The Godox Litemons LA150D & Litemons LA200D are affordable 190W and 230W COB LED lights. Litemons appears to be a new affordable spin-off series in a similar way to what Aputure did with amaran.
Versatile COB lights in this form factor have become increasingly popular due to their swiss army knife style abilities, which enable them to be used for a variety of lighting scenarios.
Key features
- 5600K daylight COB
- Dimming control from 0-100% provides the brightness you need without the need for ND filters
- High CRI/TLCI ratings of 96/97
- Eleven special effects include flash 1, flash 2, flash 3, storm 1, storm 2, storm 3, TV, and broken bulb
- Compatible with Godox Light App to enable wireless control of brightness and special effects
- Accepts Bowens S-mount light modifiers and accessories, such as the included reflector for producing a broad, even, and neutral light quality
- Built-in umbrella mount
- Lightweight and compact design for quick setup and transport
So do the Godox Litemons LA150D & Litemons LA200D stand out in this crowded LED market? Well, Let’s find out.
Concept
The concept behind the Godox Litemons LA150D & Litemons LA200D was to make a versatile and budget-friendly lighting solution for YouTubers, live streamers, and content creators. This concept is very similar to what most other budget lighting brands are also doing.
Appearance-wise, the Litemons LA150D and LA200D look very similar to the amaran 100d and amaran 200d lights.
Build Quality
The build quality of the Litemons fixtures is ok. The housing seems reasonably robust and the swivel mount tightens securely.
This swivel mount has been well thought out as a lot of users of lights such as these are going to be putting reasonably large modifiers onto the front.
The overall build quality is going to be very similar to the amaran options.
The controller is built into the light fixture, but there is a separate power supply.
There is a 4-pin DC power cable that goes to the power supply. The cable is long enough so that you can position your fixture around 215cm / 7’1″ high and still keep the power supply on the ground.
Godox actually gives you a fixing band and a wire rope that you can use to attach the power supply to the light, or to attach the light to something else if you happen to be using it in a place where it may fall.
What I also like is the actual power cable that goes from the power supply is 5m / 16’5″ long. This is nice to see because it is unusual to get a cable that long with a budget light.
The On/Off switch and the buttons on the fixture are reasonably tactile, as are the dials.
Design
As far as the design goes, it does look a lot like most other COB fixtures. Whether this is a coincidence is arguable, however, I think there is probably a design reason why COB spotlights all look very similar.
The design consists of the lamp head and a separate power supply. This is fairly common with lights such as these. It is nice not to have a separate controller and have it built-into the fixture. This allows you to set up and pack away the light quickly.
I also like that the swivel mount folds right up against the light so that it minimizes the footprint of the fixture when packing it away in a bag or case.
Lots of LED lights on the market, including the Godox Litemons LA150D and LA200D are using COB technology. COB stands for “Chip On Board” where multiple LED chips are packaged together as one lighting module. The advantage of COB LEDs being multi-chip packaged is that the light-emitting area of a COB LED can contain many times more light sources in the same area that standard LEDs could occupy. This results in a greatly increased lumen output per square inch.
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LA200D -
Godox SZ150R
The fixture does feature a rather large fan that is on the underside of the light. This fan looks very similar to the one that can be found in the Godox SZ150R. The fan is somewhat obscured by the swivel mount.
The fan does emit some noise, but it is pretty quiet even when run at 100% output. For most shooting scenarios I don’t think the fan will be an issue that anyone would complain about.
The biggest problem with COB LED lights is that unless you diffuse them they are very bright to look at and unsuitable for directly lighting talent.
Weight & Size
The Godox Litemons LA150D and LA200D both weigh 3.1 lb / 1.4 kg. The controller is built-in to the lamp head, there is just a separate AC adapter. That weighs around 1.47 lb / 670g.
So how does this weight compare to the amaran fixtures that have a similar power draw?
| Light Head | Power Supply | |
| Godox Litemons LA150D & LA200D |
3.1 lb / 1.4 kg | 1.47 lb / 670g |
| amaran 200x & 200d | 3.5 lb / 1.58 kg | 1.8 lb / 813g |
The nice aspect about the Godox and other lights of this size and weight is that you don’t need to carry around a heavy-duty light stand.
Beam Angle
The beam angle of both the fixtures is 105°. As a comparison, the amaran 100d and 200d have the exact same beam angle of 105°. The reflectors for both the Godox and the amaran fixtures are claimed to be 55°.
Mounting
As I previously mentioned in the review, the LA150D and LA200D both come with a swivel mount that is attached directly to the bottom of the lights. These provide 180 degrees of rotation and they give you enough clearance that you can move the light around and angle it in a variety of ways, however, just how much you can move it will depend on what lighting modifiers you are using.
Power Draw
The LA150D draws 190W and the LA200D draws 230W. Even though the power draw is 190W and 200W respectively you can’t run these lights off a camera battery, they have to be run from mains power. The fixture only excepts a 48 VDC input.
This is a missed opportunity by Godox. With a 190W/230W power draw, they should have allowed the light to be powered via V-lock or AB Gold mount battery. This would have made the light a more appealing proposition for a lot of shooters.
How does this power draw compare to the amaran 100d and 200d?
| POWER DRAW | |
| Godox Litemons LA150D | 190W |
| Godox Litemons LA200D | 230W |
| amaran 100d | 100W |
| amaran 200d | 200W |
Controls & Menu System
The rear LCD screen on the lights is very basic, but they do show you key information about the lights operating modes, brightness, CCT, etc. While it is not a touchscreen, it is still pretty quick to access all of the available lighting modes and make changes.
With a good light, you shouldn’t have to read a manual to work out how to operate it. You should be able to turn it on and use it straight away. In that respect, these lights are straightforward and easy to operate.
The physical dials that you use to control the light are tactile and I found it very easy to dial in the exact amount of output that I needed.
There isn’t any type of menu on the lights. There is only the ability to switch between 5600K and the FX modes. There is also a small button that toggles the Bluetooth On/Off.
Bluetooth App
The light can be controlled via Bluetooth using the Godox Light App. It is very easy to add a light and start using it.
Because the App is made for a wide array of different Godox lights, the interface is still going to show controls for features that aren’t available on the LA150D and LA200D.
The only items you can actually adjust on the LA150D and LA200D are the output intensity and turning the light On/Off.
The app is straightforward and easy to use. I like how they have made it intuitive and visually appealing. Lighting control shouldn’t be overly complicated.
The only downside when using the app is that when you make changes they don’t happen instantaneously, there is a slight delay. This is because the system is using Bluetooth.
Operating Modes
The light only has two operating modes that you can choose from:
5600K (CCT)
This is the mode most people are going to use these lights in. In the CCT Mode, as these are daylight-only fixtures, your Kelvin color temperature is fixed at 5600K.
The fixtures don’t feature any continuously variable (full minus green to full plus green) correction.
FX
The FX mode lets you recreate a few lighting effects that can be handy for certain scenarios. The effects include:
- Flash 1
- Flash 2
- Flash 3
- Storm 1
- Storm 2
- Storm 3
- TV
- Broken bulb
All the effects modes can be individually adjusted, but you can only adjust the speed and intensity of the effects.
How does the LA200D compare to the amaran 200d?
| Godox Litemons LA200D | amaran 200d | |
| CCT | 5600K | 5600K |
| +/- GM | No | No |
| Effects | Yes | Yes |
| Mount | Bowens-S Mount | Bowens-S Mount |
| Beam Angle | 105° | 105° |
| Power Draw | 200W | 200W |
| App Control | Yes | Yes |
| Battery Power | No | Optional |
| Weight | 3.1 lb / 1.4 kg | 3.5 lb / 1.58 kg |
Photometrics
So now let’s get to the photometric results. I always test lights in this way so that I get a reference to how they compare to other fixtures. Results only tell part of the story and should never be used alone to judge a light. I have found from extensive testing over the years that certain lights that have good photometric results don’t always look good, and lights that have worse photometric scores can sometimes look better than their results indicate.
Different lights can also look different depending on what camera you happen to be using.
Output & Color Temperature Accuracy
I tested the Godox Litemons LA150D and LA200D using a Sekonic C-800 Spectrometer to find out how much output the lights had and how accurate the Kelvin color temperature reproduction was. All readings are taken at a distance of 1m (3.28ft) in a controlled environment. In the case of readings that were done with the reflector being used, these measurements were taken from the edge of the reflector and not from the COB.
What you clearly need to know upfront is that when you use the reflector with both of these lights there is a massive hot spot in the middle. The output figures when using the reflector are going to appear to be very impressive, but they don’t represent an accurate indication of the output.
LA150D
5600K Reflector
Above you can see the Godox recorded output of 76,600 lx (7110 fc) when using the standard reflector. At first glance, this is a lot of output for a 150W fixture, however, if you measure the output just 15cm / 5.9″ from the center it drops down to 31,500 lx. That is a whopping 58.8% less than in the center of the beam.
The light recorded a Kelvin color temperature reading of 5640K which was an excellent result.
So how does this compare to the amaran 100d? Well, below you can see
| OUTPUT | CCT | |
| Godox LA150D | 76,600 lx | 5640K |
| amaran 100d | 45,300 lx | 5723K |
What you clearly need to remember is that the Godox draws 90W more than the amaran, so you should take this comparison with a grain of salt.
5600K Open Face
Above you can see the LA150D recorded an output of 7510 lx (698 fc) when used open face. Open face the light had 90.2% less output than wen used with its reflector.
The light recorded a Kelvin color temperature reading of 5558K which was an excellent result. From my testing, it is clear that the reflector doesn’t alter the Kelvin color temperature of the light which is good to see. The Kelvin color temperature when using the light open face or with the reflector is almost identical.
So how does this compare to the amaran 100d? Well, below you can see
| OUTPUT | CCT | |
| Godox LA150D | 7510 lx | 5640K |
| amaran 100d | 4980 lx | 5664K |
As I mentioned earlier, you clearly need to remember is that the Godox draws 90W more than the amaran.
LA200D
5600K Reflector
Above you can see that the LA200D recorded an output of 99,100 lx (9200 fc) when the reflector was used. Again, just like with the LA150D this output figure is very deceiving. If I measure the output of the light, 15cm to the left or right of the center the output drops massively. At the same distance, 15cm from the center of light, I recorded a figure of 39,700 lx, which is a whopping 59.9% less than the center of the beam.
The light recorded a Kelvin color temperature reading of 5546K which was very good for a 5600K source light.
So how does this compare to the amaran 200d? Well, below you can see:
| OUTPUT | CCT | |
| Godox LA200D | 99,100 lx | 5546K |
| amaran 200d | 75,900 lx | 5604K |
What you clearly need to remember is that the Godox draws 30W more than the amaran.
The Godox LA150D actually has about the same amount of output (76,600lx) as the amaran 200d (75,900lx).
5600K Softbox
Above you can see how much output the light provided if I used it with a Bowens Mount softbox. I have taken the measurements 1m from the front of the softbox. The LA200D recorded an output of 2210lx (206 fc).
As far as Kelvin color temperature accuracy goes, it recorded a reading of 5268K which wasn’t very good. What you clearly need to remember when using softboxes or other lighting modifiers with fixtures that only have the ability to be used at one Kelvin color temperature is that they are going to alter your light’s Kelvin color accuracy. With a light that can only be used at one Kelvin color temperature, you have no way of making corrections.
5600K Open Face
Above you can see the lights output when used open face was 9000 lx (836 fc). This was 90.9% less than when the light is used with its reflector.
As far as Kelvin color temperature accuracy goes, it recorded a very accurate reading of 5559K.
So how does this compare to the amaran 200d? Well, below you can see:
| OUTPUT | CCT | |
| Godox LA200D | 9000 lx | 5559K |
| amaran 200d | 9570 lx | 5562K |
What you clearly need to remember is that the Godox draws 30W more than the amaran.
Is there a hot spot when using the reflector?
Yes, there is. Just like the amaran 100d and 200d, the Godox reflectors are designed to provide a lot of output and to give high lux readings, but this is because the lights have a very prominent hot spot.
Most people are generally going to be using fixtures like this with a lighting modifier such as a softbox, so having a hotspot with the reflector isn’t necessarily a big deal or caveat.
Kelvin color consistency and linear output when dimming the light
Now, what you should always do when testing lights is to see if the Kelvin color temperature remains consistent when dimming the light. Just because you set a light at say 5600K, that doesn’t mean that the Kelvin color temperature will remain stable as you start dimming the fixture down. I also wanted to see how linear the dimming curve was.
I decided to do a series of tests at 100%/75%/50%/25%10% to see if the Kelvin color temperature being recorded changed. This was done at a distance of 1m using a Sekonic C-800.
LA150D
| CCT READING | OUTPUT | INTENSITY % |
| 5640K | 76,600 lx | 100 |
| 5622K | 59,400 lx | 75 |
| 5600K | 39,600 lx | 50 |
| 5577K | 22,200 lx | 25 |
| 5565K | 11,100 lx | 10 |
The Godox LA150D is able to maintain very good Kelvin color consistency as you start dimming the fixture. My testing showed that the Kelvin color temperature only varied by 75K. These are good results and it shows me that you can dim this fixture down without having to worry about big changes in Kelvin color temperature.
As far as how linear the output is when you start dimming the light, at 50% output it had 48.3% less output than when used at 100%. At 25% it had 71% less output than when used at 100%. At 10% output it had 85.5% less output than when used at 100%. This shows me that the light’s dimming curve is pretty linear.
LA200D
| CCT READING | OUTPUT | INTENSITY % |
| 5546K | 99,100 lx | 100 |
| 5534K | 77,500 lx | 75 |
| 5513K | 52,600 lx | 50 |
| 5512K | 28,600 lx | 25 |
| 5498K | 14,100 lx | 10 |
The Godox LA200D is able to maintain very good Kelvin color consistency as you start dimming the fixture. My testing showed that the Kelvin color temperature only varied by 48K. These are great results and it shows me that you can dim this fixture down without having to worry about big changes in Kelvin color temperature.
As far as how linear the output is when you start dimming the light, at 50% output it had 46.9% less output than when used at 100%. At 25% it had 71.1% less output than when used at 100%. At 10% output it had 85.8% less output than when used at 100%. This shows me that the light’s dimming curve is pretty linear.
Color Rendering
LA150D 5600K Reflector
So now that we have seen how much output the Godox LA150D produces, how does it perform when it comes to replicating accurate colors. Above you can see that when the light was set at 5600K using the standard reflector it recorded an average CRI (R1-R8) of 96.1 and an extended CRI (R1-R15) of 94.49. For replicating accurate skin tones it recorded for R9 94.2 (red), 97.8 for R13 (closest to caucasian skin tones), and 98.1 for R15 (closest to Asian skin tones). These are all very good results. The light does struggle to produce Blue (R12) with a score of just 74.7.
The light recorded a TLCI score of 97.
So how do these results for the LA150D compare against the amaran 100d? Below you can see:
| EXTENDED CRI | |
| Godox LA150D | 94.49 |
| amaran 100d | 94.74 |
As you can see the scores are basically identical.
LA200D 5600K Reflector
So how does the Godox LA200D perform when it comes to replicating accurate colors? Above you can see that when the light was set at 5600K using the standard reflector it recorded an average CRI (R1-R8) of 96 and an extended CRI (R1-R15) of 94.20. For replicating accurate skin tones it recorded for R9 92.9 (red), 97.9 for R13 (closest to caucasian skin tones), and 98.2 for R15 (closest to Asian skin tones). These are all very good results. The light does struggle to produce Blue (R12) with a score of just 74.6.
The light recorded a TLCI score of 97.
So how do these results for the LA200D compare against the amaran 200d? Below you can see:
| EXTENDED CRI | |
| Godox LA200D | 94.20 |
| amaran 200d | 94.74 |
As you can see the scores are basically identical.
CC Index & ⊿uv
The CC Index displays the CC correction value and whether any magenta or green need to be added or subtracted. 1 CC corresponds to 035 Kodak CC values or 1/8 Rosco filter values. Any reading less than +1.00 or -1.00 and you’re probably not going to need to make any kind of adjustment. The ⊿uv is the value to show how much this light is away from being an ideal light source (black body radiation = incandescent lamp). As with the CC Index you want this number to theoretically be zero. Kelvin is not a linear value, so we need to convert from Kelvin to MK-1 to compare the values of color temperature. To calculate from Kelvin to Mired is MK-1= 1*1000000/Kelvin. While this may sound confusing, it is the only way of measuring if the Kelvin shift is significant enough to warrant having to use a filter for correction. Below are the results for the Godox LA150D & LA200D:
LA150D Kelvin Vs MK-1
| Kelvin | Difference in K | MK-1 | Difference in MK-1 |
|
| SET VALUE | 5600K | 0 | 178.57 | 0 |
| ACTUAL READING | 5640K | 40 | 177.30 | 1.27 MK-1 |
LA150D Kelvin Vs MK-1
| Kelvin | Difference in K | MK-1 | Difference in MK-1 |
|
| SET VALUE | 5600K | 0 | 178.57 | 0 |
| ACTUAL READING | 5546K | 64 | 180.31 | -1.74 MK-1 |
These figures might look confusing, but what it tells me is that the light is extremely Kelvin color accurate. Any MK-1 score that is under -9/9 means you wouldn’t have to use any color correction gels. The MK-1 scores for this light were exceptionally good.
LA150D CC INDEX & ⊿uv
| CC INDEX | ⊿uv | |
| 5600K | 0.3G | -0.0018 |
LA200D CC INDEX & ⊿uv
| CC INDEX | ⊿uv | |
| 5600K | 0.2G | -0.0009 |
Both the lights scored fairly well when it came to the CC INDEX & ⊿uv, however, the LA200D was slightly better than the LA150D.
TM-30
TM-30 is a relatively new color rendering standard that was developed to deal with the limitations of CRI. TM-30 looks at 99 individual colors. These 99 colors are categorized into seven groups: nature, skin color, textiles, paints, plastics, printed material, and color systems.
TM-30 scores go from 0 – 100. The higher the score, the more accurate a light is at producing colors. Any TM-30 Rf score in the ’90s is considered to be good. What is interesting and something that you need to be very aware of is that two separate light sources with the exact same CRI scores can render colors very differently. A light with a high CRI rating could have a low TM-30 score. Conversely, a light with a good TM-30 score could have a bad CRI score.
Now, there are two measurements associated with TM-30, Rf and Rg.
- Rf (Color Fidelity)
- Rg (Color Gamut)
With Rf value, ideally, you want a score in the 90’s.
With Rg value, a score below 100 indicates that the light source renders colors with less saturation than the reference source. So ideally you want this score to be above 100.
-
LA150D -
LA200D
Above you can see the scores for the Godox LA150D and LA200D.
Here are the results:
Godox LA150D
Godox LA200D
SSI
SSI (Spectral Similarity Index) was developed by the Sci-Tech Council of the Academy. SSI gives me the ability to set any light as a standard, or use predefined standards (such as CIE D55), and then give other lights an SSI score based upon how well they will match standards such as CIE D55. This way I can measure spectral response and compare it directly against an ideal light source. This is actually a much better test than recording CRI scores.
LA200D 5600K
In the graph above the gold bars indicate a perfect CIE D55 source. The red bars indicate a perfect CIE D 5600K source. This lets us compare how close to a perfect 5600K lighting source the Godox LA200D is. A score in the low 70’s is typical for a 5600K LED source.
The main reason we want to record SSI scores is so we can see how well they match with other lights. As an example, I wanted to see how well the Godox LA200D matched the Godox150D and the ARRI Orbiter. Below you can see the results.
As you can see theLA200D is almost a perfect match with the LA150D, however, the Godox doesn’t really match up well with the ARRI.
SSI tests are a great way of telling you what lights you own or use will work well together.
Spectral Distribution
Above you can see the spectral distribution of the Godox LA150D. The spectral distribution is reasonably good and there aren’t any spikes where there shouldn’t be.
Above you can see the spectral distribution of the Godox LA200D. Again, just like the LA150D, the spectral distribution is pretty good.
Accessories
As the Godox LA150D and LA200D use a Bowens mount you can attach a large range of affordable accessories and modifiers. If you own multiple lights that utilize a Bowens mount you can swap and switch around accessories.
Real-World Performance & Quality of Light
As I always say, photometric scores only tell you part of the story. So let’s find out if the scores from Godox LA150D and LA200D translate into good real-world performance.
The photometric data can only give me scientific data and it is much more important for me to see how the light looks and performs.
Unfortunately, it is very hard at the moment with the Coronavirus for me to showcase the strengths of the light. I live in Japan in an apartment so there isn’t a lot of space to do much testing. I apologize that I can’t do more!
It is very easy to create a soft, flattering light source using the Godox fixtures by using modifiers like a softbox, however, it needs to be reasonably close to your subject. This makes it a very quick and easy light to use for interview situations or for any scenario where you need soft light as long as you don’t need to match any type of bright background. The light when used open face is a wide enough beam spread that it will fill up a large-sized softbox.
The lights work well if you use them with their reflectors and punch them into some polyboard or other reflective material.
As I previously mentioned in the review, the lights do have a very prominent hot spot in the middle when you use the included reflector. I didn’t find this to be a massive problem as I personally would never use lights like these as a direct source when a reflector was attached.
Who are these lights aimed at?
You could either of these lights for lots of different applications, but the light is certainly being aimed at budget-conscious shooters who want a good quality COB fixture that won’t cost a fortune.
It is priced to appeal to owner-operators who are looking for a jack-of-all-trades lighting solution. The fixtures have the ability to be a hard light source or a soft source. There is a reason that COB lights such as this have become very popular with shooters and that is because of their versatility.
The Godox is likely to appeal to solo shooters and small crews who are looking for a similar light to some of the offerings from Aputure and other companies.
Price & Availability
The Godox LA150D retails for $219 USD and the LA200D costs $299 USD. This makes both options very appealing prospects for those shooters who are looking for a light that offers features and functionality that are usually only found in much more expensive fixtures.
You can also buy the lights from Pergear:
Along with the lights, you also get:
- Reflector RFT-19
- Protection Cover
- Power Adapter
- Power Cord
- Fixing Band
- Wire Rope
- Limited 1-Year B&H Warranty
Below you can see how the price compares to the offerings from amaran:
As you can see the prices are basically the same.
Conclusion
The Godox LA150D and LA200D are solid fixtures that offer very good value for money. They are versatile, have a good amount of output, and produce a nice quality of light.
The interface and operating system are straightforward and easy to use, as is the app. By utilizing a Bowens Mount you can utilize a large array of lighting modifiers without having to spend a ton of money.
There really aren’t any caveats with these lights, apart from the hot spot when using the reflector. Just like the amaran 100d and 200d, they are meat and potatoes lights that are designed to get the job done with a minimum of fuss. There is nothing overly special about any of these lights, but you know what, that is ok. For the price, they do a great job.
With a lot of modern LED lights, the quality of the LEDs being used is very similar, even across the price spectrum. What separates the lights comes down to build quality, features, and usability.
The Godox Litemons offerings, just like the Amaran lights may not be as well made or built as a lot of other fixtures, but they are still decent considering how much they cost. It is easy to see why Godox fixtures are pretty popular amongst shooters.
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