Originally posted by pres589 I'm trying to work out a flash "kit", for lack of a better term, to support portrait and club/show photography. I am completely new to the world of flashes and such. Here's the hardware that is, at least in theory, fixed;
Fuji X-H1. Within a couple of weeks I should have one in-hand. This is the body I believe I'll be using for this sort of thing most of the time.
Pentax K-5 II. I don't see leaving Pentax digital bodies any time soon.
Just me, but consider Godox (then again I drank the Godox/Strobist kool-aid long ago and I'm this board's resident Godox wonk, so keep that in mind. Godox's system can support TTL and HSS for both Fuji and Pentax with the same lights. The only thing that has to match the camera brand is going to be whichever unit(s) go on-camera to act as a radio transmitter (transmitter or speedlight).
Other systems have similar cross-brand TTL support (Westcott FJ/Jinbei RT, Profoto Air, Nissin Air, Broncolor TRS.2, etc.) But AFAIK, while they all support Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Fuji, none of them support Pentax P-TTL. I think the only three cross-brand TTL radio triggers that support Pentax P-TTL are Godox X, Phottix Odin II, and the Elinchrom Pro. And of these three, Godox is the lowest-cost.
Godox supports cross-brand TTL for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, micro four-thirds (Olympus/Panasonic) and Pentax. And soon Leica. But. Pentax's support is probably the most spotty in terms of products (i.e., there's no V350, TT685, TT685 II, or V860 II for Pentax in the speedlight lineup and no X1T transmitter). But this and the larger-than-speedlight strobe options, both manual AC-powered monolights and battery-powered TTL/HSS strobes (both monolights and pack and heads) are why the Godox system gets so widely recommended.
A modular mini battery-powered TTL/HSS strobe like an AD200 that's designed solely for off-camera use has been something of a game changer. It has 3x the light output of a speedlight and can use a fresnel, bare bulb, round, or extension head. Also a dual bracket to combine two bulbs and two bodies to form one 400 Ws studio strobe with LED modeling lights.
Quote: Nissin i40 flash *for Canon*.
For Godox this would not be usable from Fuji or Pentax as a TTL/HSS radio slave, even with an X1R-C receiver attached to its foot. Could only be used as a manual slave (i.e., you could fire it, but all settings would have to be made directly on the camera). BTW, Nissin actually has its own radio system, now built into the i60A and Di700. Maybe also their potato masher flash.
Quote: A pile of old flashes from the 80's....
Ditto. Godox isn't friendly to legacy gear the way the Cactus X-TTL system is. OTOH, Godox is still making flash gear, and has a very wide user base.
But also:
Quote: Sunpak Auto Zoom 333 ... Vivitar 283 around here somewhere. ...
These were/are great workhorse flashes but they're manual with an autothyristor, and maaay (unlikely) be old enough to have scary-high sync voltages that might (or might not) fry digital-era gear. And used remotely with radio triggers, whether TTL capable or not, most likely the only function you can get is sync (firing them) and not any kind of settings changes, other than maybe using the autothyristor for power control.
In contrast,
a $65 Godox TT600 single-pin manual speedlight , (while it's manual-only on a hothose) as a radio slave in Godox's system would give you remote group on/off, M power control (by group),
and HSS (high-speed sync, also called FP/focal plane flash) capability when used with, say a Godox XPro-F (Fuji) or an Xpro-P (Pentax).
Quote: For what I'm doing I don't think I care about sync speeds over 1/1000. 1/500 seems sufficient since I'm not trying to capture birds with the flash running.
The X-H1's sync speed is 1/250s. The K-5ii's is 1/180s. So, you'd still need to care about HSS to get 1/500s with flash.
Quote: My biggest concern is finding a transceiver that can work with both Pentax and Fuji and then is pretty flash unit agnostic as well.
Actually, here's the fun part with Godox. While the transmitter needs to match the camera brand, the flash may not. It only needs to match if you want TTL/HSS with the flash on-camera directly attached to the camera hotshoe.
But I shoot Canon (5Dii), Panasonic (GX7), and Fuji (X100T). I have an Xpro-C, an XPro-O, and an XPro-F. I also have a TT685-C speedlight that's TTL/HSS on the 5Dii. All three of these gear combos can remotely control my firmware upgraded TT685-C to fire it, turn groups on/off, adjust an M power level by group, use TTL and HSS, and adjust the zoom by group. I also have Groups A-C support for the -O and -F transmitters, Groups A-E for the -C transmitter. However. There are some caveats that are flavor-specific.
The TT350/V350 mini speedlights are not designed with cross-brand TTL in mind. Some combos work (Nikon/Sony), others don't (Canon/Olympus). I have no idea about Fuji/Pentax. You are likely to get sync, possibly group and power control, but HSS is more iffy, and TTL may be completely out.
Secondly, only the V860 II (all flavors) and the AD Witstro lights got P-TTL compatibility upgrades. Of all the versions of the TT685, only the Canon one got the P-TTL firmware upgrade. So you can't grab a TT685-F and use it in TTL with an XPro-P. You can use the V860 II-F with the XPro-P in TTL. And the three newer models: the V1, V860 III, and TT685 II should all work cross-brand for Fuji and Pentax.
Quote: Bonus for ability to integrate a film body into this, like my MX or XR7, but that's lower priority
Godox gear can work as manual-only triggering with film gear. Even medium format bodies.
They are cheap Chinese gear, however, where you are relying on the retailer you purchased from fro customer support and warranty coverage with replacement units, so most of us in the US recommend finding a reputable dealer, like B&H or Adorama (who rebrands the Godox X system gear as Flashpoint R2 gear) that will offer that.
Last edited by inkista; 07-15-2022 at 05:34 PM.