Comparing the power and recycle times of Flashpoint flashes

[Braineack]

Wanted to see where all the power levels compared between my various Flashpoint flashes. The Flashpoint XPLOR 600, Studio 400, and Zoom R2 TTL speedlight. I set them all up at 10', and ran them through each power level. I also have manual Zoom R2 speedlights, but figured they be the same and didnt bother.

Then I made this handy little chart and thought it might be good to share and discuss:

I also wanted to test the recycle speeds so I shot them all at 1:1, you can watch that here:



The speedlight is painfully slow at 1/1 -- roughly 4 seconds -- and only provides the light of my xplor 600 at roughly 1/2 power, plus the coverage isnt that great.

The xplor is also 5x the cost, BUT being battery powered and wireless itself it's just as versatile -- only a bit bulky to mount on the camera itself I'm planning on purchasing the 10' extension head for it next time I need to shoot in the field -- basically turns the base/body of the flash into a power station and removes all the weight from the head so you can easily carry it around on a boom or monopod or what have you.

 

[tirediron]

Nice write-up / comparison!

How do you find the build quality on the '600? I was actually thinking that one of those with the extension head might be a useful, inexpensive way to add to my portable light stable.

 

[Derrel]

What was the speedlight's zoom head setting set to in focal length? It looks to me as if it was zoomed to a rather tight beam, like 85 or 100mm, since the coverage is not all that wide. And conversely. what focal length was the lens set to?

A nice comparison! I like the way the frames have a number, and the way you've set this up.

 

[adamhiram]

Nice write-up! I'm pretty surprised to see the speed light at 1/1 matching the XPLOR600 at 1/2 power, although I agree with Derrel's comment - it looks like the speed light may have been zoomed in to a tighter beam. I would be curious what the output would look like with the head zoomed to its widest, which I think is 20mm or 24mm. I would guess speed light at 1/1 zoomed wider would be around 1/4 power of the XPLOR600.

Two other minor observations from my experience with the speed lights... There are pretty significant differences in cycle time on Flashpoint/Godox speed lights with alkaline AA batteries vs. the Li-ion versions. I also observed on my TT600s that I can actually fire 2 full-power flashes back to back, but after that, it needs a long time to charge again - closer to 10s. I assume it has to do with the size of the capacitor that needs to charge before each flash, but my real take-away was to try to stay at 1/2 power or below and it becomes a non-issue.

 

[Braineack]

What was the speedlight's zoom head setting set to in focal length? It looks to me as if it was zoomed to a rather tight beam, like 85 or 100mm, since the coverage is not all that wide. And conversely. what focal length was the lens set to?

A nice comparison! I like the way the frames have a number, and the way you've set this up.

focal length was 50mm. speedlight looks like it was firing at 24mm zoom.

I went back and sat in front of the backdrop and held a light meter and redid the tests that way -- to get an actual measure measurement. I set the light meter to iso 100 and 1/125sec. Here's the results I got:

i was comparing them visually by the thumbnails, still seems about the same as visualized.

Speedlight had four fully charged AA Eloops in it. It's supossed to have a GN of ~127.

 

[Braineack]

Nice write-up / comparison!

How do you find the build quality on the '600? I was actually thinking that one of those with the extension head might be a useful, inexpensive way to add to my portable light stable.

It's pretty nice. very well designed, even the unlock button for the Bowens mount is really nice. Comes with a nice 7" diffuser panel for the reflector, you can convert it to AC powered, the extension head is awesome, and there's even a 1000w/s extension head. It has a built in fan, but the modeling light is a super bright LED so it never gets hot and doesn't wear down the batteries when on. The battery seems to last forever.

I got the non-TTL version, so I should test the sync speeds I can do. My 160w/s strobes I just replaced could sync all the way up to 1/4000sec using my YN6222-TX.

I'm not sold on the side panel, but since the battery pack is on the butt end, I get it.

 

[Derrel]

So, this is at 10 feet, and the background is a 9 foot wide seamless paper roll, right? I'm surprised (disappointed is what I actually mean) to see such a strong, bright, central hotspot from the speedlight if that is actually the 24mm setting, and that is at 10 feet distant. What was the lens focal length? 50mm? That seems about right based on my guess.

Here's a URL to the non-TTL XPLOR 600 monolight, which looks very,very nice to me, and which I've seen on YouTube extensively tested against the "original" $2,000 profoto similar (older unit) flash. The XPLOR is actually better, statistically, on most metrics, but then again, they had a unit to compare with, and to out-engineer,and several years to do that in.

Flashpoint XPLOR 600

 

[Braineack]

I can test the flash up against my other speedlights. I still have a YN560, Neewer VK750II, and a few Zoom R2 non-ttl's.

 

[Derrel]

The extension head for the XPLOR 600 looks like a wonderful deal, at around $65 or so! This extension head plugs into the flashtube socket on the main body of the XPLOR 600 unit, and it would in effect, create a sort of pack-and-head setup, making a lightweight flash head for mounting on a boom, or a lightweight stand, or mounted on a clamp and spigot on top of an open door (something I like to do),so you don't actually NEED a lightstand, only a door, in order to mount a powerful flash up fairly high in a normal room. it's also a bit safer outdoors in the wind, to have a LIGHT-weight flash head up high, and not risk having the entire monolight fall if and when the stand tips over due to uneven ground or wind or a person hitting it.

https://www.adorama.com/Als.Mvc/nspc/Product/GetQuickViewPopupContent/FPLFXP600/true

 

[Braineack]

okay, so the Speedlight was indicating 24mm, but it was actually shooting at 200mm. I changed the zoom in and out, and set it back to 24mm and the coverage was very similar to the studios -- full frame coverage. I run the tests with it again.

 

[Braineack]

I've updated the visual plot and charts.

 

[Braineack]

making a lightweight flash head for mounting on a boom, or a lightweight stand, or mounted on a clamp and spigot on top of an open door (something I like to do),so you don't actually NEED a lightstand, only a door, in order to mount a powerful flash up fairly high in a normal room. it's also a bit safer outdoors in the wind, to have a LIGHT-weight flash head up high, and not risk having the entire monolight fall if and when the stand tips over due to uneven ground or wind or a person hitting it.

good idea. i have a super clamp with a flash bracket too!

looks like a great solution for an assistant; attaching it on a monopod and they can wield it and move around

 

[mrca]

Yes, that is how Annie Leibovitz has been doing it for years and using about a 42" soft lighter using an assistant and a light on a stick. Don't know the cost of the lights you tested, but Einsteins will fire 10 times A SECOND. It is able to pop at 6 fps at half power or less even on the original Vagabond battery , not so on the mini. Have you tried firing your lights with various modifiers to see the pattern each throws especially the fall off? It helps you "see the light." Did a shot once where I could only get the bg light on a hill side on the R side but wanted it darker on that side. Used the fall off edge from the grid to hit the hill side, so it was darker against the bright side of the subject, put the hot spot behind her and let the hot center of the beam hit the hill side on the far side of her, making it brighter on the subject shadow side. Knowing the fall off with a grid enabled that solution. The pattern of the AB original silver parabolic was amazing. At 18 feet, a hard edge, virtually no fall off. It's a 7' spot light. Have boomed it for that effect even out doors. The grids on reflector, decent amount of fall off. Interesting difference was octas with and w/0 egg crates.

 

[Braineack]

yeah, ive done that before, here's my beauty dish vs with grid vs grid/sock:

I was more curious about the outputs here, since these strobes are all new to me and I've been shooting the same (2) equal power 160 w/s strobes for 4 years now.

The recycle time of the XPLOR 600 is significantly faster at 1/2 power, and pretty much instant at 1/4.

I paid $595 shipped for it packaged with a free R2 Manual flash, and the R2 transmitter.

 

[Braineack]

here:







im pushing these by hand, i could shoot in CL and CH and see how many misses there are, but I think these are fast enough for my needs