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 p.2 #9 · Godox V1 Pro vs. Neewer Z2 Pro speedlite flash (plus Neewer Q120 impressions) | |
In case anyone is interested, I received a couple Neewer Q120 strobes today after seeing them on sale at Amazon for CA $195. Today they're back up to CA $300. Amazon price history indicates that every few months they've dropped briefly to ~CA $200. Not sure if that is also the case for other countries. It's also worth checking Neewer's own store as they seem to frequently have random discounts on random products.
Anyway, some initial thoughts, in no particular order. Build quality seems good and didn't notice anything of concern. It takes the same batteries as the Z2Pro and Z3R, which was a selling point since I'm also using a few Z2Pros. So far I also like the Neewer Studio app. First of all, according to the Apple App Store, this app does not request any information from the phone, which is kind of rare. And you can use the app in 'guest mode' without having to create an account, though that's also an option. It's unclear to me what, if any advantage, creating an account offers. The app/phone connect to Q strobes via bluetooth and you can set nearly everything from the phone. You can also control output power if not using a radio to trigger these, as in, if you're using S1/S2 optical slave mode to trigger these from another system. This is welcome for me if/when I will mix these with my Elinchrom strobes. I can simply use the Elinchrom sender to trigger the Elinchrom strobes and the Q120s will trigger via their optical slaves. This would be a nifty feature to include in the Z speedlights, but guessing it's not going to happen. To trigger these via radio, I'm using the Neewer QPRO sender, which I like for the physical buttons and dial vs. touchscreen input of the newer QZ sender. I did observe one conflict between the app and the QPRO sender. If the app was open on the phone, whatever settings/changes were made there, took precedence over the sender's settings until the app is closed (when swiped up to remove from the app stack in iOS). One time when changing settings in the app and checking the option to switch from fractional power output display to decimal display, which always immediately switches back to fractional display, output settings on the app did not match that on the strobe. It was always off. Quitting and restarting the app resolved the problem.
Non-scientific power output comparison to the Z2Pro (76W/s) at the same zoom settings seems to align with roughly 2/3 stop more output from the Q120. While both are round head units, they're both 'fake' round heads because the flash tube in each is linear in a rectangular reflector. Just the front face diffuser is round. Therefore the projected pattern is still noticeably rectangular, though the Q120's pattern is slightly rounder. At least with the Q120, it would have been nice for it to have a proper round flash tube and reflector assembly, but guessing that would add a fair bit to the cost. IMO something like the Godox AD200 with round flash tube has some advantages for properly filling softboxes and projecting a round light pattern with the round reflector. It's another reason I generally prefer my Elinchrom Quadra/ELB heads for use with modifiers over flat front diffusers with recessed flash tubes, as in the Q120, AD100, etc. Popping the supplied dome diffuser on the Q120 did little to change the light spread pattern. To get a proper round pattern, I found I had to use one Neewer clip-on honeycomb grid stacked with the clip-on wide angle diffuser and with the dome diffuser on top.
Unlike speedlights, the Q120 dumps the charge when the output power setting is reduced. During this time the ready light flashes and it might also beep (but I don't recall because I turned the beep off almost immediately). If you take a photo before it finishes dumping, it will output too much light. The next flash discharge though will be the correct power output. For ~10fps continuous shooting, the Q120 seems to need to be around 1/64 output, but you might be able to cheat that up 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop. At this output level and rate, exposure seemed very consistent (based on histogram values during image playback), whereas with the Z2Pro, IIRC at 1/16 or 1/32 (no longer remember which one keeps up with 10fps) results in around 1/3-1/2 stop exposure reduction between the first and nth flash in a sequence. FWIW everything I tried today with the Q120 was in color mode, which supposedly holds the output color temperature +/- 100K across the output range.
One knock I had against Neewer with the Z2Pros was that in group TTL remote use, there was significant lag between fully pressing the shutter release and when the exposure would actually be made. This was because of how slow the system fires the necessary TTL pre-flashes, one for each group. So the more the number of active groups, the longer the delay would be as each group fires a pre-flash in sequence. Unfortunately this remains the case with the Q120. While group TTL seemed to work well exposure-wise with the Canon R5II, I wouldn't use it for anything dynamic like event coverage. The delay between each group's pre-flash is ridiculously long. Instead I'd establish the manual output required from each strobe, which in this mode, does not fire a pre-flash and exposure is immediate.
This also reminded me that at least with the QPRO trigger, there doesn't appear to be a way to start in TTL output and then convert the most recent exposure into a manual output setting.
Another quibble that will probably not be such a factor with this strobe, is that the PC sync port is 2.5mm. Why does Neewer and Godox like 2.5mm ports so much?? IMO it should be 3.5mm like most other major brands I've used.
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