GVM SD300B AIO. Budget Light with Tons of Power
"AIO" in the GVM SD300B stands for "All In One". This is for a good reason as you'll see below. In fact it could be the reason you buy this light. It's very powerful & easy to set up as it has NO POWER BRICK!
I have quite a collection of studio and portable lights in my office now and admittedly, most of them were sent to me to review. But I still have them. That means that when I accept review products, it's because I think either myself of follower of All Things Photography will like and use them. The GVM SD300B AIO is no exception, except it comes with a caveat*...
GVM SD300B AIO at a Glance
For beginners and pro's, the pros may well outweight the cons
Pros
Cons
*My Caveat:
If you run a professional studio and are looking for an additional light to match with your existing lights, I would perhaps look at the Pro version of this light. The colour accuracy of the Pro is more reliable when matching with other set ups.
However, if you are a beginner to photography or video and on a budget, this super powerful SD300B AIO will inspire you and light pretty much any scene you find yourself in both indoors and out.
GVM SD300B AIO Features
The features on this COB light are fairly basic due to there being no RGB. You have the super powerful 10,980 Lumens lamp with a colour temperature range of 2700K to 6800K.
It's 12 presets are standard for a light in this price range and whilst some of the faster effects such as lightning or welding are a little lacklustre (and slow), there is more than enough there to be creative with on various shoots.
The Light Output
It is BRIGHT! Do not look directly at the light on full power. This means do not look at the light when taking off the reflector as I did! It took a good few minutes for my eyes to fully recover...don't do that!
I am impressed by the precision dimming control. Spin the control on the unit slowly and you will raise the power very slowly and controlled. Spin it fast using your thumb and you will go from off to 100% power in no time. Of course, using the app is even better.
I also like the lowest power being set at 0.1% with small increments throughout the range. Even at 0.1% you may still find this light bright enough for things such as outdoor, daytime fill light.
This light is SO bright at close quarters, I was getting shutter speeds of 1/15,000th sec at f5.6 and ISO 1000. This enabled me to freeze fast action with stills, and fast frame rate video (as seen in the video above).
Frame grab from video shot at 1/15,000th sec at f5.6 and ISO 1000
One downside is that the colour variance may need calibrating as other reviewers have noted the inaccuracies to those stated by GVM.
Size and Weight
The GVM SD300B AIO is a fairly large unit at 2.1kg but it is portable and quick and easy to set up. The fact that there is no power brick or added control unit hanging from the light makes it a great light to have but I would recommend buying a sturdy and reliable light stand.
Note: I "think" you are able to attach a V-Mount battery with an adapter (as per certain reviewers) but I cannot find one. They may have been inadvertently think of the Pro version so please check for yourself.
The weight of the light is because all that "gubbins" is already inside the housing and the supplied cable is thick, durable, strong and very long making the GVM SD300B AIO a breeze to set up and move around.
Having a reliable App also helps with this...
The GVM LED II App
Click for larger image
Once you've installed the app and connected it to your light, you are good to go. It is quick, responsive, easy to use and I would highly recommend using it over using the controls on the back of the light. Rather than using GVM's QR code, download the GVM LED II App from the Google Play/Apple App Store.
The Fan
All lights, especially at this power level, need a fan.
The fan on the GVM SD300B AIO can be set manually to either Smart, High or Silent. Setting the silent option will reduce the power of the light output so only use if you don't need higher power outputs.
Overall, the fan is very quite with the air input being made of plastic, keeping the weight down, and the heat dissipation blowing through a steel mesh. To be honest, I can barely hear it most of the time, similar to my Aputure 120d.
Use Cases
For me, this light is great for studio work in a small to medium sized room. For YouTubers it is perfect for either using as directional light or as a well-diffused and bounced light from the ceiling or wall.
It is powerful enough to work, along with the excellent reflector/modifier, to create some really nice diffused light on your subjects or products.
As well as using in a studio environment, this light would be great for:
- 1Interviews
- 2Daytime shoots (stills or video, main, fill in or backlighting)
- 3Night-time shoots (maybe using some of the effects)
- 4Portrait photography
- 5Product photography
- 6Maybe even property photography using bounced light
Where to Buy
As always, I would recommend Amazon due to their reliable and prompt delivery service. I have ordered products direct from China recently and they can take an age to get here.