produce, however, Godox in their newer versions of this light has seemingly addressed this issue and the fans are much quieter. I ordered two of these lights and neither have a fan that I would consider to be loud.
They use the Bowen’s mount system for attaching accessories, like softboxes, which is the industry standard which is a huge plus in my opinion!
Lastly, unlike the Aputure 120d they don’t include any kind of power brick and simply have a nice long cord which is approximately 15-20 feet long!
And that’s about it for the specs of this light which then leads me to the actual review and my experiences with using these lights for about a month as I said earlier.
Let’s just get this out of the way first before anything else… the question most people are wondering if they’re watching these reviews. Are these just as good as the Aputure 120d lights? Can you really get the same light that costs $745 dollars for $134? FUCK NO! I mean come on…duh…
Of course the Aputure 120d is built better, doesn’t use as much plastic, allows you to dim the light down a bit further, get’s a bit brighter at it’s max brightness, etc.
But here’s the more important question. Is there any reason to spend the extra money for those couple extra features?
Let me put it another way… you could break the Godox six times and replace it before reaching the cost of the Aputure 120d… for just a bit better dimming potential and a bit more brightness and build quality…
The question I think most people actually are asking is which is the better buy? Which is the best bang for the buck? And the answer without a doubt is the Godox SL60-W. Easily…
This light is phenomenal. It’s amazing… It’s the bees knees as the youngsters are saying! Don’t believe me, just watch any other of the dozen or so reviews of this light on YouTube. It’s hard to find anyone shitting on this light.
Outside some very specific use cases, like shooting in high frame rates, 120fps or 240fps, where you can’t get the light close enough to the object your shooting and would actually need the additional brightness the 120d provides, they are almost identical in real world performance.
And… if you needed more power, simply get the Godox SL100-W, SL150-W or the SL200-W! Even the highest watt version, the SL200-W, is only $399 USD compared to the $745 Aputure 120d…
I was able to pick up each light, with a stand and a Godox softbox for about $200 USD. If you compared that to the 120d with a stand and an Aputure softbox you’d easily be looking at $900 – $1000 USD in total cost.
Are there some downsides to this light? Sure, but there’s downsides to the Aputure 120d as well. No product is ever 100% perfect. There are always things people wish were better with any product they buy, but for the price, you are getting an absolutely amazing product.
But, for the sake of appeasing the masses, let’s discuss some of the downsides to the SL60-W.
The handle to tighten the light in place is made of plastic and sometimes feels a bit cheap like you could break it by overtightening it, however, I’ve not actually seen anyone who has broke theirs and you can replace the handle with a metal one for a small fee…
The remote and light don’t stay in sync. So for example if you have the light set at 100% brightness and the last time you used the remote you had it set to 25% brightness, when you press the remote button to lower the brightness, it will not go down to 99% but instead will go down to 24%. While it’s a bit of a pain the simple solution is to use one or the other and don’t alternate between them.
Also, if you turn the light off using the remote, it doesn’t actually power off, the LCD screen and the fan on the light will still run. The only way to fully power down the light is to use the actual power switch on the back of the unit.
There are also some reviews out there that when using the remote the lowest you can adjust the brightness is to 25%, as with the fan, I think this is something Godox changed with the newer versions of the light as I’m able to adjust my brightness with the remote the entire range of 100% down to 10%.
The downside is, there is no way to tell when buying one of these lights if you are getting an older version with the older fans and remotes, or if you’re getting a newer version where they addressed some of these issues so I’d highly suggest purchasing these lights from somewhere you can easily return them if needed.
These lights can not be run off batteries which the Aputure 120d can so if you’re traveling a lot with these and may need lighting where you don’t have a readily available power source, that could be a downside, however, you could buy this version and the battery only version and still be less money than the 120d.
Lastly, speaking of traveling, some people complain that the SL60-W doesn’t come with a carrying bag like the Aputure 120d, but I don’t consider this a negative. If you need a bag, the savings more than pays for it and if you don’t because you’re lights stay pretty stationary like mine, then you’re getting the best bang for your buck by Godox cutting costs where they can.
For myself, the pros of this light far outweigh any of the negatives and I’d happily buy this light again and again. I purchased two of these with light stands and Godox softboxes for approx $400 USD. Still well below the cost of just one light from Aputure without even a single stand or softbox and I couldn’t be happier.
It is by far one of the best budget-friendly products I’ve purchased in a long time!
Of course I’d love to see some of the issues I mentioned fixed, but it seems Godox is already listening by addressing the issues both with the fans and remote being able to fully dim the light.
Also, they have already released a version two of their SL100, SL150 and SL200 lights which features a better clamp for tightening down the lights which means we could be seeing a version two for the SL60 coming soon!
I’ll link these lights down in the description as well as the light stands and softboxes I purchased for them and may even do a review of the softboxes at some point as I think they were a great fucking value as well!
If you have any questions at all, I’m happy to answer them in the comments below, but I can almost promise you that if you purchased these lights over something like the 120d, you’ll be completely satisfied with your purchase and have no regrets.
Thanks so much for watching and if this video helped you out please consider leaving a like as that helps me out in the YouTube algorithm and if you enjoy videos related to technology, gaming and content creation consider subscribing and ringing the bell to be notified when I post new videos!
And until next time… peace out everybody!