So there is no confusion I have been sent a Godox AD1200PRO from the factory for testing
Yes, good point, people should always be told when a poster has a financial arrangement with the manufacturer / seller.
First thing you notice is the shear weight of the gear, having got used to lighter units over recent years and the portability that gives the photographer this is a major step change
I am trying to work out why you might need such a unit
1. You need more power
I have never struggled with a 600 W/s unit (but will be great to see if it can overpower sunlight)
Good point, it’s massively heavy for what it is, and expensive too.
1. You need more power
I have never struggled with a 600 W/s unit (but will be great to see if it can overpower sunlight)
Another good point, I’m guessing that some fashion photographers will buy these, because they need to have complete control of the ‘weather’ outdoors. I can’t see it being much use for photographing animals such as horses, they don’t care about the flash but they won’t be happy with the loud crack when the flash is fired at full power.
600W/s certainly can overpower sunlight, provided that the light can be placed close enough. 1200 W/s will offer an advantage, but a fairly minor one, because with everything else being equal it will produce just one stop more light.
There are still a few members here who came along on one of my outdoor shoots, nearly 9 years ago. The weather varied but we had brilliant sunlight for much of the time and we managed perfectly well with 600 W/s flashes, I took 7 flash units with me but from memory didn’t need to use all of them
https://www.lencarta.com/studio-lighting-blog/location-fashion-shoot-with-the-safari-li-on/ I would have been happy to take the Godox 1200 with me to shoots like this, especially as I never do any of the carrying, but wouldn’t actually need that much power.
3. you need same power but need shorter recycle time
As in trying to keep up with 12fps the power level is too low with existing gear, for me this is a real interesting area, particularly with HSS
The fast recycling time could certainly be useful, but to get the fastest recycling the flash needs to be set to just 9.375 W.s, so that’s into Alexander Armstrong territory outdoors.
So there is no confusion I have been sent a Godox AD1200PRO from the factory for testing
Yes, I’ve used very serious levels of power in the past, indoors, but that’s very much in the past. At one point I had 6 x Elinchrom Chic 2 generator flashes (2,400 W/s each), an Elinchrom 1200 mono head, a 6,000 W/s Elinchrom generator flash and a few others. I needed that kind of power, especially when shooting on 5” x 4” large format, and definitely needed when shooting on 10” x 8”, usually at f/90 and sometimes at f//128, but large format is now pretty much dead for studio photography and today, shooting exclusively on digital, 400 W/s is on the high side of what’s actually needed.
I’ve had a play with this unit myself, it looks pretty solidly built, although with an old-fashioned retro look, but I agree with you, I don’t know what it’s for. My guess is that it’s basically a vanity product, produced by Godox to show that they can do it and compete with the likes of Bron. Certainly some people have bought it – Lencarta sold out of their initial stock very quickly – but now that I have to pay for my equipment myself, I won’t be joining that band of owners.