I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.
||
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
I’ll be completely honest, I was dreading this review. I hadn't used a speedlight since I struggled through art college with one over twenty years ago. That thing was terrible. Almost no power controls beyond bright and brighter, the light was catapulted out of the front and was almost impossible to modify in any way, no matter how many Rizlas we stuck to the front. But, it seems speedlights have come a very long way since then.
Last month, Godox kindly sent me some items for review, including the KNOWLED LiteFlow kit, MS60Rs (review here), as well as the V100, and although I was very excited to test the new kit and explore new ways to get creative with it, I’ve been putting off the V100 review.
What on earth could I do with a speedlight?
Disclaimer: Godox sent me this product for review. They are not paying me for this review and all my opinions are my own.
For clarity, as soon as I left art college, I immediately bought myself four 500W strobes, as trying to make lighting work with that old speedlight was a nightmare. And I never looked back. However, as I mentioned, speedlights have come a long way since then, and as soon as I attached this V100 speedlight to my camera, I was genuinely immediately impressed.
Photography has never been easier….
There I said it. I got my old man quote out of the way early, but it’s true. With mirrorless cameras and real-time EVFs, along with full-colour RGB LEDs, lighting and capturing lighting have never been easier. But what about flash? Has that gotten any easier?
Have you met TTL?!?
TTL is cheating
If you’re not familiar with TTL, it stands for Through-the-Lens. Essentially, the tech fires a flash, it then looks at that initial flash and then immediately fires another flash with any necessary power adjustments it sees fit, and it's actually this second flash that the camera captures.
If you read that and thought I said that the flash makes all the power adjustments itself, you’d be right. And yes, it does all that no matter what your camera settings are. If you think that sounds like cheating, you’re two for two. And let me tell you, the TTL on this V100 NEVER misses!
It’s actually kinda wild how well the TTL on this V100 performs, regardless of what I throw at it; every frame is correctly exposed. And when I say I threw everything at it, I mean, long exposures inside with ambient light, long exposure outside with daylight, very fast shutter speeds, I even used it off-camera with the speedlight in a softbox across the garden from me AND, I even used an old manual focus lens that didn’t have any communication with the camera whatsover and used drop-in apertures… and guess what? Every frame was correctly exposed!
I’m sorry, but if you think that’s not cheating, I don’t know what to tell you.
First Impressions
I’ll share some images down below that showcase the types of shots I took with the V100, but I want to be upfront about this: every single one of them was taken with TTL. Why wouldn't I? Sure, if TTL was struggling, I would have switched to manual mode and adjusted the power to my tastes. But it never struggled.
These wildly fluctuating power requirements were always an issue with old speedlights. The light was typically positioned on top of the camera, and you were often moving, as was the subject. This meant you were constantly getting closer and further away from the subject, and the light was all over the place. That’s clearly a problem of the past, as with the TTL on this thing, you can literally do whatever you want. The thing doesn't even need to be on your camera for it to give you the correct exposure every time.
Let’s look at some shots
First off, let’s keep it simple.
Pretty straightforward so far, right? Indoors against a white wall, obviously, TTL was even breaking a sweat. The resulting light looks as you’d expect from a speedlight. Bright, directional, strong shadows and bright highlights. No surprises here.
If you’re gonna cheat, do it properly.
Note: When shooting in portrait orientation and using the flash on the camera, be sure to use a bracket to keep the light above the lens. Failing to do this is a schoolboy error and well worth avoiding.
The above shot was taken with the speedlight on the hotshoe. That shadow is not good.
The easiest way to avoid this harsh side-shadow is to use an L-bracket. Doing so allows for the speedlight to remain above the lens, and it keeps those shadows looking far more flattering.
In the above shot I’m using an L-Bracket to keep the speedlight above the lens. The shadows look far more flattering now.
Can’t fight nostalgia
Next up, I added some long-exposure shots to the mix.
All that’s going on here is me turning the V100 modelling bulb (focus assist light) on and lowering the shutter speed on my camera to around 1/2 second. The result is a warm glow of movement from the modelling bulb, and then a clean and crisp image is also captured by the flash.
Once again, TTL has barely had its morning coffee, as getting every single shot perfectly exposed while I swing the camera around randomly to add movement to the image is still a breeze for TTL. Again, TTL didn’t flinch at getting these shots perfectly exposed each time, so I haven't actually touched the manual power adjustment on the flash yet.
Note - I mentioned nostalgia at the top, as this style of stark on-camera flash is experiencing a resurgence in weddings. The ‘90s kids are finally getting married, and that tungsten-glow-and-flash shots from our childhood disposable cameras are tough to shake.
Let’s take this outside
Next up, I wanted to try this same long exposure principle, but outside in natural light.
With this next set, I tested a similar long exposure style, but this time, instead of relying on the modelling bulb from the V100, I was using natural light. I simply set my shutter speed to 1/8th of a second and then allowed some natural light to creep in as I moved the camera whilst the shot was being taken. As you can see in the images above, the speedlight was also firing, which resulted in me capturing a frozen image of the model as well as the sense of movement from the daylight.
I love these images and I think they look amazing, but again, I can’t really claim too much credit here as, you guessed it, I had TTL turned on. I pointed the camera in roughly the right direction, and the V100 took care of the rest.
As good as these images were, I needed to feel useful before we wrapped up the shoot, so for the final setup, I decided to take the V100 off my camera and place it on a lightstand with a beauty dish attachment via the S2 S-fit converter. With the V100 on the other side of the garden and being fired into the beauty dish before it reached the model, I was fully expecting to have to take the wheel and help little ol’ TTL out finally.
I’m convinced it’s just magic at this point!
Off-camera flash is a step-up for anyone in terms of complexity, especially if you're incorporating the ambient light as part of the final look.
As we can see, I’ve set the camera to accommodate the natural light as the fill-light. In the shots above, you can see the shadow side of the model’s head, but the natural light is filling those shadows. The main lighting on the model here is coming from the V100 in a collapsible beauty dish attached to the S2 S-fit converter on a lightstand.
To fire the V100, I’m using the X3 trigger on my camera and that is also set to TTL.
Once again, I was merely there to hold the camera as somehow the TTL got every shot correctly exposed, even with it being far away from me and with a modifier attached to it.
I had one last trick up my sleeve though, as I wanted to use my very old manual focus lens (that’s what’s creating the swirlly effect in the background of the final images). This lens does not communicate with the camera in any way, and it does not even have traditional apertures, as the f-stop of this lens is changed via drop-in and out aperture discs. There was absolutely no way at all for the V100 to know what camera settings I was using.
But of course, it didn’t care. Once again, TTL got every shot correctly exposed, even though I was balancing the daylight as a fill, using the speedlight off-camera, through a modifier, and I was using an ancient lens that obscured the camera settings!
I think that if I’d given the model a tripod, I wouldn’t have needed to be there at all.
What’s going on?
Granted, I’ve taken slight artistic licence with the writing above, and although a little tongue in cheek, the TTL on this V100 is absolutely insane. I know many of you are familiar with how it works, but as I mentioned above, the TTL fires the flash twice: once as a test and then a second time with any necessary adjustments based on the information it gathered from the initial flash.
As the name suggests, it’s using Through The Lens results to make those adjustments, so no matter the modifier, or whatever lens you use, or the camera settings you have, it doesn't care; it’s looking at the image captured with that first flash to make all of its adjustments to second flash.
The results speak for themselves, and you can see them all above. My lighting reviews typically delve into the specs and features, and you can explore all of those for yourself via numerous online reviews, but why would you? This V100 does what you want it to do, quite literally straight out of the box with TTL engaged. As I mentioned, I didn't switch the TTL off at any point during any of the setups above, and why would I? The goal of any light is to illuminate the subject, and TTL does precisely that, regardless of the bizarre lighting scenarios I threw at it.
I assure you, I had every intention of adjusting the power settings manually and adjusting the power up and down, as you'd expect to do with any light, but I really didn’t see the point. Sure, if TTL wasn’t lighting the subject properly, of course I’d jump in to make the necessary changes, and I wouldn't have thought anything of it. In fact, I wouldn't have even marked it down as I wasn't expecting it to succeed given what I was doing…. but it did.
Do you need a speedlight?
At the start of this review, I mentioned that I wasn't looking forward to this. I don’t use speedlights and I never have in my professional career, but that’s because the last time I used a speedlight, it was little more than a flashbang in a pipe. But, they’ve come an awful long way since then.
I think if you’re someone looking for a speedlight, you're likely someone who wants a bright flash to be used on top of your camera most of the time, and occasionally off-camera. If that wasn't the case, you’d be looking at the AD200 instead. So, if you’re after a flash to be used on your camera, TTL is what you’ll be using 99% of the time, and why wouldn’t you? If that’s you, and you’re after TTL, this V100 has that absolutely mopped up, no matter what you might throw at it.
If you still need convincing…
If you still haven’t ordered one yet, let me go over a couple of the other features that you may need.
Interface
The V100 is solely controlled via its touch screen. Yes, it also has a little wheel and button at the bottom, but for the most part, you’ll be using the touchscreen for any adjustments. Multiple menus can be accessed via swiping from left to right as well as top to bottom. These were a little inconsistent, and I invariably accidentally hit the screen when I didn’t need to, but none of this was a game-changer or hampered the V100’s usability.
Battery
Back in my day, we never left the house without a shoebox full of AA’s. Times have changed, and the V100 comes with an impressive lithium battery. I find it impressive, as I only charged it once, and it's still going, even after I accidentally left it on standby for days. I always loved the convenience of AAs, and that you can buy them almost anywhere if the worst happens. But they are a pain when you need to change them. These new lithium batteries last significantly longer and pop in and out with one hand very quickly. I think if I were using this V100 in earnest for my job, I'd grab two or three of these batteries and feel very comfortable that I had the day covered.
Power
I think it’s easy to overlook the very impressive 100W power of this speedlight, given how many other remarkable features this little speedlight has. But 100W packs a punch, and it manages well in almost any situation. Remember, I was using it outside in natural light, and I was firing it through a big beauty dish that has a diffusion cone inside. Plus, it has an 8-stop range, meaning that it’ll also go pretty low in power as well, so if you just need a little fill-light instead of a big, bright key-light, the V100 has you covered.
Fill-Light (sub flash)
The V100 also comes with a little additional mini-flash that can be situated on the front of the V100 and is used as a fill light. Godox refers to this as the ‘sub flash’. You can only use this sub-flash when the V100 is angled up and used as a bounce flash. I know many photographers shoot in this way, and although the stark front-on flash look is making a comeback, bounced flash is typically a little more flattering.
I tested the V100 with and without the front sub-lash, and here are the results below. Both shots are taken with the V100 angled straight up to bounce the light off a white ceiling.
This image was taken without the fill-flash
This image was taken with the fill-flash
As you can see, there is definitely a difference, and the fill-flash certainly helps to add a little light to the shadows caused by the bounce. I couldn’t see any way to adjust this fill-flash manually, so it appears as though you’re at the will of the V100 to decide the output for you, but it did a pretty good job of getting it right for me.
Zooms
Speedlights have been able to adjust the throw or zooms on the flash output for a while, so there were no surprises when seeing it here too. The V100 has 28mm (the widest throw of light), 35mm, 50mm, 70mm, 80mm and 105mm (the tightest spread of light). This is useful as a way to change the look of the light and for the most part I used 105mm to give me a tight pool of light on the model, but I also used the widest 28mm spread when I had the beauty dish attached as that helped spread the light around the modifier.
Modelling Light
One of the best features of the V100 is the modelling light. I’m sure this isn’t new to speedlights, but it’s so useful for focusing, especially in darker environments. You also saw me use it to illuminate some of my shots above when I was shooting long exposure. I should probably make a point here that the modelling lamp itself is very warm in colour temperature, and I’d guess it's around the 2700K-3000K mark, so very reminiscent of tungsten in colour. This isn't a big deal as you’re typically only using it to focus the shot, but it did strike me as odd, given that the flash is daylight at around 5600K, so why make the modelling lamp 2700K? In fairness to Godox, I don’t think this was an oversight. I won't get into rumours here, but I did hear that it was initially supposed to have both warm and cool LEDs as the modelling lamp, so that you could choose. It was supposedly a potential patent infringement, so the cool LED was dropped. Like I say, this is internet hearsay, so feel free to check for yourself. My point here is that I don’t think Godox simply made a weird decision on the LED colour, and again, for me, the warm one is fine; I actually like the nostalgic, warm glow it gives.
X3 Trigger
This review is already getting lengthy, so I’ll keep it brief. But the X3 trigger is an exceptional little piece of kit. I used this trigger on my hotshoe to fire the V100 when it was mounted on my L-bracket, as well as when I was using the V100 off-camera on a lightstand with a beauty dish.
The X3 connected to the V100 very easily, and I never experienced it dropping out or misfiring. I personally love the X3's interface, as it not only features a large touchscreen but also includes three buttons and a dial on the side. This allowed me to make adjustments very quickly and easily with one hand, and it was noticeably convenient to use over other triggers.
Finally!!!
I also just want to make one last point on this trigger, and that's my love of the option to choose the trigger distance. You can select between a 0-30m range and a 30m-100m range. This may not seem like a big deal, but all my other triggers struggle to work when they are positioned too close to the actual flash. This happens more than you'd think, and I’m constantly fighting this issue with ringlights, backing into large umbrellas behind me, and of course, when I use this trigger with the V100 on the L-bracket, which is right next to it. That 0-30m option eliminates all misfires, and regardless of how close the trigger was to the flash, it always fired. I know this is a V100 review, but that feature alone is more than enough to warrant the purchase of this X3.
In conclusion
I already spoke about this above, but if you’re someone who needs a speedlight, AKA a flash that sits on top of the camera, you’d be nothing short of crazy to not use TTL, especially when it’s this good. It literally never misses.
I’m someone who has been shooting for a very long time, and I like to think I have a pretty good grasp of how to use and operate flashes manually in any situation. However, with this TTL, there was really never a moment when I needed to override it. Sure, I used the exposure compensator to reduce it by one or two-thirds to protect skin highlights, but that's a matter of personal preference rather than right and wrong. The V100 has a ton of power in a small package, and it works flawlessly with its X3 trigger when off camera, too.
All this to say that using this speedlight was a ton of fun!
My day-to-day is multi-light setups in the studio, but that’s a lot of work and stress to get some shots. With the V100 on the camera, I never had to think about anything. I was playing with long exposure shots and focusing on capturing some cool movement with the model, but I never once worried about the tech performing, as the TTL system simply never failed. So yeah, using this V100 was actually a ton of fun, and I really do think it would serve anyone looking for a speedlight very well.
Featured model: Jaye Hicks
Products Used
None of these links are affiliate links; they’re only there for your convenience, so feel free to use, not use or find a better deal elsewhere.
Godox V100 Speedlight
Godox X3 Wireless Flash Trigger
I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.
||
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
JHP Livestreams…
I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube
