Yongnuo’s YN686EX-RT Li-Ion flash gives 750 full power flashes on a single charge
Aug 8, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Well, it looks like Yongnuo finally jumped on the Lithium Ion battery powered flash train. Releasing its first Li-Ion powered speedlight, the YN686EX-RT, the new Yongnuo is designed for the Canon RT system. The flash was first mentioned a couple of months ago, but now it’s available to buy.
The YN686EX-RT features a 2000mAh Li-Ion battery, capable of producing over 750 full power flashes on a single charge. It integrates a 2.4Gh transceiver that can act as either a master or a slave for Canon’s RT system. But, it will also work as an slave in Nikon’s CLS/AWL optical system.
- Guide Number GN60 (ISO100 zoomed to 200mm)
- 2000mAh Lithium Ion battery
- Flash modes : ETTL II, M, Multi
- HSS : to 1/8000th
- 1st & 2nd curtain sync
- Flash exposure compensation : 1/3rd stop increments
- Full power to 1/128th in 1/3rd stop increments
- 20-200mm zoomable flash head
- 2.4Ghz Canon RT radio master and slave modes
- Canon optical wireless master mode
- Canon & Nikon optical wireless slave modes
- Radio flash groups : A/B/C/D/E (15 channels)
- Optical flash groups : A/B/C (4 channels)
- S1 and S2 optical slave modes
- 1.5 second recycle time at full power
- 750+ full power flashes
- Flash duration 1/200-1/20,000th of a second
Ever since Godox got on-board with Lithium Ion batteries in their strobes they’ve become a “must have” for speedlights. I was initially drawn to them myself, but they do have one big drawback. There’s no option for an external battery pack either the Godox Li-Ion speedlights or the YN686EX-RT.
Some will say “Well, it’s Li-Ion, it’s a faster recycle anyway, it doesn’t need it”, but for me, sometimes it does. A regular AA powered speedlight with an external pack like the Godox PB960 can still get much faster recycle times than the V860II. During those times when I need faster recycle times than a standard AA powered speedlight can offer, 1.5 seconds just isn’t enough.
Still, it’s nice to see that more are adopting Li-Ion power.
[via Lighting Rumours]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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15 responses to “Yongnuo’s YN686EX-RT Li-Ion flash gives 750 full power flashes on a single charge”
Only for canon :(
Looks like a godox…but worse :D
bit late to the party. I will stick with Godox thanks
Chris Go
about time, why the hell did we still have those stupid AA batteries in flashes ?!
About time!
I love my Godox, unfortunately most of my batteries needing replacement because they had a run of bad ones
Just got a lipo Godox and yet to try it fully, hope nothing goes wring
The faulty gear was from years ago, aside from that I love my Godox gear
I had the godox version and they worked great until they didn’t. As a wedding photographer in the period of two weeks I had 3-4 of the batteries go bad. Unfortunately you can’t go to Walmart or even the local camera shop to get replacements.
Only downside is you can’t carry spare AA batteries as emergencies, and if you run out, you run out.
I own the Godox TT600 with the Godox PB960 and yes the recycle time are very short and I can shoot all day. I don’t understand why speedlight manufacturers are so resistant including external power options and why do you still need batteries in the speedlight if you are using an external power source? Ok I hope that you are listening, external power option without internal AA batteries needed, everyone is finally integrating 2.4Ghz radio’s.
And now I patiently wait when aviation authorities will say “terrorists develop bombs Li-ion battery-sized. We ban these flashes in aircrafts. Checked baggage only” … And when some poor fella later will whine that baggage handlers have smashed his precious flash in baggage…
Dejan Milosavljevic kinez jebe :)
I would rather prefer flashes with something like 18650 batteries.
Hell! Why the heck no one is making external battery packs for strobes, with 18650 batteries?