This review is throwing me off. If I am going to invest in strobes, they have to be good for F11 at 6~8 feet back.
So this Flashpoint budget series is just a rebranded Godox really. Like most of the Flashpoint stuff, well, all of it, it's just rebranded from another OEM. I wanted Flashpoint though because it's here in the USA and not shipping from China. And I can deal with the warranty and return policy, etc, of
Adorama here in the USA instead of dealing with overseas stuff. That alone makes it worth it to me. The light itself is what you think it is. A simple strobe. Don't be fooled by the 120ws rating and the Guide Number of 125 at ISO 100 in feet. This is not a powerful strobe at all. A modern manual speedlite is over a stop more powerful. The reason you're looking at this light is because it's 1) wired and not using batteries for non-stop shooting at all times; 2) cheap, $49 shipped cost; 3) has a modeling light which is very, very bright actually; 4) powerful enough to actually be a strobe and not just a flashlight; 5) features like the umbrella shaft built in making it a great budget light. I metered this light at full power, at 1/100s and ISO 100 on my light meter and got F11 at 3 feet (1 meter approximately). My Yongnuo 560 III manual flash (also $50) at 24mm zoom (widest spread) at the same distance meters at F28. It's over 1 stop more powerful. So again, don't be fooled by numbers, this strobe is NOT powerful. You're not getting this to light up a huge modifier at shoot at 8~12 feet away. That's not going to work. This is for close work. Again this strobe has documented guide number of 125 at ISO 100. So for a 5 foot distance, it should meter F25. And at 25 feet, it should meter F5. This is not true at all. Again, I metered F11 at 3 feet. That's a real world guide number of 33. This is more like a very weak speedlite. Again, my manual flash (Yongnuo 560 III) speedlite metered F28 at 3 feet which is a guide number of 84. That's more appropriate to it's documentation. So be aware. This is not a powerful strobe. Again, this strobe is more useful for close range work, like 1~2 meters tops (3 to 6 feet). More than that, and you simply won't get enough light for typical camera settings and aperture. For product work with a small aperture, again, you're going to get F11 light at 3 feet approximately at 1/100s and ISO 100. Of course you can get more light with more ISO, so that's not a problem, unless you don't want ambient light. Typically strobes are used to muscle through small apertures for this kind of work. Good for small studio portrait. Lights up a 47" modifier at 1/2 power just fine at 3 feet. Could get more out of it at 4~5 feet. Beyond that, unless you're shooting at F2.8 or F4, it will be underpowered. So keep that in mind. Be aware this is not a powerful strobe. It's just a cheap $50 strobe that has good output, consistency is very good, has a modeling light, and doesn't need batteries, and has a modifier holder built in. That's the thing's strength. Consistency is surprisingly good. I expected it to be all over the place, but I metered the same output over and over 10 shots in rapid succession. So it's good on power output. I did the same thing on all the stops (1/8th, 1/4th, 1/2 and 1/1). Temperature is on the warm side of 5600 for me, the +/- 200K is pretty close from my readings, but remember modifier can further change temperature too. I still feel it's a touch on the warmer side (that's ok, just know it and adjust for it). The power dial on the back is very, very limited. No stepping point, just fluid attenuation. So at minimum (1/8th) power, it's all the way to one side, and at maximum power (1/1) it's all the way to the other side. I marked values on the dial are completely wrong. I metered the light at 1 stop intervals at a fixed distance to see where they were and it's more like a quartered dial. So 1/8th is what it is, than turn 25% to get one more stop, turn 25% to get one more stop, and turn all the rest of the way to get full power. So it was 1/8th power, then 1 stop later is at 9pm (on a clock) position (this is 1/4th power). Then at 12 o'clock (on a clock) position it's 1 more stop (1/2 power). Then it's full power after that. Very strange how the dial works. Definitely don't go by the markings. Again, I used a meter to figure this out and now I can quickly and accurately set it by full stop values. The instructions in the booklet are pretty annoying because it will tell you to power down the strobe after 30 minutes of shooting, or to turn off the modeling light after 5 minutes of use, to allow it to cool down. This is a big red flag. This unit doesn't have an active fan cooling it. It will over heat if you pop it really fast over and over with the modeling light on. I have not tortured mine to death, as I have no interest in melting it down and sending it back. But be aware, this is not a work horse strobe that you plug in, leave on the modeling light forever, and blast at 1/1 power all day long and expect it to work fine every day. It will not do that for long and will likely overheat. So keep this in mind. This is good for shooting here and there. If you need to shoot non-stop all day (like product photography), get a different strobe with a good active thermal control system. This is a budget light, get it for budget reasons (like random and casual shooting, not intense shooting, not for a day of 1000 photos, more like a day of 100 photos or something). Other than that, if you know what you're getting, it's a good light for it's purpose. Again, it's a $50 wired strobe with a modeling light. It's consistent. That's good. Just know what it's not--it's not a work horse that you can abuse. And know it's not powerful, 120ws is not powerful at all, and is just a number, it's actual output is completely different from what the guide number suggests. Expect a true guide number of 33 from this strobe, not 125. It's no where near that. This strobe is about as powerful as a weaker speedlite. -- MalVeauX @ POTN
