[wings]

How do you go about testing the quality of a flash?

[UncleVanya]

How do you go about testing the quality of a flash?

Loaded question. What is quality in this case? Light output, accuracy and repeatable output, cycle time, ease of use, feature compatibility, the list is large. If you can narrow down to particular criteria I'm sure we can give ideas.

[wings]

Loaded question. What is quality in this case? Light output, accuracy and repeatable output, cycle time, ease of use, feature compatibility, the list is large. If you can narrow down to particular criteria I'm sure we can give ideas.

You have made a pretty good list and I suspect that most of you know more about this than myself. The features on a flash will not mean much if the flash does not do what you expected it to do, sorry for the simplification. The criteria I would leave up to you, however accuracy and repeatability is important, maybe very important.

Perhaps another issue would be that if after using a particular flash for a time, that you know that you have to adjust how you photograph something based upon the nuances of the flash. Related to that is that for me I do not want to spend a lot of time setting up a flash. I know that flash technology has come along way since the days when you might have burnt your fingers on flash bulbs, and so imagine that the quality of a flash would have to have some kind of touchstone that takes into account of those advanced capabilities. I have read most of the comments here and will readily admit that your knowledge about this far exceeds mine, so was curious about how you evaluate the quality of a flash.

[pschlute]

so was curious about how you evaluate the quality of a flash

Different flashes have different features. If you want HSS and trailing curtain sync or auto zoom then you should select a flash that has those features. They will either work or they wont, there is not a degree of quality here.

If you want a flash that provides the most automation then you need one that can do P-TTL.

[UncleVanya]

Loaded answer. Take pictures using the flash in situations that are "on the edge" to validate boundaries. Power and consistency will easily be evaluated by increasing distance and repeated tests. Some things are subjective like ease of use.