It seems that Godox is about to update its lithium-ion powered V860 series speedlight to fall a little more inline with that of the V1. Lighting Rumours reports that it’s an incremental update, so you might not need to rush out to replace your V860IIs, but it will offer some improvements over its predecessor. For a start, the updated user interface is said to be modified slightly to make it closer to that of the Godox V1. Primarily, I suspect this means the dial in the middle of all the buttons, as the LCD interface is already pretty much the same. It’s also going to see the new format lock on the foot and LR says it will receive a new LED modelling lamp on the main flash body.
The updated button layout to match the V1 will be invaluable to wedding, event and other photographers working in fast-paced environments where having a consistent user interface between different flashes can shave valuable time off the workflow. The time savings may not add up to much during the course of a day’s shooting, but it can mean the difference between getting the shot or not if you’re regularly switching between multiple bodies with different flashes on the hotshoe.
I’m not entirely convinced of the suggestion that the big white bit on the front of the body of the V860III is actually a modelling light, though. For a start, if your flash head is pointed in any direction other than straight forward (the worst possible direction to point it), then the modelling light isn’t really going to be giving you even a close approximation of how the light’s going to be blasted out from the head. Also, we’ve seen this before… The original Godox V1 pre-production models also showed a similar clear plastic interface on the front – which some assumed at the time might be a modelling light (it’s not, see those two little round dots on the bottom of the head itself in the top-left of that photo?). It was still the AF assist and Godox said they were experimenting with a clear cover. In the final version, it became the traditional dark red. So, I’m not convinced that this is a modelling light. And I won’t be until we actually see the thing for real. But I suspect it’s simply a regular AF assist with a pre-production prototype clear cover. There are a couple of other very welcome updates on the V860III, though. For a start, gone is the spinny dial of finger death to lock it into the hotshoe. Instead, it gets the same quick-release foot locking mechanism as the Godox V1. The V860III is also said to use the same battery as the recently announced Godox AD100Pro, which means it should also work with the Godox V1 batteries as well – they are different model numbers, but the V1 battery appears to work in the AD100Pro. All this is still just rumours and there’s been no official announcement from Godox yet, which means that there’s no word on a release date or a price, although I expect the latter will be somewhat close to the early price of the V860II, which was around $199 (or $269 with a transmitter). There’s probably not enough there to make you want to replace the V860IIs you might already own, but if you haven’t bought any of those yet, then it may be worth holding out for this. [via Lighting Rumours]
