Originally posted by morenjavi Robert Hall made another video comparing V1 vs V860II.
Thanks for sharing.
Rob Hall is always a good source to get some advance info on Godox products as Godox provides him with prototypes (and final production versions) to promote the products on his channel.
I'm writing "promote" because that's what he eventually decided to do. Earlier, you could find videos from Rob Hall in which he made fair comparisons of Godox products, e.g., to Jinbei, pointing out advantages and disadvantages of Godox products. These videos were excellent because he talked from experience and didn't apply bias.
Nowadays, you'll mostly get the positive spin on Godox products with a small niggle thrown in here and there which is always qualified as not being a big issue in the grand scheme of things. There will almost invariably be downsides that he doesn't mention though.
So one shouldn't confuse his product reports as proper reviews. I commend him for his measurements (although his single point light meter tests are flawed) but you just won't give you the full picture from him (or any other channel that has an interest to help sell products for one reason or another).
For instance, when he compared Godox to other brands like Broncolor and Profoto, he mentioned a lot of differences but conveniently had no time in an "
already long video" to mention the fact that Godox does not provide any kind of service, in stark contrast to the international professional service one gets from the other brands. I prefer the Godox products myself, but the crucial advice is to buy from a reputable seller like Adorama because that's the only source you'll get any kind of support when your equipment develops a fault.
N.B., Rob Hall did a follow up video and
still did not find the time to mention the difference in support. In my book, that's shilling, not reviewing.
In another video about the R2T Mark II he said he "
wasn't sure whether the batteries were fully charged" that he put into the R2T Mark II that only showed two bars. So he didn't have time to top off the charge of the batteries but invested the time to put in an "R2D2" animation into the video. He also said that "time will tell" how good the AF-assist light will be as it didn't feature a grid, while in his last video he praises Godox for ditching the useless grid-less AF-assist light to replace it with a proper AF-assisst (this time, for some reason, not mentioning that he personally never uses AF-assist lights and hence personally doesn't care and wouldn't be qualified to test/comment).
In the particular video you shared, I give Rob Hall credit for pointing out that a small round head doesn't give you softer light than a small rectangular head. However, his point about "more pleasant, even light that falls off much nicer (sic)"
- is irrelevant in most cases because one cannot recognise the "fall off".
- should really be a point about the pretty horrible pattern of the V860II. Other speedlights with a rectangular heads produce much smoother patterns, so that the difference to the V1 is just the shape.
He didn't mention
- that the round pattern of the V1 is wasteful if you are going to use as an on-axis light. The V1 is simply just not "not more powerful than the V860II, sorry", it provides less output for on-axis usage, which explains its comparatively low GN number.
- whether the V1 fits into the Godox Bowens mount adapter. Seems to be going to be a bad fit, at least.
- that the official recycle time is 1.8 and I measured it to be around 1.6-1.7s (not 1.3s as stated).
- that the magnetic modifier system would work best for an off-camera flash but that the V1 is very much geared towards being used on the camera.
- that the V1 is lacking a tripod thread to support better mounting options, e.g., on light stands or tripods.
In summary, he could have pointed out the tension the V1 is exposed to by combining features of on-camera flashes and off-camera flashes that in combination aren't entirely convincing. Such an analysis would not have the purpose of trashing a design/product but would help to assist manufacturers in designing more coherent products in the future and help users make more informed decisions.
To be clear: I think the V1 is a very useful product. I think Godox make incredibly useful gear in general (sometimes flawed in unnecessary ways, in particular regarding usability, but overall fantastic value). I think that Rob Hall provides useful information. I think that Rob Hall makes many good points and I value the information he provides. All I'm saying is that one unfortunately does not get the full picture from Rob Hall.