<p>I am posting this to help other Sony A7RII users who have been seeking a solution for professional location flash units that will work well with Sony cameras. The absence of compatible Sony flash triggers has been one of the major ommissions for me in migrating fully from Canon professional DSLRs to Sony mirrorless.<br /> I have photographed downhill mountain bike racers for many years using High Speed Sync (HSS) flash provided by 6 Canon 580EXII mounted on a custom bracket and powered by 3 Quantum Turbo 3 battery packs. As a solution it was heavy, cumbersome, and very expensive, but it enabled me to get some fabulous images. This year, however, migrating from Canon to Sony meant that I needed to find an alternative to my trusty Canon Speedlights. The 500 Joule Prophoto B1 looked suitable but no Sony trigger was available or even forecast. The Elinchrom ELB400 with HS head also looked a possible replacement but its promised Sony trigger had not arrived by the time I really had to make a decision. (It was finally announced at the beginning of June). As I desperately trawled for a solution I stumbled across the Godox AD600. The spec looked good with an energy rating equal to about 9 or 10 Speedlights, HSS up to 1/8000s, and 500 full power flashes from the battery. But … it was an unfamiliar Chinese brand and the price was so low compared to Prophoto and Elinchrom that I thought “there must be a catch!” I placed my order anyway with Amazon/LeaTure UK and then did some extensive tests. There is no catch!<br /> My tests showed that the flash output from shot to shot was identical, nor could I detect any shift in colour temperature. The X1T-S trigger integrates nicely with my Sony A7RII, turning off the Live View Display effect to enable focus and composition, and there is no discernible trigger delay when used with the new Voigtlander 15mm Super Heliar III lens. The manual specifies the switch-on order for trigger, camera, and flash and if you turn on in the wrong order then the modeling lamp may switch on - easily noticed in the studio but not so easy on location in bright sun. The flash unit has built in radio receivers for Canon, Nikon and Sony so you only need to change the hot shoe mounted trigger if you change camera systems, and the Godox trigger costs £32 versus £200-£300 for Elinchrom and Prophoto. Wow!<br /> The X1T-S flash trigger has a very simple and intuitive LCD interface that allows the mode and power of up to 5 flash groups to be set. I particularly like that a button has to be pressed before adjusting power with the control wheel as that prevents accidental changes in the heat of the moment. The flash head has a similar interface with dedicated buttons and its backlight LCD is readable in bright or dim light.<br /> I was so confident after my tests that I used the AD600 in anger on a major shoot where I was covering the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William. The flash performed flawlessly over three days on the side of a mountain under direct exposure to sun and an air temp of 24 degrees Celsius. The battery life was very impressive too : I was shooting full power at 1/4000s in HSS and even after a day’s shots I still had full bars on the battery status! Had I been using X-sync at 1/250s then I would obviously expect to use more battery power but the performance in HSS is still mighty impressive. Fitted with a Bowens 120 degree reflector gave me 2.3 stops advantage over my 6 Canon Speedlights which meant I afford to lose 1.3 stops on a “shower cap” style diffuser and still have one whole stop in hand.<br /> The unit is not weather proofed but I would have no concerns using it in wet weather, and I went to this shoot prepared with a large “Stormjacket” lens protector. This completely covers the body of the flash and works well with the “shower cap” diffuser to provide pretty complete weather protection. However the ADH600B extension head and cable could also be used which means that the main flash monobloc could be left inside a camera bag in really bad conditions. Incidentally the AD600HB is a superb accessory that enables boom mounting of the flash tube for flexible and safe high angled lighting using the AD-S13 pole. You lose half a stop because of the cable but that is a small price to pay for the flexibility.<br /> In conclusion the AD600 offers superb functionality and performance at a price that is simply unbeatable. If you are a Sony user needing high power HSS on location then I think it is currently the only game in town. Highly recommended!<br> <br /> I tried to attach some images from the World Cup shot with Sony A7RII, Voigtlander 15mm Super Heliar III, and Godox AD600BM fitted with Bowens 120 degree reflector and shower cap diffuser but they did not load successfully. You can see the original article on Pinkbike.com here : http://www.pinkbike.com/u/cloverleaf/blog/fort-william-2016-maclennan-photo-reel.html. Almost all the ultra wide angle shots used the Godox AD600BM flash.</p>
