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