We’ve had cameras and lenses so far in our 2019 seasonal gift guides, so this time we’re turning towards lighting. Whether you shoot photography or video, you need it. And when the natural light isn’t giving you what you need, you need flash or good continuous lights. There is a wide range of flash and continuous lighting available these days, and here are some of our favourites.
The Godox AD400 Pro instantly became my favourite new strobe after taking it for its first day out. You can read my full review of the AD400 Pro here, It probably represents the best value in the current Godox lineup. It offers the colour consistency and recycle times of its brighter AD600 Pro sibling, but at a significantly lower price point. I think one of these and a pair of Godox AD200 forms the ideal setup for anybody looking to start working with larger strobes. In the UK, you can find this as the Pixapro CITI400 Pro.
The Spekular LED lights have become my go-to lighting now for most of my video work. I have two sets of them and I’ve found them to be an extremely versatile system. Made from 12″ (30cm) long segments, the core kit comes with a set of four. It also includes four connectors, allowing you to create strips, triangles, squares and more. You can even combine two sets together to produce a large octagonal ringlight, or combine them with the star adapter to get a similar look to a large softbox.
The LitraPro is the second light from newcomers Litra. Their original LitraTorch was designed for use with action cameras, but they’ve stepped things up a bit with the LitraPro for use on-camera with DSLRs, mirrorless and regular video cameras. Primarily it’s designed for those situations where you want a little on-axis fill to help brighten your subject a bit from the background, but you can also use it off-camera, too. And, it’s waterproof to 30 metres! We’ll have a full review of this light coming soon.
The Profoto A1 is the world’s most expensive speedlight. Or the world’s smallest studio strobe, depending on who you ask. If you’re already into the Profoto system, it will also serve as a Profoto AirTTL Remote. So, if you needed a backup trigger anyway, and you’ve been thinking about a powerful speedlight, then the A1 makes a lot of sense.
The Profoto B10 is a tiny 250Ws strobe that packs a whole lot of punch for its size. It’s compatible with the Profoto AirTTL system, has a 10 stop range in 0.1 stop increments, provides up to 400 full power flashes on a single battery charge and gives recycle times of 0.05 to 2 seconds. It offers TTL and high speed sync, with a 3000-6500K temperature adjustable 2500 lumen LED modelling light boasting a CRI of 90-96.
Interfit Badger Unleashed (B&H) – $349
The Interfit Badger Unleashed is a portable lithium ion version of the Honey Badger. These 250Ws portable strobes offer TTL and high speed sync with Nikon, Canon and Sony all the way up to 1/8000th of a second. Offering 9 stops of range in 0.1 stop increments, the Badger Unleashed offers 430 full power flashes from its 2900mAh lithium ion battery and has a built-in Bowens modifier mount.
This one is purely for that Pentax shooter in your life. The Godox XPro-P is the trigger that finally allows Pentax users access to the very capable and versatile Godox flash system. You can see my review of the XPro-P trigger here, and the feedback I’ve received from other Pentax photographers who’ve received their XPro-P triggers has all been very positive. Perhaps combine this with the AD400 Pro at the top of this list, or an AD200. We’ve posted our camera and lens gift guides already, but keep an eye out for the rest this week, covering bags and accessories.
