[jake14mw]

I have been waiting for this light to come out for a while. I love my AD360 and their power, but I'm lazy, and am attracted to the quicker setup and no cords of the AD200. They are starting to arrive in peoples hands, and some reviews are coming. Did anyone preorder. Sounds like some will be shipping next week.

Hands On with The New Godox AD200 Pocket Flash

[GeneV]

Looks interesting. I wonder if there will be a Flashpoint version.

[jake14mw]

Yes, they do have it. It's called the Flashpoint eVOLV 200. Flashpoint eVOLV 200 R2 TTL Pocket Flash

[jake14mw]

I will be putting one of my Flashpoint (Godox) AD360s on sale to buy the AD200.

[jake14mw]

My AD360 is for sale in the marketplace. If anyone gets the AD200 and wants to trade, let me know.

[Doundounba]

For those who don't mind the cord, and want something lighter than an AD360, the AD180 still seems like a pretty decent option... Very happy with mine.

[morenjavi]

Hello,

I bought a fresh one last week. As I received it with some deep scratches on display, I ordered a second one while returning the first one. But I had the two during a whole morning just to compare power, etc.
I know that there are a lot of reviews here and there, but these are my impressions as a pentax user, strobist lover manual-mode-only-man, and occasional paid photographer (religious ceremonies mainly). I'm not an english native speaker, so sorry for that.
I just make some quick tests so maybe my findings are not 100% accurate.

My AD200 is going to replace one of my 'old' lights, that light is really a set with three flashes + flash triple bracket + normal bracket + remote control + 12 batteries: slow to set up, not remote power control, heavy...
I can't believe that now I have only one light, more powerfull, that I can control remotely, setup near-instantly and is so compact. My first idea was to buy another AD360 to get the max power for my money, but I'm happy with my AD200.

Size & compactness:
This thing is really compact, just a bit bigger that a simple strobe, doesn't weight a lot and doesn't take space on your bag. Compared to my AD360, I have battery, tube and bulb on one compact package. With my AD360 I need to take extra care for the battey, and need an extra piece to hang the battery on the light stand. Now you just get everything with one hand, attach the thing to your flash bracket... done & ready.

Power and 'power-for-the-money':
My AD200 is more powerful than three standard strobes. I made a quick comparison with my AD360 + 28mm reflector vs AD200 fresnel vs AD200 bulb + 28mm reflector. I had two AD200 to compare. Well, I found a variation in power of about 1/3 stops between different heads, so I kept the more powerful heads. Using the most powerfull ones, my AD200 is 2/3 less powerfull than my AD360 (mkI), which I thing is impressive. The less powerful heads were 1 stop less powerful.
About the price/power relationship, I think with the AD360 you get more power for the money, but also a less compact package, so you have to think carefully what is more important.

Remote control and triggering:
The AD200 can be controlled with the old FT-16 (that I have). You just need to put the same FT-16r receiver that uses the AD360MkI on the USB port and disable the wireless mode. Also you have a 3.5mm socket if you want to use another trigger. I used a RF605N to fire the AD200 without issues. So, if you have the old FT-16 and some other Godox ligths, you don't need to change your triggering system.

HSS:
I don't have the cactus v6ii but I can fire the AD200 using HSS & hyper/power-sync.
The AD200 can be set to HSS on manual mode. Once you put the AD200 on HSS, you can control the power remotely with your FT-16, from 1/128 to 1/1.
To fire the AD200 I put the FT-16 or RF605N on top of my Cactus V6, and after capturing a PTTL HSS signal from one of my pentax flashes I can fire the AD200 starting from 1/128 (power) & 1/8000 (sec). I can use the FT-16 or RF605N to fire it. If you want 'hypersync', you can only use AD200 at 1/1 power, standard mode. Bellow that, you get banding.

Other:
You can put the AD200 on HSS mode manually, don't need a XT-32 or X1 trigger if you just need manual HSS. Really, you don't need any godox trigger to fire the AD200 on HSS mode.
When you switch off and on the AD200, you lost your last power setting (firmware bug?). Firing the flash doesn't recover the correct setting, but sending the 'buzz' or 'lamp' commands recover the lost setting. Of course if you change the power from your FT-16 also the new power is set.
If you put your AD200 on sleep mode and the AD200 goes to sleep, you can't wake it up with the FT-16, but you can do it with another trigger connected to the sync port. Of course touching any button on the unit wakes the thing up.
Sync port and USB port are too near, if you need to put your FT-16r and plug something on the 3.5mm port at the same time, it's a bit cumbersome.
When you fire the AD200, the 'click' sound is less noticeable than the AD360's, an advantage if you are working on sites like churches.
Accesories like the standard 28mm reflector or the AD-S6 fit better on the AD200, and also can be fastened better.

That's all. I send you some quick and dirty pics: first comparing my 'tri-flash device', AD360 and AD200. Notice the compactness of the AD200 (forget the brackets...). Second, just testing HSS at 1/8000, firing AD360 (HSS 1/8) & AD200 (HSS 1/128) using only one RF605N to fire both flashes.

Regards,
Javier.

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[jake14mw]

Thanks for your review Javier. I think for anyone who currently uses a three speedlight bracket like you did, the AD200 should be an automatic replacement.

Also, no need to apologize for your english, it's perfectly understandable.

[Digitalis]

When you switch off and on the AD200, you lost your last power setting

That is an annoying flaw. I wonder who on the design team dropped that ball.

When you fire the AD200, the 'click' sound is less noticeable than the AD360's

Sounds like they are using a flash tube with thicker glass - this should cut down on the amount of UV from the flash units.

[morenjavi]

That is an annoying flaw. I wonder who on the design team dropped that ball.

Yes, it's a bit strange. I've done more tests to try to understand what happens:

* If you change the power using the unit's rear dial, switch unit off and on, then that setting is remembered. You can switch off/on several times and that setting is always shown at startup. Now, if you send buzz/lamp signal from remote trigger, then the trigger's power setting is set, but if you switch off/on the unit again, then you get the previous setting, that is, the setting you put with the rear dial.
* If you change the power using the rear dial, but quickly you switch off/on the unit, that setting is not remembered, but the previous one. It seems the unit needs about a second to 'store' that setting in some non-volatile memory.
* If you change the setting using only the FT-16, switch off & on, the setting remembered is the last one you put using the rear dial. Maybe this behabiour is different with an XT16/XT32 trigger. I can't test it. But the two units I had suffered the same.
* If the unit enters in sleep mode and then wakes up, the setting is not lost (but you can't awake the unit using the FT-16)

So the problem is changing settings with the FT-16. Just you need to be careful when you switch the unit on, and check that you put the correct power setting.

Regards.

[morenjavi]

Hello, just checking the AD200 with Rogue grid (maybe a better option than the barn doors). The fresnel head is 35mm, not really wide; but as this head isn't too big, there are a lot of attachments for smaller flashes that can fit. So you can attach:

* Bowens modifiers using the AD-S6 (fresnel for square modifiers and bulb for round ones ?)
* Godox modifiers with the bulb head
* Standard strobe modifiers with the fresnel head

Regards.

[mcgregni]

A great review on an interesting strobe, thanks morenjavi!

I'm afraid though, I am not understanding how you can use HSS with a Pentax camera without a V6II? Whilst I appreciate that the strobe can be set to HSS manually, it's not clear to me how you are getting a trigger signal from the camera to the strobe? You mention a P-TTL flash but I'm not understanding your set-up...... Normally, even with a P-TTL flash there would be no trigger signal sent to a radio Tx on the hotshoe once past the max sync speed .....

[Class A]

I'm afraid though, I am not understanding how you can use HSS with a Pentax camera without a V6II?

He is probably using the V6's ability to be optically triggered by a P-TTL HSS flash.
I used that approach to achieve off-camera HSS with my RF60, before I got a V6II.

[morenjavi]

Dear mcgregni, Class A is right, I'm using the V6 as an optical slave. I'll share with you my sophisticated and highly portable HSS device .

I have my metz on PTTL HSS mode mounted on camera, pointing at left. On a flash bracket I have my V6 on RX optical slave mode (S2), so my metz if firing directly to the V6's photocell. On top of my V6 I put my FT-16 (or my RF605N). When I fire past the max sync, the V6 captures the PTTL HSS signal and fires the top trigger, that fires my AD360/AD200 or V850. Previously I put these flashes on HSS mode manually. It also works if I put my devices in normal mode at full power (1/1, 'powersync').

With the help of a flash bracked I can have all the elements in one 'piece'.

Compared to a single V6II is a bit outdated and annoying, but it works and it's... more or less ... portable.

Regards.

[mcgregni]

Holy starter pistol trigger stack batman!

Thanks for the image, that explains it all. Very creative, and it does look quite stable. One idea I've had ..... If your flash allows Wireless 'control' mode with HSS (ie it only emits the control signals, not an actual flash output), then you could save plenty of battery power and possible light spill. Try setting a delay on the V6 of 100ms (that's the amount that works for my optical triggering for 'control' with HSS.