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Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a detailed review of the Godox AD100 Pro II 100Ws Pocket Flash. Find out what's been improved and how well it works here. | Purchase the Godox AD100 Pro II @ Amazon https://geni.us/GjWEH9Z | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4mD9gZY | | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4sBOLy1 | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/48baRjz | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4vCOJsy
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0:00
[music]
0:10
>> Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to review [music] the latest iteration
0:14
of Godox's very popular 8100 flash unit.
0:18
And so we've seen the 8100, we see the
0:19
8100 Pro, now we see the Pro Mark II
0:23
model. And so today we're going to
0:24
quickly break down what has changed from
0:27
the previous generation. We're going to
0:29
take a look at the basic specifications
0:31
and then I'm going to show you some
0:32
photos from a practical photo shoot that
0:35
I did with the flash unit and so we can
0:37
see whether or not it is the flash that
0:39
you should consider for your own use. So
0:42
let's dive in and take a look at what's
0:44
changed from the previous generation
0:46
8100 Pro model. All right, so what's
0:49
changed in the new Mark II model? The
0:51
first major area is when it comes to the
0:54
thermal management and overall
0:55
performance. We now have an active fan
0:58
operating in here which allows for
1:00
anywhere between 60 to 100 full power
1:03
flashes. The previous model had only 30
1:06
to 60 flashes and so it's
1:08
uh absolute top possible performance is
1:11
actually at the bottom end of the new
1:12
one. Another major improvement here
1:14
comes to the actual battery pack itself.
1:17
We have a larger battery at this point,
1:19
3300 mAh, that provides up to 490 full
1:24
power charges or full power flashes I
1:26
should say which compares to 360
1:29
in the old model. Another thing that's
1:31
uh great about this battery is that not
1:33
only does it support USB-C direct
1:36
charging, but you can see they put the
1:38
port out here where you don't have to
1:40
remove the battery to charge it which is
1:42
a really smart move. Now obviously you
1:44
still have the option to remove it if
1:46
you want, but it just makes that a
1:48
little bit more accessible in that
1:49
regard. Third improvement comes to the
1:51
modeling lamp that you can see here.
1:54
Whereas the old modeling lamp was only a
1:56
1.8 W, this is now a 5 W um that can go
2:00
all the way up to giving you it's
2:02
through 10 stages of brightness and you
2:04
can see it can give you a really nice
2:06
amount of brightness to give you a lot
2:07
more modeling potential there. Another
2:10
change is to the actual screen LCD
2:13
screen here and menu here. We now have a
2:14
full color interface and when it comes
2:17
to accessing things like the various
2:19
groups, the groups all have color codes
2:21
attached to them and you will get a
2:23
corresponding light here on the side. So
2:25
So as you change groups, that color of
2:27
that will actually change to correspond
2:29
to the color of the group which gives
2:31
you a little more quick visual uh
2:33
communication on which group you're
2:35
actually operating. So it could be a
2:37
really useful thing if you're using a
2:39
number of different flash units.
2:41
Internally there's been an improvement
2:43
to the wireless capacity. While both of
2:44
them use a 2.4 GHz, the new Mark II
2:47
model supports 433 MHz frequency which
2:50
will help to not only uh kind of filter
2:53
out some of the noise if you're in a
2:54
busy environment in terms of wireless
2:56
signal, it also allows you to do that
2:58
quick sync pairing with the new X3 and
3:01
X3 Pro triggers which obviously can be
3:03
very useful as well. All the 8100 Pro
3:06
Mark II will come in this nice zippered
3:08
case and inside you've got a few
3:10
accessories. You've got your mounting
3:12
clip here that will allow you to go on
3:15
to a You have a couple of different
3:17
options where you mount it there and
3:18
that'll allow you to go right on to a
3:19
light stand with it just mounting
3:21
through that way. You'll also note that
3:22
there is a separate umbrella or
3:25
accessory holder that is attached there.
3:27
So that's useful. You have a USB-C cable
3:30
for charging the battery and you do have
3:32
a little actual AC adapter if you're
3:35
wanting to plug directly into the wall
3:37
to charge the battery. And that's it in
3:40
terms of included accessories. All
3:42
right, let's talk about the basic
3:43
specifications if you are not familiar
3:44
with the 8100 Pro formula. And so the
3:48
100 portion stands for the fact the
3:50
power output. This is a 100 W second
3:53
um flash here. The zoom range for
3:56
compatibility is between 25 and 85 or
3:59
excuse me 28 to 85 mm um in terms of the
4:03
kind of focal length and zoom range it's
4:05
covered there. This does now have
4:07
stroboscopic support which the previous
4:09
generation did not and so that's can do
4:11
up to to 90 strobes at 99 Hz. In terms
4:16
of the different flash modes that it
4:17
supports, it does support HSS or high
4:19
speed sync. It will also support first
4:21
and second curtain syncs. The modeling
4:24
lamp which we've already taken a look at
4:26
is now up it's now 5 W and it has 10
4:30
different brightness levels that you can
4:31
access here. And so you can see here an
4:33
intensity and when you get up to about
4:37
60% it starts to fire on the fan to help
4:40
to cool it um and it will kind of ramps
4:43
up at first you can hear it and then it
4:45
calms down as it just maintains there,
4:47
but it's making sure that when you're
4:49
using that that you're not actually
4:51
going to be overheating the unit itself.
4:53
Rather than the five groups that the
4:55
previous flash supported, this now
4:57
supports up to 16 different groups and
4:59
as we've already mentioned they are
5:00
color coded. And as mentioned
5:02
previously, the battery will now give
5:03
you 490 full power flashes and so if
5:06
you're you know shooting at more typical
5:08
ranges where it's less than that, you
5:10
could easily get a thousand different
5:11
flash cycles off that um off of one
5:14
battery charge. The recycle time is is
5:16
as little again depending on output,
5:18
it's going to be as little as 0.01
5:21
um so basically 10 ms all the way up to
5:24
1.5 seconds. And so um even at the worst
5:28
full power flash is about every second
5:30
and a half you can have another strobe
5:32
and so you're able to shoot pretty
5:34
quickly with the flash and it recycles
5:36
quickly. Now if you want to use
5:38
accessories on here, there is a magnetic
5:40
ring at the front and so basically the
5:42
accessories that worked for previous
5:44
ones will work with this. The weight is
5:46
up a little bit because of that bigger
5:48
and thus heavier uh bat you know more
5:51
dense uh power pack and so now the
5:53
weight is 564
5:55
g for it. You know sometimes they'll
5:57
refer to these kind of as pocket
5:58
flashes. I don't think that anybody
6:00
carries them in their pocket, but you
6:02
can see that it is a nice compact form
6:04
factor. However, just so you're clear on
6:07
this, this is not designed to be mounted
6:09
onto a hot shoe. This is going to have
6:11
to require some kind of syncing so uh
6:14
like a wireless sync and so you're going
6:16
to need to use one of their wireless
6:18
triggers to activate it. They're not all
6:20
that expensive and they work really
6:21
quite well. I particularly enjoy like
6:23
the X3 and the X3 Pro and cuz they just
6:26
kind of match aesthetically and you're
6:28
able to do that uh
6:30
quick wireless syncing that kind of
6:31
takes a lot of the guesswork out of
6:33
using the flash out of the equation.
6:35
Price here runs right under 300 US
6:37
dollars and so it makes a strong value.
6:40
That's the reason why so many people use
6:41
Godox flashes because they're in my
6:44
opinion they've been very reliable. I've
6:45
used lots of them for a lot of years at
6:47
this point and have had zero problems
6:49
with it. And so overall specifications
6:51
are solid for this. This is at the
6:53
bottom end of their range in terms of
6:55
power output, but you'd be surprised how
6:57
much you know brightness you can get out
6:59
of a 100 W second flash unit. And so
7:02
it's my opinion for many people it's
7:04
going to be plenty particularly if
7:05
you're using a couple of them in
7:07
different configurations, you know, at a
7:09
different angles. So how about real
7:10
world use? All right, I'm here with
7:13
Xander. He is an aspiring musical artist
7:15
that is releasing his first single and
7:17
so we've been trying to get some shots
7:18
for his cover art for his album. And so
7:22
I've been using the Godox 8100 Pro Mark
7:25
II flash for some creative lighting as a
7:28
part of it. We'll see how things turn
7:30
out. Thanks Xander. Now the actual way
7:32
that I end up using this is a couple of
7:34
ways. First of all was to you know try
7:37
to help with high speed syncing to
7:39
capture action to freeze action cuz
7:41
we're getting some of it kind of air
7:42
walks. This young man who is shooting
7:44
you know wanting some different looks
7:46
for album cover. So I had him look up
7:48
some of the things that that he liked
7:50
that he thought were cool and so we
7:51
worked to either recreate or put our own
7:53
flavor on some of those and so that
7:55
included a couple of different really
7:57
radically different kinds of looks. And
7:58
so in one case I was trying to freeze
8:00
action and so you can see from some of
8:02
these shots, you know, freezing him in
8:03
the air and so having a strobe helps to
8:05
freeze that action. The second
8:07
application though actually was he
8:09
wanted kind of a rim light look and so I
8:11
put him in front of a screen uh that
8:12
would be you know reflective of what I
8:14
think about 1.1 or 1.2 gain on the
8:16
screen and then I was actually just
8:19
firing behind him with the unit and
8:21
obviously wirelessly triggering with all
8:23
of these things. And so what I did then
8:25
is that I allowed that flash unit to go
8:27
in basically a completely dark otherwise
8:29
room and so it just provided that rim
8:31
lighting type illumination which gave me
8:33
a lot of you know creativity work. It
8:36
worked really really well for that. And
8:37
then in a final series what I did is I
8:39
actually kind of positioned to where I
8:41
allowed the the light to just kind of
8:43
creep um underneath kind of his his chin
8:46
area and so that I could get that sun
8:48
star or sun burst type of effect look as
8:51
a part of it and this was actually done
8:52
in camera not in post. You can see it
8:55
provided a pretty cool effect for that.
8:57
I've been using these Godox flashes for
8:59
years and so I mean they really are
9:01
really straightforward and easy to use.
9:02
You do have to kind of you know learn
9:04
the process and make sure that you have
9:06
both a
9:07
uh a channel and a group identified and
9:09
so that you make sure you sync up with
9:11
your trigger. But once you've done that,
9:12
they're very easy with the triggers to
9:15
you know to adjust up and down and then
9:17
you're just having to deal with whatever
9:19
are the quirks within your particular
9:21
camera system. One thing I do like about
9:23
these flash units is that if you have
9:25
multiple camera systems, you can buy you
9:27
know one or two of these and then you
9:29
can just get relatively inexpensive
9:32
trigger for your different camera
9:33
systems and just utilize the same set of
9:35
flashes. I find that this kind of
9:36
simplifies the whole process for me so I
9:38
just grab the appropriate trigger for
9:40
the appropriate camera system and away I
9:42
go and it all works pretty seamlessly.
9:45
So at the end of the day, there are
9:46
definitely some key improvements. I
9:47
would say the biggest reason to consider
9:49
this upgrade is that if you are someone
9:52
that is a high volume user and so you
9:54
need to get both more you know flashes
9:57
out of the actual battery pack and also
9:59
the ability to do more full power
10:01
flashes without having to work about any
10:03
kind of thermal overload. I think that
10:05
that's going to be a really key
10:07
improvement for you. If you like the new
10:09
visual changes, some of the easier
10:11
wireless syncing, maybe it's good reason
10:13
to upgrade if you've gone to their their
10:15
most recent triggers and so you want
10:17
that kind of seamless compatibility with
10:19
those, but I would say that that's maybe
10:21
less of a reason than the actual power
10:24
output. I mean, AD100 Pro is already a
10:26
really solid flash. This new one is
10:28
better, but you need to make sure that
10:30
it's actually better in the way that you
10:32
need it. If you typically use your
10:33
flashes at a much lower power output,
10:36
you probably aren't running into any
10:37
kind of thermal issues anyway, and if
10:39
you're not running into thermal issues,
10:41
well, maybe it's not such a big deal. If
10:43
you're not an all-day type shooter,
10:44
maybe you don't need the higher battery
10:46
capacity, or maybe your best option is
10:48
just to buy an extra battery for yours.
10:50
Either way, I think there's some good
10:51
options on the market at this point, but
10:54
certainly if you are looking at an
10:55
upgrade path, or if you're just buying
10:57
in, the great thing about the AD100 Pro
10:59
Mark II is it's the same price as the
11:01
AD100 Pro, and so you might as well get
11:03
the newer better model for the same
11:05
amount of money. If you want more
11:07
information, you can check out the links
11:08
that are in the description down below.
11:09
As always, thanks for watching. Have a
11:11
great day, and let the light in.