JEDI
For a cheap knock-off of an overpriced hotshoe flash, this thing is surprisingly not terrible. On a practical level its a 3/5 star item, but for the price its easily a 4/5. You will not find a better value at this price point, period. Pros: Powerful output Reliable wireless system when using Yongnuo triggers Works as well as expensive, first party flash units Cons: Doesnt play well with Pocketwizards/Cactus V6 wireless triggers Build quality could be better Easy to overheat when using an external battery pack I currently own 3 of these flashes, having owned 5 over the years with 2 being broken by falling off a stand or being dropped. These flashes are finicky when used with triggers not made by Yongnuo. Just this past weekend I was using one of these lights with my Cactus V6s and Alien Bees at a wedding and the flash refused to fire out of the blue when triggered by the Cactus triggers. Turning the flash off and on again generally fixes these sorts of issues, but this time I had to restore the flash to factory settings before it would trigger again. My Alien Bees continued to fire reliably while the speedlight just decided it was break time. That said, I have had zero issue getting these flashes to fire remotely with Yongunos triggers As for build quality, Ive broken 2 of these flashes in the space of year by having them fall off a stand or get dropped. You NEED to handle them carefully. Dropping one from standing height could easily break it. That said, theyre still tough enough. I dont care how much your flash costs, dropping it the wrong way will probably break it. Really, my only build quality complaint is the rubber gasket that reinforces the locking mechanism falls off constantly and is required to ensure the flash is locked down tight to stands and cameras. Im sure some glue would fix it, but thats assuming you can find the gasket once it falls off on the dance floor. Finally, you will overheat these flashes quickly if firing at anything more than 1/8th power while using a battery pack. Without a battery pack, TTL mode also tends to overheat them when used for extended periods. This is mainly due to the pre-flash and generally high output that TTL typically delivers in dark environments. Basically, if you need a lot of light, youll get about 30 or so minutes of shooting before the flash starts warning you with overheating indicators. Its not uncommon for speedlights to overheat, especially more powerful ones like this unit. But itd be nice if it had a mode that slowed the recycle times down a bit when getting close to overheating so you can keep shooting without the flash shutting itself down as quickly. Overall Id recommend these flashes to anyone who needs a speedlight and is willing to buy into Yongunos trigger system. For the money, its tough to beat them unless you go with a company like Godox.