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Mu-43 Regular
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- Dec 22, 2015
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There will be no change in flash hardware with the expansion of compatibility - it's just software / firmware updates for the flashes.
New Godox Light AD200
- Thread starter Repp
- Start date
Certainly hope that is the case, but new hardware, in the form of a M4/3 transmitter, is needed as none exists. When Sony compatibility was added a few months back a new Sony specific transmitter was added to the lineup. And not all functions available to Canon/Nikon are included.
Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
Clint
Mu-43 Hall of Famer
Edward Tang of Cheetah Light posted on Facebook that the "Olympus and Panasonic TTL/HSS remote for Cheetah X series light come out first...I will test on May...."
So maybe by June we'll have a viable TTL/HSS system other than Olympus and Metz! Oh, and he noted that the lights will need a firmware update.
He also posted on YouTube his QC check of the units before he shipped. Kind of an interesting watch.
So maybe by June we'll have a viable TTL/HSS system other than Olympus and Metz! Oh, and he noted that the lights will need a firmware update.
He also posted on YouTube his QC check of the units before he shipped. Kind of an interesting watch.
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Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
@Clint I've been following his posts as well. I'm really excited for more support! Even more so because I have 2x CL200s coming in the mail on Wednesday. I think that a TT350/AD200 combo could be ideal for what I want as a portable flash setup. Will have to decide if I want to keep and upgrade the receivers on my older v850s/ad360 or sell them to invest in more of the newer gen 2 gear with better hss and full ttl.
As some of you may know I shoot with both Nikon and Olympus M4/3 gear. Late last year I decided to add the D500 to my D800 vs. the swapping out my EM1 for the new EMI MK II (and glad I did.) Still love my EM1 and will use it quite a bit, but more and more I am loving the ergonomics of how the professional bodies of Nikon just work so easy without having to dive into menus and non-descript function buttons.
Anyway.... as the AD200 has Nikon iTTL and Auto FP (HSS) built in, but as all of my Godox lights are manual, I decided to try the new AD200 and ordered one from Adorama (they call it the evolv 200, but it is identical). I am using the X1-N as a transmitter and have already bought the 2.4 GHz receivers for the manual lights I own. My thought was that a pair of these could replace my 2 AD180 for my studio background lighting and for all travel and field lighting. I have 2 AD360’s for main lights, the 180’s are used for backdrop lighting, and when needed when hiking as lighter weight main lights, and the 2 V850’s are used for hair, separation and spot lighting with gels, both in studio and in the field. The AD200 arrived this week and really haven’t put it through it paces yet, but I did want to share some initial impressions.
It is very well built, solid and quite hefty. The flash heads switch out pretty easily, but only mount one way, so you need to pay attention the first few times as to which way they mount. The included grid, gels and barn door accessories only works with the speedlite head and are very well made. As Adorama listed this as a $29 kit for buying independently from the whole flash kit, I only hope Godox makes a similar kit for its existing V850/860 flashes, as unfortunately the included accessories do not fit the older speedlites, just a tiny bit too small in height (the V850 are more of an oval shape vs. rectangular for the AD200 flash head). Way better than spending $90 for a Magmod kit, which does not have barn doors, I would buy a couple for my V850's for sure.
My existing AD180 bulbs do not work with the AD200, even thought the pin spacing is the same. 3 of the 4 pins are used, just like the AD180 bulb, however in the unused 4th pin slot Godox slipped in a sleeve in the pin receptor and made the 4th pin on the bulb slightly smaller diameter to fit this sleeve. Most likely just to keep people like me from putting the AD180 bulbs in the AD200 (maybe for good reason). But the good news is the AD200 bulbs are about 50% the cost ($40) of the AD180 bulbs.
A nice case is included and below is a photo of how I will deck it out. An extra bulb sits to the right of my X1 transmitter under the metal protector and a 2nd battery, on order, will sit in the battery slot. The charger and cord, it is not a wall mount type charger as it is too big and heavy and needs the cord, will be stored with all my other chargers. Hopefully with an extra battery in the case I should be able to get a full days of shooting, but more likely 2, as the batteries in my other 3 types of Godox lights can go for that long if you are not shooting at full power all the time.
And of course the fact that the battery is internal means there are no cables connecting the battery to the flash head, making for a more compact unit vs. my AD180/360.
The biggest issue I have is the mounting of the AD200 to work in the same way my AD180's or V850’s do. There are 2 restrictions. Lets say you want to put an AD200 behind your subject on the floor and light up the background or provide a spot or rim light. With no mounting at the foot of the unit you need to introduce a 90 degree mounting grip. The one Godox provides in the kit is just OK, as it is pretty small in size. This makes it hard to tighten up the knobs when they are right against the side of the flash. I have excellent metal Manfrotto umbrella brackets and will definitely use these instead (photo 3). But even these are not long enough to clear the bottom of the unit and if you want to sit the flash vertical on the floor, you need a small tripod or light stand to hold the flash in place, as a typical flash foot H shaped mini stand will not work. The AD180 and V850 come with the mini foot and are so easy to mount and use in this fashion. Or with a whole raft of mounting grips made for foot mounting of flashes.
The 2nd restriction is the that the AD180/360 and V850/860 heads not only rotate the flash head almost 360 degrees, but they can move the head on an arc from 180 degrees upwards to 80 degrees or so forward get the flash into a L shape. These 2 features give you almost unlimited flexibility in aiming the lights. The AD200 flash head is fixed, it does not rotate and is always in the 180 degree upwards position. So the entire body must be aimed where you want it to point and you need a decent umbrella bracket, or an S bracket, and added studs to do so. Maybe not so difficult on a light stand with S bracket or ballhead, but in my case of using an Autopole and Superclamps (to keep floor stands to a minimum) in my narrow 1-car garage studio somewhat difficult to get to the same tilt with precision. With both the AD180 and V850 I just use the provided flash foot that has a metal receptor on the bottom and screw this onto the 1/4-20 stud in the Superclamp that is attached to the Autopole, and then turn and tilt the flash head for alignment. But it was not easy to get the same exact angle and tilt with the AD200 with the included umbrella bracket, due to the lack of rotation (see the last 2 photos). I also carry a small mini clamp that allows me to mount my AD180 or V850 to car windows, fenceposts, rafters, doors etc and while it would be possible to mount the AD200 with the umbrella bracket and some extra studs, it certainly won’t be as convenient, again due to the fixed head with lack of rotation.
The mounting flexibility restrictions of the AD200 vs. the other Godox flash units I own can be overcome, but it means you may need to invest in additional grips, studs, brackets, small ball heads and/or small tripods/floor stands. Below are photos showing my solutions (so far) to get the same flexibility, you may have other solutions.
Overall the AD200 is a nicely thought out addition to the Godox lights I already own and the internal battery helps cut the components you need to carry. However due to the added steps necessary to obtain the same mounting flexibility as my current Godox lites, the AD200 will not replace either the AD360 or AD180 for studio work. But this will become my main travel light for field use, along with a S bracket mount that allows for rotating and tilting the flash head. There really is no weight savings vs. the AD180 including the battery, as both are around 2 pounds, but of course the lack of plugs and connecting wires helps with the clutter. Rather than buying 2 of the AD200's, I plan to pair it with a V850 (which I can mount almost anywhere with the mini clamp) for a pretty small 2 lite kit and use bare bulb modifiers like the 12” metal Godox beauty dish (AD-S3), 18” pop up Godox soft box (AD-S7) and my 28” Glow Parapop with S bracket on the AD200 as the main light. Both lights, extra battery and bulb, 2 Nano light stands, the main modifiers (sans metal 12" BD) and my Rouge modifiers for the speedlite, grips and S bracket all fit into a small Hakuba tripod case making it easy to carry in the field, along with my camera backpack.
Anyway.... as the AD200 has Nikon iTTL and Auto FP (HSS) built in, but as all of my Godox lights are manual, I decided to try the new AD200 and ordered one from Adorama (they call it the evolv 200, but it is identical). I am using the X1-N as a transmitter and have already bought the 2.4 GHz receivers for the manual lights I own. My thought was that a pair of these could replace my 2 AD180 for my studio background lighting and for all travel and field lighting. I have 2 AD360’s for main lights, the 180’s are used for backdrop lighting, and when needed when hiking as lighter weight main lights, and the 2 V850’s are used for hair, separation and spot lighting with gels, both in studio and in the field. The AD200 arrived this week and really haven’t put it through it paces yet, but I did want to share some initial impressions.
It is very well built, solid and quite hefty. The flash heads switch out pretty easily, but only mount one way, so you need to pay attention the first few times as to which way they mount. The included grid, gels and barn door accessories only works with the speedlite head and are very well made. As Adorama listed this as a $29 kit for buying independently from the whole flash kit, I only hope Godox makes a similar kit for its existing V850/860 flashes, as unfortunately the included accessories do not fit the older speedlites, just a tiny bit too small in height (the V850 are more of an oval shape vs. rectangular for the AD200 flash head). Way better than spending $90 for a Magmod kit, which does not have barn doors, I would buy a couple for my V850's for sure.
My existing AD180 bulbs do not work with the AD200, even thought the pin spacing is the same. 3 of the 4 pins are used, just like the AD180 bulb, however in the unused 4th pin slot Godox slipped in a sleeve in the pin receptor and made the 4th pin on the bulb slightly smaller diameter to fit this sleeve. Most likely just to keep people like me from putting the AD180 bulbs in the AD200 (maybe for good reason). But the good news is the AD200 bulbs are about 50% the cost ($40) of the AD180 bulbs.
A nice case is included and below is a photo of how I will deck it out. An extra bulb sits to the right of my X1 transmitter under the metal protector and a 2nd battery, on order, will sit in the battery slot. The charger and cord, it is not a wall mount type charger as it is too big and heavy and needs the cord, will be stored with all my other chargers. Hopefully with an extra battery in the case I should be able to get a full days of shooting, but more likely 2, as the batteries in my other 3 types of Godox lights can go for that long if you are not shooting at full power all the time.
And of course the fact that the battery is internal means there are no cables connecting the battery to the flash head, making for a more compact unit vs. my AD180/360.
The biggest issue I have is the mounting of the AD200 to work in the same way my AD180's or V850’s do. There are 2 restrictions. Lets say you want to put an AD200 behind your subject on the floor and light up the background or provide a spot or rim light. With no mounting at the foot of the unit you need to introduce a 90 degree mounting grip. The one Godox provides in the kit is just OK, as it is pretty small in size. This makes it hard to tighten up the knobs when they are right against the side of the flash. I have excellent metal Manfrotto umbrella brackets and will definitely use these instead (photo 3). But even these are not long enough to clear the bottom of the unit and if you want to sit the flash vertical on the floor, you need a small tripod or light stand to hold the flash in place, as a typical flash foot H shaped mini stand will not work. The AD180 and V850 come with the mini foot and are so easy to mount and use in this fashion. Or with a whole raft of mounting grips made for foot mounting of flashes.
The 2nd restriction is the that the AD180/360 and V850/860 heads not only rotate the flash head almost 360 degrees, but they can move the head on an arc from 180 degrees upwards to 80 degrees or so forward get the flash into a L shape. These 2 features give you almost unlimited flexibility in aiming the lights. The AD200 flash head is fixed, it does not rotate and is always in the 180 degree upwards position. So the entire body must be aimed where you want it to point and you need a decent umbrella bracket, or an S bracket, and added studs to do so. Maybe not so difficult on a light stand with S bracket or ballhead, but in my case of using an Autopole and Superclamps (to keep floor stands to a minimum) in my narrow 1-car garage studio somewhat difficult to get to the same tilt with precision. With both the AD180 and V850 I just use the provided flash foot that has a metal receptor on the bottom and screw this onto the 1/4-20 stud in the Superclamp that is attached to the Autopole, and then turn and tilt the flash head for alignment. But it was not easy to get the same exact angle and tilt with the AD200 with the included umbrella bracket, due to the lack of rotation (see the last 2 photos). I also carry a small mini clamp that allows me to mount my AD180 or V850 to car windows, fenceposts, rafters, doors etc and while it would be possible to mount the AD200 with the umbrella bracket and some extra studs, it certainly won’t be as convenient, again due to the fixed head with lack of rotation.
The mounting flexibility restrictions of the AD200 vs. the other Godox flash units I own can be overcome, but it means you may need to invest in additional grips, studs, brackets, small ball heads and/or small tripods/floor stands. Below are photos showing my solutions (so far) to get the same flexibility, you may have other solutions.
Overall the AD200 is a nicely thought out addition to the Godox lights I already own and the internal battery helps cut the components you need to carry. However due to the added steps necessary to obtain the same mounting flexibility as my current Godox lites, the AD200 will not replace either the AD360 or AD180 for studio work. But this will become my main travel light for field use, along with a S bracket mount that allows for rotating and tilting the flash head. There really is no weight savings vs. the AD180 including the battery, as both are around 2 pounds, but of course the lack of plugs and connecting wires helps with the clutter. Rather than buying 2 of the AD200's, I plan to pair it with a V850 (which I can mount almost anywhere with the mini clamp) for a pretty small 2 lite kit and use bare bulb modifiers like the 12” metal Godox beauty dish (AD-S3), 18” pop up Godox soft box (AD-S7) and my 28” Glow Parapop with S bracket on the AD200 as the main light. Both lights, extra battery and bulb, 2 Nano light stands, the main modifiers (sans metal 12" BD) and my Rouge modifiers for the speedlite, grips and S bracket all fit into a small Hakuba tripod case making it easy to carry in the field, along with my camera backpack.
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Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
I'm surprised at how much shorter the bulb looks between the two of them. Hopefully that will work better with the westcott rapidboxes I have if I can just figure out how the heck to mount them...
The AD180 bulb, as well as the AD360, has a more unused space above the light coils, where in the AD200 the space is reduced. The overall height is only 3/8" taller for the older bulbs.
Does your rapid boxes have the sliding L bracket for speedlites or use a ring type mount like the Bowens (or other) mount? If the former, you just need to slide the AD200 slightly father forward on the L bracket. If the latter, get the Godox S bracket, if you don't already have one, and trim the top rubber cover per Ed Tang's video, then slide the AD200 a bit farther forward.
Does your rapid boxes have the sliding L bracket for speedlites or use a ring type mount like the Bowens (or other) mount? If the former, you just need to slide the AD200 slightly father forward on the L bracket. If the latter, get the Godox S bracket, if you don't already have one, and trim the top rubber cover per Ed Tang's video, then slide the AD200 a bit farther forward.
Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
I have this model and the strip box w/ the same mount, meant for standard hotshoes that can bend 90degrees. I think I'll try taking the included bracket and seeing if I can mount a spare spigot to it where the hotshoe mount normally screws into. I need to start looking into more of the Bowens mount modifiers, though I do have the smaller Ricebowl coming in with my to AD200s from Cheetah.
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That may work, but the height of the spigot needs to work within the confines of the up and down movement the L bracket allows. Does that bracket and ring snap into the fabric of the soft box? Or does Wescott have a Bowens mount ring that can be attached to it? With my old Lastolite 24" Ezybox and Cheetah Q boxes I simply removed their brackets and slid the S bracket into place as the manufactures were smart enough to design one soft box for both types of mounting. On a 15 year old Photoflex Octabox I was able to buy a Bowen ring and screw it into place.
You will love the Ricebowl, mine is 36" and I just love the lighting effect it produces
Clint
Mu-43 Hall of Famer
You should just be able to flip the L section over, remount the L bracket (have to move the mount), then mount to the softbox. Adjust the height and then mount the AD200 to the knob that was holding the cold shoe. Or Use an umbrella adapter with the appropriate spigots, or use some like this, or a mini ballhead, or there is a vertical mount.
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Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
Well, my package from Cheetah arrived today! So far my initial impression is that I really like them. But, I'm getting inconsistent flash sync speeds with the new 2.4gHz triggers... going to have to play with channel settings and see if it's due to wifi interference.
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That is a great setup, congrats!
Most likely the flash sync issue is due to wi-fi interference. This is a problem more than a few have companied about with the new 2.4GHz triggers. If changing channels doesn't work, you can test the flash consistency by using the receiver from your AD360 and old FT-16 trigger, put the receiver into the AD200 slot and try triggering it at the 433MGz speed. Over on the POTN forums, some folks have gone back to this setup when there is a lot of 2.4GHz interference and the problem has been resolved.
Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
Yeah, the Wifi interference is my guess as well. I'm getting better results on CH15 and 16. Might have to try the older triggers to see if they are better for at home use till the dedicated m43 ones come out with more channel options. I live in an apartment complex... so this is what my 2.4gHz spectrum looks like (40+ individual networks). And thats not even accounting for BT channels /sigh
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Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
Still playing around with everything (one of my xt-16s is dead), but so far really impressed with how versatile this little light is. And while it's a bit bulky for on-camer usage... It works surprisingly well under-camera 
(yes, I was bored)
(yes, I was bored)
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fredlong
Just this guy...
Totally off topic. How is it using the Roundflash ring adapter with m43 gear. I've looked at it a couple of times, but I'm concerned it would dwarf an EM10 with a 45/1.8. Would those bungees even grab a 45/1.8?Still playing around with everything (one of my xt-16s is dead), but so far really impressed with how versatile this little light is. And while it's a bit bulky for on-camer usage... It works surprisingly well under-camera
View attachment 533107
Fred
Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
Let me check!
Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
So, you'll have to use it with the lens hood to give the cords something to grab, but it worked fine with my pany 42.5/1.7, which is about the same. To my surprise, it even worked with the smaller FL360 flash (just with much less power than a full size one)
davidzvi
Moderator
You know, there are times I like my Nikon Optical system.
Repp
Mu-43 All-Pro
If you wanted to, you could always stick with all Oly/Pany flashes and get the same IR optical sync.
@fredlong on the Roundflash Ring, I would only recommend it if you really want that on camera ring flash look. For that, it's really good. Otherwise, as a general flash modifier, it eats a lot of light due to it's internal baffle structure. The Roundflash Dish though is one of my favorite modifiers. It packs up even smaller and provides really nice light.
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