I reviewed the Godox ML100R RGB LED Light — here’s why creators will love it

The Godox ML100R is a 110W RGB LED video light that offers 1800K to 10,000K CCT range with a CRI/TLCI of 95% colour accuracy. As is common with many of these lights, there are plenty of built-in lighting effects, with 14 pre-programmed. As I’ve seen with other Godox lights, you can either operate these directly through the small LCD screen and buttons/dial on the back of the unit, or you can utilise the app, which just makes things really quick and easy to use.

A key feature of this light is the fact that it is compact and small, and what I really liked about this particular model is that Godox once again supplied a really high-quality case to go with it. It keeps everything neat and together, which is far removed from some of the soft bags that other manufacturers have opted for with similar lights.

As I mentioned in the introduction, one of the things that really appeals to me about this Godox light is the fact that it continues with the Godox mount system. The number of lighting modifiers and accessories now available for the Godox mount is ever-increasing, and it’s a good and robust option. Whether you’re looking to add a little fill light into your video productions or use Gobos, projections, or any number of different ways to adjust your lighting effects, Godox really does now have a lighting modifier for you. My personal favourite at the moment is the lantern.

Another feature I really like is that Godox has obviously thought about customer feedback and has enabled multiple power options. There’s the provided DC 20V power input, and next to that, you also have a USB-C port so that you can connect it to portable power, such as a V-mount battery, UGREEN power bank, or even directly into something like the Bluetti AC70 if you’re working on a slightly longer production.

What’s quite common—and actually links most of the Godox lighting products together—is that it’s fully compatible with the Godox app. This means you can control this light through the app and add other lights. If you have multiple lights in a scene, then you’d be able to control all of those through the app with no wires and without having to go to the physical light to make any adjustments.

The Godox ML100R arrives in a nice semi-hard case with the ML100R, a modifier, the lighting stand mount, and the AC adapter all neatly packed inside. It’s quite a tight fit, but as long as you keep things neat, that case will help protect the light throughout its life. It’s really good quality and far superior to many of the loose bags that some other manufacturers have recently been providing with their lighting systems.

When it comes to size and weight, it really is compact and lightweight—measuring just 122mm x 46mm x 110mm and weighing an exceptionally light 465g. This means that it’s highly mountable, and with a ¼-inch thread on the base, there are plenty of mounting options. You can connect it to a standard tripod or onto a friction arm and mount that onto some other type of rigging.

In the box, I was glad to see that they included a standard lighting stand adapter with a 1/4-inch at the top and a standard socket at the bottom. So, if you’re using traditional lighting stands, this will fit directly onto those without issue. One of the things I like about the adapter that’s included in the box is that it also has a hole for inserting an umbrella. So, if you just want to diffuse or reflect light back into a scene or a portrait, this simple lighting adapter will enable you to do that.

Taking a quick look over the entire body of the light, you’ll see around the casing, there’s plenty of ventilation, with vent holes on the bottom and top and then two circular vents on the back, all with fans that help push air away from that powerful LED.

On the back, you have a small full-colour LCD, which is really nice and very easy to navigate. Godox has really thought about navigation, and here, it’s much more intuitive than many other carousel systems that this type of space has. Just to the right, you have your power/menu button and your mode button. To the right of that again, you have the option to dial. This is dual-function, with the ability to rotate it up and down to go through the settings, and a quick push will confirm whichever setting you’re in. This combination of three buttons really does make navigating through all the options exceptionally easy, and it’s worth keeping in mind that at all times, you also have the app if you want something a little more interactive.

On the side of the device, you have the logos and the Godox mount release button in bright orange. It’s nice and large and tactile, so even if you’re working in low-light conditions, it’s very easy to find. At the base, you have the power input, which I’ve already mentioned—with the 20V DC input and the USB-C power delivery input.

Turning over to the front, you have the COB LED, which is surrounded by the Godox mount that enables you to attach a huge variety of light modifiers. In the box, along with the light, we were provided with the lens reflector ML-L36—a standard option that worked well for a lot of situations—and we also had a diffuser and the collapsible Fresnel attachment through this test.

I’ll do a quick run-through of the ML100R’s feature set. To be honest, the features of these lights are becoming very similar across the board—they’re throwing everything at them. But what really stands out about the ML100R over some of the competition is its ease of use. The user interface is simple to operate both on the light body and through the app, which just makes things a little easier.

Starting off, we have full RGB colour control. Through that, you can quickly toggle through all the different colours, their intensities, and brightness—offering plenty of flexibility in application.

The light also has a wide CCT range, with colour temperatures ranging from 1800K up to 10,000K, giving you plenty of flexibility. One thing I really like if you’re using this as a bi-colour lamp to illuminate an interview is the green/magenta colour adjustment. So, if you have other lighting in the room and need to balance a mixed lighting situation, you’ve got that G/M adjustment to do so.

A big feature that’s starting to appeal to me is the app and hardware control combination. Essentially, once you’ve set up, you can very quickly configure the lights with the right colour temperature or colours and adjust them as a starting point. If you’re using multiple lights, you can assign a name for each one and then control them all from the app. This just makes usage and control far easier than having to manually match and adjust each light physically. Instead of having to go from one location, you can adjust everything on your tablet and instantly see the live effect.

Most of the remaining specifications have been covered in the build section. These include the multiple power options, compatibility with the ecosystem, and the wide variety of accessories available for the ML100R. Godox has essentially created an ecosystem, and the ML100R strengthens that as a compact yet powerful light source.

One of the things that instantly stood out to me when the ML100R arrived was the semi-hard case. It’s a really good, high-quality case and makes it very easy to transport the lighting kit. While I do like a Peli case, as I think every photographer does, the semi-hard cases are much lighter and somewhat easier to manoeuvre. At this price point, I think this is probably one of the best solutions and should really be a requirement for all lighting kits like this—so that gives Godox a major positive point.

Opening up the case, everything you need to get started is inside, except for larger lighting modifiers. You have the light unit—the ML100R—with the light reflector ML-L36 attached to the front, the lighting stand adapter that takes the ¼-inch thread from the base of the ML100R and connects to a standard lighting spigot, the AC power adapter, and a protective cover for the COB light for when the ML-L36 isn’t attached.

Setting up the light is really straightforward. Simply mount it on a lighting stand, make sure you’ve got your light modifier attached, and choose your power source.

It’s worth pointing out that not all power sources perform the same with this lamp. If you plug it in using the AC adapter that comes with the light, you’ll get the full 110W. However, if you’re using PD power—so essentially powering the light through a power source such as a V-mount battery or power bank—then the power input is limited. Even though I had a 100W output from the USB-enabled power source I was using, the maximum brightness I could get out of the ML100R was 55% or 60W—so a little down on what you would expect from standard AC power.

With AC power selected so that I could get the full power and abilities from this light for the test, I then went through some of the settings. On the main menu screen, you have Bluetooth, fan, display, language, quick boot, factory reset, and fixture info. The settings are pretty self-explanatory, and the real interest comes when you push the mode button.
In the mode menu, you have CCT, HSI, RGBW, and FX. Taking a look at CCT, you can adjust the colour temperature and green/magenta shift, which is very useful.

Under HSI, you have dim, hue, and saturation; under RGBW, you have dim, RGB, and W adjustments. You use the dial to select the setting you want and then push it in to confirm. The final option is FX.

Under FX, you have icons for each effect, along with labels, which is very useful. You get flash, lightning, cloud, broken bulb, TV, candle, fire, firework, explosion, welding, cop car, SOS, RGB cycle, and party—so a good range of options that should cover all sorts of scenarios.

During the test, I checked out a few of these just to see how good they were. For the most part, they were quite impressive. The cop car effect flashed between red and blue, and one of my favourites—the TV feature—worked really well. It’s great when you’re making shorts and want your characters to look like they’re watching TV. A standard TV often won’t have the power to really influence the style of the scene, whereas a light mimicking a TV actually makes it look far more realistic.

Going back to the CCT option—which is the one most likely used for interviews—there’s plenty of flexibility. Throughout the test, I usually ran it at about 30–50% to just add a little light to the scene. The colour temperature adjustment is also really nice and easy, and the push function to select settings makes it quick and intuitive to shift through everything.

One issue I’ve found when testing these lights is that while the colour temperature (say, 1800K) can be selected on the back of the unit, it isn’t always 100% colour-accurate. What I’ve done—and will continue to do—when testing LED lights is to double-check the colour temperature. By setting the light at 50cm from a Datacolor light meter, I’m able to read the actual colour temperature being produced. The results were interesting.
At 1800K on the ML100R, the meter read 1870K, which is pretty good. Increasing to a cooler 4200K, the meter read 3800K, so the difference widened. At 5600K, the actual reading was 5170K. At 10,000K, it was quite close—9850K.

While there was some discrepancy between the colour temperature displayed by the light and read by the meter, part of that may be due to atmospheric conditions. This was done in a shaded, north-facing room without ambient light. What this essentially means for the ML100R’s colour temperature performance is that it’s very consistent. At the two extremes, it was very accurate. While you’ll need to make a little adjustment for the mid-range, in my tests at 5600K, the most accurate output tended to be around the 6200K mark when shown on the ML100R display.

Another thing I noted was the intensity of the RGB colour that this lamp produces. It’s well beyond anything else I’ve used—really good, rich saturation. If you’re trying to create strong colour effects in your productions, the intensity of the ML100R’s output is exceptional.

The dimming ability is also very smooth. All the functions and features in the app mirror what you can do on the light itself, but there are two major features I’d like to see added to the app. The first is a “Pro” version that lets you create your own FX modes. So, if you want a fade at the end of a scene, you could program that and save it.

The second is a virtual DMX controller. That way, you could create your own lighting configurations through a traditional lighting board interface. If you had three or four of these lights, you could quickly and easily configure them as part of a larger lighting system.

Overall, at the end of this test, I am once again impressed with the Godox LED lighting offering in the ML100R. Firstly, it’s a really nice compact and versatile light that’s easy to position and use. The fact that it has full RGB alongside a relatively powerful 110W output makes it useful for indoor shoots and as part of a larger lighting system.

I feel that this light really comes into its own when it’s paired with other lights from the Godox range—either further ML100Rs or even the small but impressive M1 or M5 smartphone lights.

Essentially, the ML100R is ideal for anyone looking to film content with a DSLR camera. It’s also a great solution for any independent filmmaker who wants a small, powerful, and extremely versatile light they can use in all sorts of scenarios. With 14 pre-programmed effects already built in, it helps boost ambient lighting for short productions.

On the FX side, I do wish there was the ability to program your own—especially for simple fades and transitions that could be used when filming. This would greatly boost its versatility.

Throughout the test, a few other things really stood out. The multiple power options were very useful. While the PD power is limited to 60W—so just over half of the potential output—it still fits well into my workflow. I generally used the light between 30% and 50%, and it performed well within that range.

Another thing I liked was using the DataColor light meter to fine-tune colour output and brightness. You can really see the difference in production quality when using that combination.

While the ML100R is extremely versatile, it does lack DMX support, which may put off some professional users. Again, I wish Godox would create their own virtual DMX-style controller—either as an app or a small hardware unit—as it would be useful for larger productions.

Ultimately, as with all lighting, the real power of the product comes down to the ecosystem that surrounds it. Godox has really invested in this and produced a huge range of very usable, high-quality lighting modifiers. These allow you to produce a wide variety of lighting effects with excellent build quality, making this and other Godox LED lights very appealing—especially considering the price and the overall quality on offer.