I am becoming a fan of Neewer gear. Since they changed direction and started producing equipment for themselves, the designs have vastly improved, and the quality of the products has rocketed. Here are two new lights from their stable that are exceptionally good. Their competitors should look out.
Neewer is seemingly aiming its products at the amateur market and not taking on the big, expensive professional names. Nonetheless, the design, build quality, and performance of their products are way above other gear aimed at amateurs. We often see big-name brands driven to cut costs by reducing quality, but Neewer consistently delivers great gear at a low cost.
A Description of the Neewer MS60C RGB Monolight
The first of the two items is the Neewer MS60C RGB light. Outwardly, it is very similar in appearance to its more powerful bi-color brother, the MS150B, that I reviewed a few weeks ago, but even more compact.
The outer body of the Neewer MS60C lamp module is made from a strong aluminum alloy that is ventilated on top and bottom. The robust plastic rear panel has a 1½” LCD Display, two rotary knobs that can also be pressed as buttons, two other press buttons, and a power input socket. On the base is a 1/4-20 UNC screw socket, so it will fit directly onto tripods or studio stands, and the supplied handle/stand adaptor.
The front of the lamp has the LED array and the Bowens S Mount that will take the included reflector and can also be adapted to a full-sized Bowens-style mount with the provided adapter.
The generous 16-foot (4.88 meters) power cable with the power adapter seems tough and strong enough to withstand everyday use. Plus, the kit seems to be built with the outdoors in mind too, as it can easily be adapted to run off batteries; a V-Mount battery plate to take two NP-F970 batteries (not supplied), and the lighting-stand mount also doubles as a handle. The MS60C comes in a tough nylon case and is also supplied with a standard reflector.
Apart from being able to adjust the white balance and luminosity and change the colors emitted by the light, there are various lighting presets available plus a raft of special effects. Furthermore, it is fully controllable from the Neewer app.
A Description of the Neewer TL60 RGB Wand Light
I decided to review these two items together because of their similar functionality, in that they both are programmable to emit light to RGB values.
The TL60 RGB Wand Light is also supplied in a strong nylon soft case and comes with a long power lead with an adapter, plus a clamp to attach it to a tripod. There’s also a short cable to attach it to a digital multiplex (DMX) system; the wand is DMX controllable.
The wand itself, even more than the other lights of Neewer’s I have reviewed, oozes quality. It feels tough, made from high-quality plastics, and has a fine, well-manufactured finish. It has a significant advantage over its main competitors’ wands in that the transmission of light along the tube is smoothly continuous, whereas some others are more segmented along their length.
The wand has an internal battery, so it is easy to use both in the studio and out.
Externally, it has an LED tube, an LCD display screen, two rotary knobs, a mode adjustment dial, a brightness adjustment dial, a ¼” mounting screw, DMX input and output sockets, plus various other functional buttons and indicators. It also has a touchscreen that can be used to quickly change the color of the light just by sliding your finger over it.
The Tests
The tests were similar to those I performed with the MS150B but would include color tests. The color tests are not perfect because an 18% gray card is designed to be used for measuring exposure and not color accuracy. However, in the absence of a colorimeter and concentrating more on how the lights perform in the real world, it was an adequate solution.
My camera has the pleasing function of being able to sample the light from a grey or white card and set the white balance accordingly. In a darkened room, I set my camera up on a tripod. It pointed at an 18% grey card illuminated by the lights and sampled that to get the white balance from each at different temperatures and luminosities. Using both devices set to 2700K and then 6500K, I took white balance readings.
The wand was spot on. The camera recorded the same white balance as the camera at both ends of the scale, no matter how bright I had the wand set.
The MS60C gave precise readings at its maximum and minimum temperatures; however, when I dropped the brightness to 30%, there was a very slight change in the white balance of just 100K below the temperature shown on the display. However, loading the images onto my computer, I could not tell the difference between them with my eye on the grey card shots, let alone on more complex subjects. This difference may have been due to the, albeit low-level, ambient light in the room.
RGB Color Tests
Clearly, this is more difficult to judge than the white balance tests. I set the RGB values to pure red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow for each of the lights. I then compared the colors by importing them into Photoshop and using the eyedropper tool on each. This proved to be an inadequate test using my grey card. That's because it is fabric and therefore has a slight texture. Therefore, the color of the reflected light changed completely when moving the eyedropper tool by a pixel. Furthermore, although positioned at the same distance, the spread of the two lights was different because of their shape.
So, I added a Gaussian blur to the resulting images, and the colors were within a gnat’s whisker of each other. For example, when transmitting light at R0, G255, and B0, the reflected RGB value from my grey card was R88, G169, B54 for the wand and R89, G171, B64 for the light.
Again, by eye, the colors produced by each looked identical and were more than good enough for all purposes of an amateur photographer and, I would expect, most professionals too.
Some readers might be expecting the reflected green light to have the same RGB value as the transmitted light. Unless aiming as a perfect mirror, this will never be because of the absorption and scattering of reflected light. Grey cards are imperfect reflectors and are not designed for color accuracy.
Brightness of the Lights
The maximum output from these lights was high. With either lamp set about a meter from the grey card, I was able to achieve 1/60th second at f/8 and ISO 200, adding about seven steps of exposure value compared to the darkened room. The brightness standards these lights meet are shown below in the specifications.
Other Light Features
Like the Neewer bi-color light I tested last time, both of these units can be controlled by an app. The lights and the app come with numerous adjustable special effects, such as lightning and flickering fire, which some videographers will enjoy. The app allows you to sample the light falling on other surfaces and match the lamps’ white balance setting to that. That’s hugely useful when mixing, say, daylight with studio lighting.
It's worth noting that the lights both had firmware updates available between me receiving and reviewing them, and that was delivered wirelessly through the app.
What I Liked and What Could Be Improved Next Time
What I Liked
- Both lights are very well-designed and manufactured using high-quality materials.
- They give accurate consistent lighting.
- They are far less expensive than professional lighting from big brands.
- They can be controlled from the same app.
- They are versatile.
What Could Be Improved Next Time
- The instruction manuals could have been better written and with larger print. I think most consumers would be happy with an online manual and a QR code to access it.
- An app to remotely control them from a laptop would be welcome.
- Reducing single-use plastic would benefit the planet.
In Conclusion
The Neewer MS60C RGB light and their TL60 RGB Wand, along with the MS150B bi-color light I reviewed a few weeks back, will be a superb option for videographers and photographers who have home studios and want continuous lighting, want quality items, but don't want to pay the much higher fees these types of devices usually attract. For amateur videographers and photographers looking for continuous lighting options for creative effects, they won’t go too far wrong with these. I can see no reason why professionals on a lower budget would not use these too. They are versatile and well-made.
As I said at the start, it's good to see that Neewer, a company that has very much supported the low-end amateur market historically, is now delivering affordable, high-quality gear for photography and videography enthusiasts who want quality products. They will, no doubt, be rattling the cages of other manufacturers producing similar products at a much higher price.
Specifications
Neewer MS60C RGB LED Monolight
- 1x LED Monolight
- Included Light Modifier
- 1x Reflector
- Storage Case
- 771 fc / 8300 Lux at 3.3' / 1 m
- 3808 fc / 41,000 Lux at 1.6' / 0.5 m
- Color Temperature: 2700 to 6500K
- Color Modes: RGB, Daylight, Tungsten
- Color Accuracy Standard
- CRI 97
- TLCI 98
- Built-In Dimmer
- Front Accessory Mount: Bowens S
- Wireless Remote Control Type
- Radio/RF 99 Channels 2.4 GHz
- Power Source: AC to DC Adapter
- Battery (Not Included)
- Battery Plate Type: 2x Sony L-Series / NP-F (Included)
- Battery: 2x Sony-Type L-Series / NP-F Rechargeable (Not Included)
- AC Input Power: 100 to 240 VAC, 50 / 60 Hz
- DC Input Power: 19.6 VDC at 4 A
- Power Consumption: 65 W
- Fixture Mounting: 1x 1/4"-20 Female Thread
- Package Weight: 6.215 lb
- Box Dimensions (LxWxH): 16 x 12.8 x 4.7"
Neewer TL60 RGB Wand Light
- 1 x LED Light Tube/Wand
- 1 x Case
- 1 x Mountilg clam
- 40 fc / 432 Lux at 3.3' / 1 m
- 160 fc / 1730 Lux at 1.6' / 0.5 m (Standardized Measurement Calculated Internally Based on Closest Distance)
- Color Temperature 2,500 to 10,000 K
- RGB, Daylight, Tungsten
- Color Accuracy Standard: CRI 97, TLCI 98, SSI 73 at 5600K, SSI 93 at 3200K, TM-30 Rf 94, TM-30 Rg 102
- Dimming
- Built-In Dimmer • 0 to 100%
- Beam Angle 180°
- Wireless Remote Control Type: Radio/RF
- Power Source: AC to DC Adapter (Included)
- DC Input Power: 20 VDC at 2.4 A
- Power Consumption: 20 W
- Battery (Built-In) 1x Rechargeable Lithium, 3000 mAh • Up to 120-minute runtime at maximum brightness
- Fixture Mounting: Support Mount 1x 1/4"-20 Female Thread
- Display: Touchscreen LCD
- Dimensions: 26 x 1.7" / 66 x 4.3 cm
- Weight: 1.8 lb / 820 g
The challenge with these products is that their light output just isn't good enough for stills photography. Don't get me wrong—I really like Neewer too and have started using their bigger lights quite a bit and found them fantastic—but I find that these lower-powered lights are so dim that it's hard to effectively use them in a studio environment. I mostly use their 300w lights and often have them at max power.
The wand lights are great for very specific uses, but to get that vibrant colour, your exposure has to be pretty dark; otherwise, they just look dull and unsaturated, even when extremely close to the subject. Even just looking at these numbers, the wand is like 20 times dimmer than the moonlight, which is not a bright light to begin with. Generally speaking, if I'm looking to introduce color I will bring in a gel on a more powerful light before I pull out a wand. The wand feels like a specialist thing for very specific shoots where I actually want the wands in frame or for video work where my shutter can be much slower.
As for the Monolight, its a cool idea, but 60w basically means you need to shoot it bare bulb because once you try to push that light through a modifier, it will be so dim that your ISO needs to skyrocket to still make an exposure. I think, generally, I'd recommend people go with one of the larger lights for a similar price unless they need ultra-portability but don't have the budget for something brighter. (Though I'd argue a small strobe like a speedlight is better as an ultra portable option unless you are recording video) 1/60th at F8 at 200 ISO seems fine until you slightly feather the light, put it on a modifier, and back it off a bit. At which point its more like 1/60th at F5.6 at 2000 ISO. (And realistically, we don't want to be shooting at 1/60th when working with a model)
Thanks, Ryan.
Yes, I think if I were shooting fashion in a studio, I would be looking for something more powerful.
These are mainly designed for video use as opposed to stills but, even so, I've had a lot of success with them.
With that selfie, I was shooting at f/2.8 and achieving 15th-30th second at 40mm (MFT) ISO 200, with the lights a couple of meters on either side of me. I had to reduce the saturation and brightness on the MS60C for that last shot because, otherwise, the reflection on my skin was blown out and the color was too bold.
Increasing the ISO by three to five stops to bring it up to around 1/250 or 1/500 wouldn't be an issue noise-wise for my camera, but I find 1/30th is fine for still portraits when shooting at 40mm (the equivalent of an 80mm lens on a 35mm camera). I'm regularly capturing evening event images at those sorts of shutter speeds using just the light from the DJ's rig.
With posed shots where you are capturing the model when moving, I agree that you would want higher-power lights. However, I think these are versatile for what they are.
I was using the supplied reflector, and you are right, putting a modifier in front would reduce the exposure. Nevertheless, I can think of plenty of applications for these lights, not least still life and product photography and creating interesting effects when light painting.
Thank you again for joining the discussion.