Godox EX600: First Dibs

Hey there! First off I want to apologize for not being able to post some new material for quite some time. I have been a busy bee these past few weeks. Anyway I'd like you guys to know that I finally got myself a monolight that I bought from Photozuela. I have tested it out and so far I'm happy with it since it runs on batteries (and it is somewhat heavy which is perfect for an additional weight to the light stand) so I can take it on-location wherever and whenever.

So, first off let's start with the stuff inside the case which by the way also comes along when you buy the monolight! (Isn't that awesome?)

Well the obvious ones are the charger, flash head cover, trigger and receiver
(its there somewhere), cables, car charger and a carry bag for the battery pack

Battery pack & 600ws flash head

The flash head without the reflector

Big ass battery

Everything seems to be in order, built quality is not that stellar since the mount in the flash head is plastic so if you are planning to attach a 7-8ft softbox then you guys better think twice or better yet get a flash bracket and mount the flash head there. For umbrellas its a different story, the flash head has a built-in umbrella holder there I tried my 55" parabolic umbrella and surprisingly it can handle it nicely but I have to see it outdoors if it can manage the umbrella with some winds.

As for the power output of the flash, I tried it and I would say that it is freaking powerful! At full power it sort of blinded me even though I am indirectly looking at it. I tried shooting with the monolight at full power to the lowest at f1.8-2.8 without my ND500 filter and it produced overexposed images and this is indoors, just imagine if you are shooting on a 2pm-4pm sunlight on a summer day. Sadly the 9 stop adjustment doesn't have a lot of difference so I have decided to just use 3 power levels which is 9 for full power, 5 for middle and 1 of the lowest.

For the purposes of showing the color consistency problem check out the 1st image (the one where I looked like Wall-e).

A lot of us photographers are iffy about color consistency from the lenses that we use to the labs that print our images and as a photographer it is probably safe to assume that you know the phrase: "you get what you pay for". As it turns out the flash has a color consistency problem but its easily fixable at Photoshop, just a slide with the color balance and you are set. Other problems that I see on the flash is that the modelling light is a bit slower to recharge than the flash tube and the only easy fix is to turn the modelling light off which also helps the longevity of the battery.

So there you guys go! I haven't done a really thorough test with the Godox EX600 but hopefully soon I'll have it tested outdoors in a real shoot. For now I can say that the Godox EX600 is a good step-up from the flash gun if you are looking for more power and portability on the cheap.

The monolight is priced at PHP 17,990 with 3 months of warranty from Photozuela.

Stay tune for a in-depth review of the Godox EX600!