History

The Godox X1 system – anchored by the X1T transmitter – is intriguing.  I have for some years avoided “cheap Chinese” brands, because my early attempts to “save money” didn’t.  They say the poor man pays twice, and I as I repeatedly bumped into the limitations of non-OEM gear, sold it, and purchased the next, “better” thing, I reinforced that maxim.

So I transitioned to all Nikon speedlights, using RadioPopper PX for CLS on Manual or TTL and RadioPopper Jr2 for manual control.  Heaven! Everything worked every time.  Then I picked up PCB White Lightnings for more light – still controlled by RadioPopper Jr2 receivers – and everything still worked first time every time.  And the customer support, when I’ve wanted it, is good on all sides.

I should have listened to sharp people like David Hobby and just acquired good stuff right away.

Why look at Godox?

Why look at anything outside of Heaven?  Because on close inspection, Heaven had some drawbacks.  Lots of batteries, wires, lots of time to do on-site setup.  And it is expensive, even though the value is good (because it just works).

And I wanted improved portable power:  in high-ceiling venues, the SB-900 is often marginal for bounce.  I wanted 300ws or more on top of a camera, without paying Quantum prices.

Okay, so why Godox?  Why not other non-OEM brands?

• product vision and breadth – everything from AA speedlights to 600ws studio lights.  Works with their own triggers, with Nikon’s CLS, with (the on-camera flashes) a Nikon hotshoe (and therefore with other triggers).  And five groups – that’s the number of light sources in a traditional portrait.
• smart, comprehensive implementation – annoyances like a pre-flash on Manual settings, which make metering difficult, don’t happen on Godox, and do on, say, Odins.  FV-Lock works.  “Modeling Flash” works.
• support! Adorama re-brands Godox gear as “FlashPoint” and will support it.
• relative maturity – anecdotal reports were looking good.
• the future – I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’m betting that Godox will survive and thrive, based on the above-mentioned factors.  Not every non-OEM will survive.

What I did

I tried the TT685, V860II, and AD360II, with the X1T-N transmitters and X1R-N receivers.  I did not try the AD600 or QTII for reasons noted below.

Observations

Everything largely works as it should (see below for limitations and “gotchas”).  A pleasant surprise.  After some months of testing, and finally using the V860II at events, I am comfortable enough with the reliability to use the system “for real”.

With the V860II (which includes an RF interface, Li-ion battery and charger) I replace an SB-900, RP PX or Jr2 Receiver, a Pixel TD-382 high-voltage battery pack, 12AA batteries, two AAA batteries, and two smart chargers (to manage the 14 batteries).  You can do the math on dollars, and on pieces of stuff to track, transport, setup, tear down, and transport back.

The AD360II produces less “light on target” than one would think, when used directly, because it throws a wide (35mm equivalent?) round beam with the standard reflector – and an SB-900 can narrow to a 200mm rectangular pattern.  But for bounce and in modifiers, you get the extra f-stops you expect.

Trigger range is lost: the RadioPopper units are rated for about 1500′, the Godox for about 300′.  This matters more than you might think: radio interference and line-of-sight blockages can severely reduce range, and I’ve had other tested-to-work-at-300′ units fail at only 30′.  Which is fine in a studio, but not fine when lighting architecture, or doing other things at some distance. 

The good news: the Godox units I tested accept IR CLS and have  Nikon hotshoes, which means that my PX and Jr2 units work on them, so I can keep the PX (with velcro or gaffer tape) or the Jr2 (on the hotshoes) and get the range back if needed.

I had an odd problem with my first X1T-N, communicated with Adorama (who I highly recommend as a Godox source under their “Flashpoint” brand), received a replacement X1T-N, problem solved.  It’s not the same as good OEM support (e.g., from RadioPopper or Paul C Buff), but it’s pretty good, and much better than sending stuff back to China.

Notable Limitations

• You can’t pound on the studio-strobe-level lights all day. None of the X1-compatible studio lights has enough cooling (no internal fans) to do full-power continuously, and sometimes (as when I’m capturing a podium) I benefit from that.  Perhaps Godox will bring out another strobe that has a) a real modeling light (at least 250w equivalent) and b) enough cooling to just keep firing.  That would complete the lineup.
• Range, compared to RadioPoppers, as above.  Having said that, they do work in an open field at over 300′, as advertised.  Their range with obstacles (blocking the flash with an aluminum-sided wall on a 2nd story and walking back), is over 50 yards, which is much better than other “cheap Chinese” triggers I’ve tested.  That’s an X1T-N on-camera with V860II-N as flash.
• CLS receiving range.  It’s much less than Nikon gear – it will work in a studio, but outdoors the RP PX units would be in order (or just use the built-in radio triggering).
• The AD600 has a pathetic modeling light.  So I didn’t try that flash at all – I use modeling lights on the White Lightnings, mostly for managing pupil dilation, and am unwilling to give them up.  And the QTII strobes, which have a better, but still modest, 150w modeling light, warn to not use it for extended periods (“…otherwise the modeling lamp will be deformed, and the flammable accessories such as softbox will get burnt”)!
• The X1T-N has a quick standby time, and I don’t see how to configure it.  So it goes into standby quickly, and wakes up slowly enough to miss the first shutter press.  If it could be configured to a much longer sleep time, that would be great.  The only way I have found to disable standby is to set the unit in “single pin” mode, which means manual-only triggering (no iTTL).

Weird “Gotcha”s

• The X1T-N transmitter, as of V19 firmware, thinks it is in HSS at anything over 1/200s – so if you spin your Nikon to 1/250, which is x-sync on my gear, you get HSS unexpectedly.  I set my Nikon bodies to an x-sync of 1/200s to prevent this (stopping my shutter speed from going over 1/200 by mistake).  Weird, and one assumes it will be corrected in future firmware.

Notes

f-stops on 1/2 power at 8 feet:

• AD360II: 16.9 (bowens long-throw reflector) / 16.2 (built-in reflector)
• SB-900: 11.8 @ 200mm
• V860II: 11.3 @ 200mm
• SB-600: 8.6 @ 85mm

Colour temperature:

I don’t have the gear to measure absolute temperature (e.g., a colour meter), but do have a Colorchecker Passport with a neutral panel for setting white balance.  From this did some test shots, and used the eyedropper in LR to determine colour temperature. 

with the AD360II:

It was quite consistent (5800K average, standard deviation of 56K) from 1/1 power to 1/128 power.  This is about 800 Kelvin warmer than my Nikon speedlights, and was expected based on the colours I saw with preset white balance for flash (noticeable warmth).

with the V860II:

It was fairly consistent (6460K average, standard deviation of 113K)  from 1/1 power to 1/128 power.  This is about 200 Kelvin warmer than my Nikon speedlights, and was expected based on the colours I saw with preset white balance for flash (very slight warmth).

The Future

I have sold all my Nikon flashes but one (keeping an SB-900 – or other OEM flash – around is good insurance).

Until Godox comes out with an X1 wireless studio strobe with a usable modelling light and full cooling, I’ll be keeping the White Lightnings – and I can, and do, stack a Jr2 transmitter on top of the XT1-N to control and trigger the WLs.  So not ideal, but not bad.

Pictures

Let’s show one pic that you won’t find elsewhere – this is an AD360II, held in a Godox S-Bracket, in a Bowens long-throw reflector with tinfoil jammed in the base to reflect all of the light forward.  Some have said that the lack of a reflective base area in the Godox S-Bracket / AD360II combination reduces light output.  In this setup, I gained .1 of a stop with the tinfoil, which is trivial.

Status

This is all as-of the date 2016-12-07.  Godox has been issuing frequent firmware updates, so things may improve, or get worse, or just change.

Addendum

2017-08-05 TTL-BL – someone has pointed out that the V860II etc. does not do TTL-BL – this is correct, and something I never used on my SB-900s, so something I did not test.