review: nanlite pavoslim 240CL
What’s up my fellow light lover!
Today’s review covers the Nanlite Pavoslim 240CL. With the release of this 4 foot by 1 foot panel, Nanlite continues their streak of adding great lights to their product lineup. Let’s talk about why I’m so excited about the 240CL, touch upon some areas where the light could be improved, and test the quality and output in both CCT and HSI modes.
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product overview
The Nanlite Pavoslim 240CL is a 260-watt RGBWW 4×1 panel. It comes with a head unit, ballast, power cable, an extended header cable, grid, two types of diffusion, two mounting options, and a ballast clamp. The unit features a CCT range from 2,700 Kelvin to 7,500 Kelvin, with green and magenta adjustment. Intensity is adjustable in 1% increments in all modes.
The ballast features two knobs and two buttons to control a streamlined interface, a fan-less design, and two v-mount battery slots for use with 14.4-26V batteries. The 240CL can be operated with one or both battery slots occupied. When switching between AC power and battery power, as in the case of a breaker being blown or the power going out, the swapover is instantaneous.
Connectivity options include Bluetooth for pairing with the NANLINK app, a CRMX chip for those of us with wireless DMX systems, and the cutest little DMX input port on top of the ballast for hard-wiring.
The head unit is made from a single metal panel. It features a quick-release mounting system on the back for the two included mounting attachments – a baby pin receiver and a baby pin. These slip in easily to their designated spot on the back of the unit, and there’s an audible click when they lock in place. Pulling the tab right here releases the unit.
If either of those mounting options won’t get the light where you need it to go, there’s the option to use any of these 3/8″ threaded receivers located in each of the corners on the back of the head unit.
When necessary, the diffusion frame itself can be removed by just un-velcroing it from the unit. Putting it back on is just as easy.
Lastly, the unit comes with a 15′ header cable that features locking connectors between the head unit and ballast.
what I like
There’s quite a few design decisions that went into this product that I’m a big fan of.
First up, the fan-less design of both the head and ballast means the unit is silent in operation, even at 100%. Sound-guy approved for sure. (cut to me pretending to be a sound guy giving a thumbs up to the camera)
Despite it’s relatively-large size and the all-metal construction of the backing plate, the head unit only weighs 10 lbs with the diffusion frame and grid on. This relatively low weight to size ratio means the 240CL can easily be rigged overhead or boomed safely on a menace arm.
The pop-up style diffusion on the head unit is probably the best ways any company has implemented diffusion to a panel light that we’ve seen so far. This design means the 240CL is basically ready within seconds from being taken out of the case, it just needs to be unvelcroed on either side.
And to get really crazy, the setup time can be decreased further by literally just leaving everything plugged in when the unit and ballast are put back in the case.
The provided grid slips on easily, reduces the spread of the beam angle, controls the light from unwanted spilling, and importantly doesn’t have any sag in the middle.
The baby pin receiver mounting accessory has a handle on it to make re-positioning the light much easier. Without this idea, we would’ve had to just kind of… manhandle the light, so I’m glad they thought of this.
And lastly, the individual LEDs have a dome over them. I think this benefits the output in two ways. First, they help focus the light emitted from the LEDs, which pushes more light forward rather than to the side, increasing the output of the unit. Second, it appears that these domes may also help with blending the colors emitted by the RGB diodes. See here how the red and blue LEDs are active, but the dome appears to blend them into a purple hue.
what I don't like
I’ll be honest, this section is pretty short. And there’s so much that I like about the Pavoslim 240CL that I have to remind myself that this is a Nanlite and not a Nanlux product, because the things I want to nitpick are features that brands usually save for their more professional units.
The header cable is made of a more inexpensive lining, meaning it could melt if it ends up resting against something with a bit of heat to it.
Really, my biggest complaint is that despite how linearly the light dims, it doesn’t dim in 0.1% increments. As a result of this, the output at 1% could still be too bright in some locations when operated in CCT mode. Switching to 0.1% intensity increments would also increase fidelity to the output at intensity levels between 1 and 5%.
Also, the green/magenta adjustment being set to a max of 150 in either direction feels kind of arbitrary to me. This maximum adjustment level also doesn’t correspond to any filmmaking standards like duv or green/magenta color correction gel strengths.
Besides these three things, there really isn’t much that I don’t like about the form factor of this light. Nanlite did a phenomenal job designing not only this light, but their entire Pavoslim lineup.
data review
Alright, let’s dig into the most important part of any light review – covering the output quality. We’ll start with two graphs that help us understand how the light performs in CCT mode. Then, we’ll switch over to HSI mode to understand how evenly this light covers it’s color gamut. Lastly we’ll look measure the output in a few ways, as well as look at the SSI and TM30 scores.
GRAPH 1
First on the chopping block, let’s see how accurately the Nanlite Pavoslim 240CL stays at 5600 Kelvin and 3200 Kelvin throughout it’s intensity range.
Beginning with the results at 5600 Kelvin, this is the *ONE* area that I wish this light performed better in. We can see that at 100% intensity, the light begins within 100 Kelvin of 5600 kelvin which is pretty good, and definitely within tolerance. But as we decrease intensity from 100% down to 5%, the color temperature output decreases by another 250 Kelvin to nearly 5250 kelvin, which is noticeably warmer than our daylight standard reference.
The axis on the right describes how much magenta/green shift the light has, and the Pavoslim 240CL does wonderfully here. A duv shift between 0.0010 and 0.0015 towards green is not even noticeable to the average human.
When looking at the 3200 Kelvin graph, we can see the 240CL measured about 100 kelvin below the target throughout the intensity spectrum. The green/magenta shift here is even more accurate to the standard target, consistently staying within 0.0005 units of 0.
GRAPH 2
This next graph shows us how well the Pavoslim 240CL follows the TM-30 reference curve, which is the standard color temperature curve in cinema. The light does a fairly good job at tracking this reference standard, staying within a 1/8 color correction gel from 2,700 Kelvin all the way to 7,000 kelvin.
The crossover from green to magenta tint happening between 4,000 and 5,000 Kelvin is because this light doesn’t try to track the TM-30 Reference curve, which is the newest color temperature standard. Nanlite engineers tracked the Planckian Curve when programming this unit, which is an older color temperature standard. When I place this blackbody reference curve over our existing graph, we can see that the Pavoslim 240CL does remarkable when it is tested against the standard it was programmed to follow.
The data line being shifted to the right of the standard line indicates that the Pavoslim 240CL tested warmer than the dialed in color temperature along the entire color temperature range. This result correlates with the warm CCT shift in both of the previous graphs.
The color temperature curve of the Pavoslim 240CL remains relatively consistent as intensity is reduced from 100% to 75% to 50% to 25%.
If you’re curious to learn more about color temperature, how I derived any of these graphs, and why I just called the Planckian Curve old news, click the link in the description to watch my in-depth primer on the color science of film lighting!
GRAPH 3
Alright, let’s swap out of CCT mode and over to HSI, so we can see how the Pavoslim 240CL performs when outputting colors.
This first graph shows us the relationship between outputted color and the chosen hue value. The hue degree value is adjusted from 0-355 degrees in 5 degree increments and tested at saturation and intensity levels of 100%.
A relatively even distribution like this is a great result for the Pavoslim 20CL. An even spread indicates a strong linear relationship between the hue degree value and the color that’s being cast, which means a user should be able to dial in the color they want with relative ease when at max saturation.
GRAPH 4
If we measure the Pavoslim 240CL in 30 degree hue value increments, and at saturation levels of 100, 75, and 50%, we end up with this graph, showcasing the relationships between hue selection, saturation, and color output.
This is another area the Pavoslim scores very strongly. The consistently spaced movement for each hue between 100, 75 and 50% saturation suggests that the saturation level of the hue being cast has a strong correlation with the saturation knob itself. This linear correlation bewteen the two is further supported by the relatively similar distances between 100 to 50% saturation and 50% to 0% saturation for each hue. If anything, this light could have desaturated a little less between 100 and 50%, which would have increased fidelity slightly in this region, where we’re more likely to use a light when in HSI mode anywa.
This graph remained relatively consistent as intensity is lowered from 100 percent to 75, to 50, and down to 25 percent. Love to see that result.
GRAPH 5
Another way to look at the previous data is to group the measurements by saturation level instead of intensity.
Much like the first graph showed us how well the Pavoslim stayed at the reference targets in CCT mode as intensity was lowered, this diagram illustrates the consistenty in HSI mode of the outputted color as intensity is adjusted from 100 to 75 to 50 to 25 percent.
At 100% saturation, the Pavoslim 240CL could have remained more consistent. The spread of the majority of these hue measurements indicates that the hue will change slightly with the intensity level.
As saturation is lowered from 75 to 50%, we can see the apparent spread to each hue becomes more constrained.
GRAPH 6
Lastly, let’s look at how linear the correlation is between the intensity knob and the output is in CCT mode for the Nanlite Pavoslim 240CL.
Another graph, another area the Pavoslim 240CL scored extremely well.
Between the graph and the measured values on the left, we can see this light doubles the measured output whenever the intensity level is doubled anywhere along the intensity spectrum. AND it does this at both 5,600 kelvin and at 3,200 kelvin. A perfectly linear correlation like this means that when we need to reduce by a stop, we can just cut the intensity in half without thinking about it. Same thing to bring the light up a stop, just double the intensity.
SSI/TM-30
At 5600 Kelvin the Nanlite Pavoslim 240CL produced an SSI score of 75 and a TM-30 Rf score of 95.
At 3200 Kelvin the Nanlite Pavoslim 240CL produced an SSI score of 86 and a TM-30 Rf value of 94.
conclusion
I know, I know, these last few releases from Nanlite have me sounding like a bit of a fanboy for them. And if they continue to put out great releases like the Pavoslim 240CL here, then that trend is going to continue. If you don’t mind the warm shift in CCT mode, then I definitely recommend adding this one to your kit.
The 240CL works perfect as a hair light. It’s a great kicker for someone standing up. I’m currently using it as a key light for this video. Place one of these on either side of a green screen to turn that setup into easy mode. Those same two panels could then be used as cross-keys for a two-person interview in a low-ceiling room. I could go on, but you get the point. A light in this form factor has a lot of use cases, and I’m happy to see Nanlite nail this one.
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Nanlite provided the Pavoslim 240CL for review
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This blog post contains only Tyler’s opinions about G&E, gaffing, and LED lighting, and was not reviewed or paid for by outside persons or manufacturers
Tyler Trepod is a freelance owner/operator gaffer of a 1-Ton Grip & Electric truck based in Denver, Colorado and serves the Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, & Fort Collins markets