This is interesting and pretty cool. It looks like Godox is taking the AD200 round flash head and putting it into a new speedlight. Rob Hall got the chance to take a sneak peek at a prototype unit at Photokina today and put together a video about it.
As I said, this is a prototype, and as such things are subject to change. Rob specifically mentions that this prototype was built with the bottom half of a V860II and that will definitely be changing. It should see a larger LCD and the battery will be likely changing to more standard 18650 cells – which they say offers around a 1.2 second recycle time at full power.
Unlike the round head for the AD200, the big difference with this will be that the head is zoomable, like a traditional speedlight. But the front end is the same diameter as the AD200 head, and it’s also compatible with the magnetic modifiers for the AD200 round head.
Another change from the AD200 round head is that this one contains a couple of LED lights. Although designed to help assist with autofocus, they could potentially be handy in a pinch as an on-camera LED fill light in dim conditions. I’ve shot interviews at indoor events before where the on-camera lights we were using weren’t much more powerful than the LEDs appear in Rob’s video.
The only issue with this flash is how it’s going to fit into a Godox Bowens bracket. Because, to put it simply, it’s not. The bottom end is far too thick to fit through the gap, and there’s no way that head’s going to go through. Hopefully, they’ll release a new bracket to go along with this release that can also accommodate the AD200 & round head, too.
It’s set to be officially announced in November with a release planned for December, so you won’t have to wait too long to get your hands on one of these. No word on price yet, although I’ll bet it’s nowhere close to $1,000.
There’s also no word on a name, or whether it’ll offer the 1/10th stop adjustments that were recently added to the AD600Pro and XPro triggers.
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