What is better, a wide Beam Angle, or a Narrow Beam angle?

Making sure that you have the right type of lighting is vital to capture the right shot, and the correct beam angle that the light produces would have a big impact on this. In this blog, we take a look at the advantages of using a Wider or Narrower beam angle, and look at some lighting options for these.

Advantages of Lights with a Wider Beam Angle

If you want the light to cover a wide, area, but you are shooting in a small-medium space, then a light with a wider beam angle (for example 90°, 120° etc.) would be more beneficial to you, since the light does not have to travel very far. 

If you were to use a light with a narrower angle in this situation, the light would not have enough distance to spread out enough to cover a large area, resulting in lighting that is very bright in the centre, but dark at the edges.  If you were to use lights with a narrow beam angle, in a small space, then you would probably need multiple lights to get even coverage over a larger area.

Some examples of Wider Beam Angle lighting units would be our LECO1000B and LECO1500B lighting units. Both of these lighting units offer a Beam Angle of 120°, making these ideal lighting options to cover a wider area of shooting space.

The LECO1000B is a 100W Bi-Colour LED Lighting that offers adjustable colour temperature from Tungsten (3200K) to Daylight Balanced (5600K), allowing you to better match your lighting to your environment. This offers a brightness of 2400 lux @ 1m and can be dimmed between 100% - 10% for give even more control to your lighting. The LED Bulbs are Flicker Free to allow you to shoot at virtually any Framerate. The LECO1000B can be control via remote control when you are away from the unit, and features a built-in V-Mount Battery Plate to allow you to use this lighting unit on different locations.

The LECO1500B is a 150W Bi-Colour LED Lighting unit that offers a dimmable power range of between 100% and 10%. As this lighting unit is Bi-Colour, this offers an adjustable colour temperature range between Bi-Colour (3200K) and Daylight Balanced (5600K) to better match your lighting to your shooting space. The back of the lighting unit features a V-Mount Battery Plate to allow you to run this from battery power to open up its available uses on location. It features a Smart-Passive cooling system to remove the need for cooling fan to make the lighting unit silent and the LED Bulbs are Flicker Free to allow you to shoot at virtually and framerate.

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LECO1000B II Super Bright Bi-Colour LED Panel

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Advantages of Lights with a Narrower Beam Angle

Lights with a narrower beam angle (such as 45°) are great for times where your need to light your subjects from a greater distance. Since the beam is more focused, it maintains its intensity over greater distances, allowing the light to travel further.

Lights with a wider beam angle aren’t as good at throwing light over a greater distance, as the light spreads out more quickly, which caused it to drop in intensity faster than a light with a narrower beam angle.  

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VNIX LED1000S Daylight LED Panel With DMX Output and VNIX1500S Daylight LED Panel With DMX Output

Some examples of Narrow Beam Angle lights would be our VNIX Series. Both the VNIX1000 and VNIX1500 Series lights offer a Beam Angle of 45° so make them the ideal light options for lighting for a great distance.

The VNIX1000 Series offers two options, the VNIX1000S and VNIX1000B.  The VNIX1000S is a 64W Daylight Balanced lighting unit that offers a brightness of 8,900 Lux @1m and the VNIX1000B is a 32W Bi-Colour lighting unit that offers a brightness of 4500 Lux @1m. Both units offer a dimmable range of between 100% - 10% and can be control using a remote control, ideal for quick adjustments when away from the lighting. Whilst predominantly a main powered light, they both also feature a V-Mount Battery Plate on the back of the light for use on location.

This VNIX1500 Series is the more powerful lighting option and also offers two lights to choose from. The VNIX1500S is a 90W Daylight Balanced lighting unit that offers a brightness output of 9,100 Lux @1m whilst the VNIX1500B is a 45W Bi-Colour lighting unit with a brightness of 4,800 Lux @1m. Both the lighting units can be used with both mains and battery power, using the V-Mount Battery Plate built directly onto the unit. Each light can be control using a remote control when away from the unit and can be dimmed between 100% - 10% for better light control.

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VNIX LED1000S Daylight LED Panel With DMX Output and VNIX LED1000B Bi-Colour LED Panel With DMX Output

Conclusion

Finding the correct beam angle for your requirements is vital, as the wider beam angle is perfect for shooting large areas up close and the narrower beam angle is ideal for directing the light further at a specific point. Having a range of different lighting options to choose from that offer differing beam angles makes sure that you are able to get the best possible lighting for your shoot.

Brand PixaPro (rebrand Godox)
Series VNIX series
Model VNIX 1000B VNIX 1000S VNIX1500S VNIX1500B VNIX2000B
Price £249.99 £249.99 £329.99 £329.99 £475.00
Max. Output Power 32W 64W 90W 45W 60W
Colour Temperature 3200-5600K 5600 ± 300K 5600 ± 300K 3200-5500K 3200-5600k
CRI ≥95% ≥95% ≥95% ≥95% ≥95%
TLCI 95 95 95 95 95
Number of LEDs 1040 1040 1520 1520 2016
Luminous Flux No data No data No data No data
Brightness 4500 lux (1m) 8,900 lux (1m) 9,100 lux (1m) 4,800 Lux @1m
7500 Lux @1m
Power Range 10-100% 10-100% 10-100% 10-100% 10-100%
DC Power Input No data No data DC 13-19V DC19-19V No data
Power Adapter DC15V 4A DC19V 4.7A DC 19V 4.7A DC15V 4A No data
DMX 512 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Remote Frequency 2.4GHz 2.4GHz 2.4GHz 2.4GHz 2.4GHz
Remote Range ~50m ~50m ~50m ~50m ~50m
No. Channels 99 Channels 99 Channels 99 Channels 99 Channels 99 Channels
Dimensions 330mm x 210mm x 48.5mm 330mm x 210mm x 48.5mm 330mm x 330mm x 48.5mm 330mm x 330mm x 48.5mm
540mm x 330mm x 35mm
Battery Usage
2x V-Mount Batteries
2x V-Mount Batteries
2x V-Mount Batteries
2x V-Mount Batteries
2x V-Mount Batteries
Battery Usage Time (BP130 V-Lock)
Battery Usage Time (NP-F750)
Battery Usage Time (NP-F970)