Super Bright LED Light For Filmmakers | GVM SD200D Review | Should You Buy It?

Hello, everyone. My name is Mario So, and today we're going to be talking about a very bright LED spotlight, the GVM-SD200D. If you haven't subscribed yet, please make sure to subscribe for future content similar to this one. If you're already subscribed, thank you so much for being here. GVM, which stands for Great Video Maker, sent me the light to try out and to give it my thoughts. It's a COB LED spotlight with the Bowens Mount. In terms of some of the features that this light has, a few of the things right off the bat is that it's a very bright light. Let's go over some of the features of this light.

The GVM-SD200D is a bi-color temperature light that goes from 3200 Kelvin all the way to 5600 Kelvin. It has a very high color rendering index, and they claim to have it above 97. This is a 200-watt power light. At about 1 meter, you can get about 10,000 LM, and that is a lot of lighting power.

Inside the box, you get a carrying case, which I did not get for this video, but you should be getting a carrying case if you purchase the GVM-SD200D. you get the light itself, a power cable, a power adapter, a lampshade, and a little diffuser. The cable that comes with this light is very long. That's very handy. GVM says that this has an intelligent cooling system fan with heat dissipation. I used this light for one of my videos, and in my test, I found out that it didn't get very hot. I was filming for about an hour, and it did produce a little bit of noise, but nothing that would ruin my video.

That was because I had the light just a little bit further away, about one to two feet away from me, and that didn't interfere with my audio. The light comes with a bracket that lets you adjust the angle of the light, and you're able to mount this into any light stand or C stand. For such a bright and powerful light, this light was not that heavy, and it's not that big as well, which is something that I like. It makes it a little bit more portable, especially if you're carrying already a ton of gear to your shoes. The GVM-SD200D also incredibly easy to set up and get going.

The GVM-SD200D is made of high quality plastic. I would say that it's very well built. The only thing that I do not like are the U-shaped brackets because the teeth are quite small, and it seems that in the long run, the teeth will not hold their shape, making the knob less adjustable or less tight. That's one of the design flaws that I see on this light, other than the actual light itself, mostly on the bracket. The controls in the back of the light are very simple and straightforward. You have your On and Off button. You have your DC input where you plug in that massive cable. You also have a mode button.

The mode button has a few things. The first mode rotate is just for you to manage the brightness of the GVM-SD200D. You have slave mode and master mode, so that means that you can connect several of these lights, and once you put them in the same groups and channels, you're able to have one light as your master to control the rest of the sleep lights, and that would come in very handy if you have a bunch of these lights and you need to control them all from one spot.

To toggle between the brightness dimming and color temperature, you just have to press on the button on the GVM-SD200D that says BRG and CCT, so brightness and color temperature. The big number on the screen is the brightness level that you're adjusting, and once you press that center button, you'll be adjusting the color temperature, which you see in the lower part of the screen under CCT, and you can go from 3200 Kelvin all the way to 5600 Kelvin.

If you want to control the GVM-SD200D with the app, you just toggle it with the mode button all the way to where it says app. Once there, you just download the app on your phone and you plug it in. I did find the app to be a little bit confusing and not that user friendly, and I found it a little bit difficult to understand. I would not recommend it. I would just use this light as is manually, directly from the back of the light.

I did find the buttons at the back of the light, as well as the dimmer a little bit too plasticy and too flimsy for my liking. This light also has a Bowen's Mount, which lets you attach Bowen's Mount soft boxes and other lighting accessories. The GVM-SD200D, though, is not cheap. It comes in at about $339 (prices may change) directly from the GVM site, but I found it on B&H for a little bit cheaper, but it's still around the $300 Mark. It's definitely not cheap, but it's a very bright light.

One benefit of having a bright light like the GVM-SD200D is that you can point it up to the ceiling and that will light up your entire environment to simulate a natural lighting look in your scene if you needed that. Another benefit of having a very bright light is if you're shooting your subject backlit. For example, if you're shooting a subject with a very large window behind them, what you usually get is a very underexposed subject because you're trying to retain details in your highlights outside the window.

If you want to properly expose your subject, then you really have to blow out those highlights in the window and lose all the amount of detail in those highlights, but it's okay because your primary subject is what's most important. If you wanted to retain some of those details and the highlights outside your window and still have your subject properly exposed, that's when you need to bring in a very bright light to put in front of your subject to compete against the sun. At the end of the day, the sun is always going to win, but in terms of video shooting or interview shooting, having a bright light like the GVM-SD200D to be your key light, if you want to retain details in your highlight, is going to be important.

Overall, I would say that the GVM-SD200D is a pretty decent light. It's not without its flaws, but in terms of brightness and quality of light, I would say that it's very high quality. The spotlight that you get is feathered and nice, and in terms of overall lighting quality, I think this is a very decent light. I like the fact that it's not too heavy; it's somewhat portable; I like of course the fact that it's super bright, that it's bi-color, and the fan is not that noisy.

In terms of things that I don't like about the GVM-SD200D, first of all, the price I think is little bit overpriced for what you get. The build quality isn't very sturdy. The buttons are a little flimsy, and I don't like the U-bracket, and it seems like the teeth and the knobs are going to be loose over time. The app is also quite confusing in my opinion, but the good thing I guess is that it's there if you wanted to wirelessly control your light.

That's it for today's video. I hope you enjoyed this review. If you're looking for a very bright light, the GVM-SD200D might be one to consider. Let me know in the comments here what your favorite light is right now. I'd love to get your opinion about it. Before you leave, make sure you hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't already. I'll see you next time.