Neewer CB300C at a glance:

• Price $429 /£439.99
• Bi-colour RGB LED light
• 2500-7500K
• 300W output
• Bowens S mount
• 385x210x200mm and 2.95kg
• neewer.com

Neewer’s CB300C is a continuous LED light in the company’s upper tier of studio lights. The CB series fixtures have metal bodies with a more durable build and more accurate colour than the lower cost FS series, which are made with plastic housings. So this CB300C is designed to last and to service higher-end users who need a bit more consistency and durability from a studio light. 

The C at the end of the product name indicates it offers Coloured light as well as shades of warm-to-cool whites, and consequently we have red, green and blue LEDs alongside the warm white and cool white diodes.  At 300W the CB300C is in the mid-to-upper range for power output, and as such should be as useful inside a softbox as it is with a silver reflector dish, and should provide enough light for a whole range of uses. 

Usually I’d look for that special something – the new enticing feature – to mention in this opening section, but specification and feature-wise there’s nothing standout about this light. I suspect that the not-insignificant attraction for most users will be the hope that the Neewer CB300C is a solid reliable light that comes at a price a good deal lower than its competitors. 

Neewer CB300C – Focal Points

• RGBCW: Red, Green, Blue alongside cool and warm white LEDs allow the Neewer CB300C to produce a massive range of colours and shades of white.
• 300W of power: Drawing 300W, the CB300C can provide plenty of light for portraits, still life and macro work, as well as fill in when used in daylight interiors.
• Good cooling: Vents on the top and undercarriage of the body allow heat from the light to escape easily, and the three-mode fan takes over when that’s not enough. Silent mode lets us switch the fan off.

Neewer CB300C – Features

The Neewer CB300C is a studio light that uses LEDs to create bi-colour and RGB lighting effects that encompass colour temperatures from 2500K to 7500K, and a host of colour values according to the mode in which they are chosen. Users can choose colours via the standard HSI (Hue, Saturation, Intensity) route that Neewer says allows us access to 36,000 colours, or pick from a collection of 20 gels each from the Lee and Rosco systems. Further colour control comes via the RGBCW mode through which we can adjust each red, green, blue, cool white and warm white diode group through a range of 0-255 to create an almost endless mix of shades.

We can also colour match the hue/saturation with another light or with the colour of an object using the Neewer Studio App on a smartphone – you aim the smartphone camera at something and the CB300C projects that colour. We are told the light’s colour gamut covers 90% of the Rec.2020 standard, so more colours should be able to be created than our cameras can probably record. Usefully too, in the CCT mode we have the chance to adjust green and magenta to match other lights or to correct any shift in the CB300C itself. 

For videographers there are 17 effects built-in to simulate ambient light sources, such as an open fire, candle light, fireworks and lightning. A lot of these, such as the police car, just make more sense in colour than they do in a bi-colour light. Again the app allows much more customisation to tailor them to your exact requirements. 

As this is a bright light – 29,600lux at 1m with the supplied dish – it does generate quite a bit of heat. Vents top and bottom are designed to allow air to flow through the body, and a three-speed fan encourages cooling at different rates. In silent mode the fan still draws air but slowly and silently, but the reduced cooling limits the light output to 40% of its maximum. The Auto mode tries to find a balance by adjusting fan speed and brightness according to the conditions, while with the fan on high speed we can have 100% brightness all the time. 

This isn’t the sort of light that we can run from a V-Lock battery, so it needs mains power to run whether we are inside or out. If you want battery operation you need to look at the Neewer FS300C. 

At the front we have a standard Bowens S mount for dishes and softboxes, and there’s a slot for a brolly on the underside of the body. 

Neewer CB300C – In use

The light is convenient to use, and the physical design and the layout of controls makes operation pretty straight forward. All the controls are on the rear of the light and we have a decent-sized screen that displays our settings and which is bright enough to see clearly even outside. There’s a cluster of four small buttons – three of which we won’t need very often – including a mode button that cycles us through the CCT, HSI, FX, RGBCW, Lee GEL and Rosco Gel options. Adjustments and selections are made using the main dial that we press to pick the setting we want to change, and then turn to do the changing. Within ten minutes you’ll know where to find everything. Neewer’s Studio app is very good too, and allows us another level of control. And it actually works the way it should. 

Mounting the light is made a good deal easier by the placement of a sizeable handle on the top of the body, which is very nice to hold the light by. It sticks out quite a way, and as such makes the light somewhat bigger if you are fitting it in a bag other than the (rather nice) supplied case. The Q series flash units had a similar handle on the Q4, but Neewer introduced a hinge in the Q6 to allow the handle to fold flat to the body and take up less space. However, I don’t think the same solution would work for this light while maintaining the usefulness of the handle. 

It is possible to rotate the fixture about 360 degrees as the yoke sits far enough away from the body to clear both the rear and lamp, but the power cable needs to be unplugged and any modifier removed to allow this to happen. 

I found the heat-control systems of this Neewer CB300C most effective, and even when running at full power for long periods it doesn’t really get beyond ‘pretty warm’. I used the Auto fan setting initially to see when the output of the light would drop when the fan kicked in, but it didn’t happen. We haven’t had hot weather for some time so the story may be different in the summer, but in normal indoor temperatures the light behaved very well. In silent mode of course the light output drops, as is always the case. But with the light a four feet or so from the camera/microphone, videographers may not need silent mode. 

Neewer CB300C – Performance

I found the colour of the CCT mode settings slightly magenta in the lower power settings, and a bit blue when the light is asked to put out more power. In either case, we’re not too far off. But using an in-camera custom WB always makes editing easier when those colour shifts are so slight it’s difficult to identify exactly what’s going on. 

Fitted with the supplied dish, you can expect f/8 at 1/125sec and ISO 400 when all the LEDs are firing at 5200K and the light is 2m from the subject. But other settings give dimmer output. When using the colour modes with only red LEDs operational, for example, your reading could drop down as far as f/2.8.

Neewer CB300C – Verdict

There are no bells or whistles about this light – indeed it does nothing special at all. But often that’s exactly what we need. It’s a very nicely made, solid light that seems as though it will last a long time and will put in many hours of service without drawing much attention to itself. It’s bright enough to be useful for a lot of things, and makes a nice main light in a softbox or brolly, and is powerful enough to provide a general fill when bounced off a ceiling or a wall. I used it a lot with the supplied dish to form a back light or side light alongside the more powerful Neewer AS600B, and found the two work very nicely together. A light with no gimmicks, you’ll find the Neewer CB300C useful, reliable and a good solid performer. It’s very nicely priced and I haven’t come across any downsides yet. 

Related reading:

• Neewer HB80C RGB COB LED light review
• Neewer Q200 review – well featured and portable studio flash
• Neewer Q6 flash review – reliable, consistent and persistent
• Neewer Q4 flash review – solid powerful and value for money

Full Specifications