The ongoing pandemic has meant that there’s been little work and few purchases. The items listed below were bought before the pandemic shut everything down.
Sirui K-40X Ball Head
My old Manfrotto ball head wasn’t as smooth as I wanted and it struggled with heavy lenses. Also, my new L-bracket (below) requires an Arca-Swiss head and there’s no easy way to convert a Manfrotto clamp to Arca-Swiss.
The Sirui K-40X was reasonably priced ($240) compared to similar ball heads. It’s smooth, solid and a joy to use.
3 Legged Thing L-Bracket
When a tripod head manufacturer says its product has a load capacity of, let’s say, 10 kg., that applies only when the head is upright. As soon as you start to tilt the head, the load capacity drops. Using an L-bracket means that the tripod head stays upright, in its most stable position, when you flip your camera to the vertical position.
The problem with most L-brackets is that you need a different L-bracket for each model of camera.
The 3 Legged Thing L-bracket ($80) tries to be a universal bracket. It can’t fit every model of camera perfectly but it seems to do a reasonable job.
Godox V1 Flash
I bought this flash mostly because it uses an internal lithium battery (and it was on sale for $270). I no longer have to carry an external battery pack hooked to my waist. The V1 lithium battery is pretty good as it can do hundreds of full-power flashes with a fast recycle.
The Godox V1 is bigger and heavier than my Nikon SB-800 flash but it was also 65% cheaper than a new Nikon SB-5000. I was hoping the V1 would be compatible with the Nikon CLS (optical) system built into the SB-800 but it’s not.
A Nikon flash display will illuminate when the camera shutter button is half-pressed. The V1 display does not. I would’ve thought this could be fixed with a Godox firmware update but the flash came out two years ago and still no fix.
Godox says the V1 is 76 watt-seconds. Both my Nikon SB-800 and my old Nikon SB-24 are 76 watt-seconds. My old Vivitar 285 from the 1980s was 67 watt-seconds (the capacitor was 1100uF at 350V). Note that watt-seconds do not directly translate to usable light.
Measured with a flash meter under the same settings (ISO 100, 50mm, 5m), the Godox V1 output was 0.4 to 0.5 stops less than my Nikon SB-800, 0.3 stops less than my SB-24 and about the same as my Vivitar 285.
The problems with all Godox products are the poorly translated manuals and the lack of local customer service and repairs. A Toronto camera store that sells Godox products has said that if a Godox flash fails, don’t bother fixing it. Just throw it out and buy another.
Godox P120H Softbox
Godox uses a P in the name to indicate it’s parabolic. But it’s not. Too many softbox manufacturers use “parabolic” because it’s trendy and it allows them to charge more. The P120 is just a 120cm, 16-sided, deep softbox. It’s like the 120cm Elinchrom LiteMotiv but not quite as well-built and definitely not as expensive.
Godox sells the P120 in two versions, the L and the H, and I have both. The L is lighter and the H is, wait for it, heavier. The L uses fiberglass rods and the H has steel rods. (The Elinchrom LiteMotiv uses aluminum rods which are lighter than steel and stronger than fiberglass.)
The H is marketed as being for high temperature use. Godox says the L is good up to 65°C and the H can be used up to 85°C. Since the two versions have the exact same fabric, perhaps the temperature difference is due to fiberglass versus steel poles? Well, for fun, I boiled (100°C) a fiberglass rod in a pot of water with no ill effect.
But fiberglass rods can break, according to online comments, and steel rods don’t. I emailed Godox and they said it was not cost effective to buy any replacement rods because the shipping charge alone would be at least USD $60 which is more than half the cost of a new softbox. If you ever do need replacement rods for a Godox P120, you might try 36″ Chimera rods (USD $20) or 36″ Photoflex rods (USD $11), both available in the US.
The Godox P120 is wonderful to use which is why I bought a second one.
But.
I’ve owned at least 26 softboxes and octaboxes from various brands over the past 35 years. The Godox P120H is, without a doubt, the most difficult to set up. The reason is that the steel rods don’t flex enough. If you want a good workout for your arms or if you like to scream and curse, this softbox is for you.
The P120H is tensioned so tightly that if you give up at the halfway point of assembly, you’ll still have a functioning octabox.
The setup secret: first use pieces of tape to mark rods #1 and #9 and use different coloured tape to mark rods #5 and #13. Then insert rod #1 at position 12 o’clock, rod #9 at 6 o’clock, rod #5 at 3 o’clock and rod #13 at 9 o’clock, following the specially marked holes on the speed ring. Put the box face-down on the ground and insert the remaining rods in an alternating pattern. You’ll need to use both hands to bend the rods. (The Elinchrom LiteMotiv setup is exactly the same but its aluminum poles flex more easily.)
Side note: The Godox P120 speedring comes with a removable Bowens mount. You can buy mounts for many other brands of strobes but most of these mounts are 152mm outside diameter. The P120 requires a mount with a 144mm outside diameter.
