Godox XPro now has 0.1 stop adjustment

That's useful to know - thanks.

I think most newer Godox studio strobes (ie. the ones with built 2.4ghz receivers) support fractional power adjustment and older models use the decimal power settings.
 
Does it actually work Mike? I ask because (and working from memory here) I was using one of the other triggers, either X1 or XT32 not sure which, and that would shift in 0.1 increments, but the AD600 Original head would only respond in 1/3rds. Something like that ;)
 
HoppyUK said:
Does it actually work Mike? I ask because (and working from memory here) I was using one of the other triggers, either X1 or XT32 not sure which, and that would shift in 0.1 increments, but the AD600 Original head would only respond in 1/3rds. Something like that ;)
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I haven't tested myself but someone mentioned it's for their mains powered heads.

If so hopefully it'll trickle down to the battery powered stuff eventually.
 
So far it does as you describe - new option on the XPro to select 0.1 incremements but it will still only change the lights in thirds.

This may be to bring the trigger in line with other lights that already support 0.1increments of course or, they may decide to add it as an option perhaps - we shall see . . .
 
HoppyUK said:
Does it actually work Mike? I ask because (and working from memory here) I was using one of the other triggers, either X1 or XT32 not sure which, and that would shift in 0.1 increments, but the AD600 Original head would only respond in 1/3rds. Something like that ;)
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It does work on lights that can be adjusted in 0.1 stop adjustments, here is hoping that more heads get that ability

Mike
 
AD600PRO just got 0.1 stop adjustment and interesting is that the AD600PRO does not now have a setting for 0.3/0.1 it just works with whatever the tx can do

Firmware details

1.Compatible with Godox wirelss PENTAX X system
2.To change the step adjustment from 0.3 to 0.1
3.To optimize battery management and temperature protection program

So lots of goodies in one, Pentax guys have been asking for it and no details yet exactly what 3. means for a user

Mike
 
Upgraded the first of my AD600Pros, all good. Upgraded the second one and get "Error 9 Firmware Error". The manual says "There are some errors occurred during the upgrading process. Please using the correct firmware upgrade method." - which I've done, a few times, and to no avail.

The upgrade process itself was the same, no issues with the cable and it showed that it was successful - although in practice it wasn't.

Any thoughts? Options to try?
 
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In all honesty, it’s unlikely. But regardless, I plan to keep the firmware up to date and have experienced a problem doing that. The option will be there but easy enough to switch to thirds via the trigger so no real pain during a shoot to adjust the setting either way.
 
DG Phototraining said:
Can you even see a 1/10th of a stop difference?

Are all those people with 'only' 1/3 stop gear going to want to rush out and buy one because what they really want is power settings at (i.e.) 5.2 or 5.4 and not the horrible 5.3 they have now?

Dave
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Actually it is the other way round, people want the 5.3 they set on camera and not the 5.2 or 5.4 they have to accept because they do not have that granularity of adjustment.

As you say, can you see it? Well I know of one Major photographic company that insists that photographers that work for it use lights that can be adjusted in 0.1 stops because they insist that key light is set at f8.2

Mike
 
mike weeks said:
Actually it is the other way round, people want the 5.3 they set on camera and not the 5.2 or 5.4 they have to accept because they do not have that granularity of adjustment.

As you say, can you see it? Well I know of one Major photographic company that insists that photographers that work for it use lights that can be adjusted in 0.1 stops because they insist that key light is set at f8.2

Mike
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I'd be a devil and set f8.1 just to test them :D

Dave
 
DG Phototraining said:
Can you even see a 1/10th of a stop difference?

Are all those people with 'only' 1/3 stop gear going to want to rush out and buy one because what they really want is power settings at (i.e.) 5.2 or 5.4 and not the horrible 5.3 they have now?

Dave
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They don’t need to buy owt Dave, it’s a firmware upgrade.

Keep yer hand on yer wallet, smile, it’s a freebie :p
 
DG Phototraining said:
Can you even see a 1/10th of a stop difference?

Are all those people with 'only' 1/3 stop gear going to want to rush out and buy one because what they really want is power settings at (i.e.) 5.2 or 5.4 and not the horrible 5.3 they have now?
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I'm not using a speedlight, it's not the 80's, all my other equipment works in 0.1 stop adjustments and no one is going to rush out and buy one because of this change.

Why on earth is it a problem that they're giving us this option?
 
DG Phototraining said:
Can you even see a 1/10th of a stop difference?

Are all those people with 'only' 1/3 stop gear going to want to rush out and buy one because what they really want is power settings at (i.e.) 5.2 or 5.4 and not the horrible 5.3 they have now?

Dave
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It's more in the 'nice to have' rather than essential category. Some heads struggle to fire consistently at that level of accuracy from flash to flash, especially at lower power settings, and even when output can be adjusted in tenths it's no guarantee that's what you'll actually get.

It's not a feature I would bother with but quite a few people have been asking for it. Working in thirds fits nicely with aperture/ISO/shutter speed increments and all speedlights follow that principle, but those coming from a more traditional studio lighting background will probably feel more comfortable with tenths.
 
simonbarker said:
I'm not using a speedlight, it's not the 80's, all my other equipment works in 0.1 stop adjustments and no one is going to rush out and buy one because of this change.

Why on earth is it a problem that they're giving us this option?
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Camera does 0.1? Is the question, answer is that you are adjusting your lights to your camera accurately

Mike
 
He I bet the systems tolerances is way more than.0.1 stop.
Robert Hall showed differences up 0.2 stops with the the brand new AD600PRO so de pending on your luck a 0.1 stop adjustment may well result in a 0.3 stop difference i Exposure. And how about your aperture? Some tolerance must be expected here too.
 
soeren said:
He I bet the systems tolerances is way more than.0.1 stop.
Robert Hall showed differences up 0.2 stops with the the brand new AD600PRO so de pending on your luck a 0.1 stop adjustment may well result in a 0.3 stop difference i Exposure. And how about your aperture? Some tolerance must be expected here too.
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Most of the newer IGBT-regulated heads like Godox are very accurate and consistent at high and mid-range outputs, but can fluctuation by a couple of tenths if you turn them right down to 1/128th, often accompanied by a colour shift to blue (and very short flash durations). Conventional voltage-regulated studio heads are similar, but very few turn down that low and when they do, they can fluctuate more than that shot to shot, and with a significantly warmer hue (plus longer flash durations).

I think this working in tenths thing is more about people's preferred way of working than anything of real practical value, but that's if that applies to you, it's important.
 
soeren said:
He I bet the systems tolerances is way more than.0.1 stop.
Robert Hall showed differences up 0.2 stops with the the brand new AD600PRO so de pending on your luck a 0.1 stop adjustment may well result in a 0.3 stop difference i Exposure. And how about your aperture? Some tolerance must be expected here too.
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You keep talking on here and elsewhere as if tolerances will always be additive, however they can just as easy be cancelling
 
mike weeks said:
You keep talking on here and elsewhere as if tolerances will always be additive, however they can just as easy be cancelling
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Ofcource they can and then its not a problem at all and if they are reliably consistent you can work around them. But thing is they are random and the Work needed for something you dont even see with an acuracy around 0.2 stop............
So your +0.1 stop chance could result in changes from -0.1 to +0.3 stop exposure.


.
 
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mike weeks said:
Camera does 0.1? Is the question, answer is that you are adjusting your lights to your camera accurately
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It's not a camera and if it really was the most desirable method you'd see it adopted in the studio too but everything has moved to 0.1 adjustments for a reason.

Regardless, we get both options, I'm pleased to see this addition.
 
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So if I've read this right then

Some companies demand 0.1 stops be used

Yet most agree you can't actually see it

And even if you could the chances are the equipment can't actually do it at all power settings, and even a reduction of 0.1 might actually be more or less than the starting point due to inaccuracies

So as you can't really see it and the equipment might not do it anyway, its pointless then - yes?

Kinda reminds me of my Zenith EM where the stated shutter speeds were pretty much a guess lol

Dave
 
There was a time when studio flashes had to be run from mains electric and a time when we were limited to X-sync to synchronise our flashes so if the leader does it then so do all the pretenders to the crown and in many ways the performance of the Godox AD600PRO exceeds the Profoto B1x but in this area it was lagging but not anymore

Mike
 
Well I tried it again, deleted previous download file, downloaded it again and updated it and SUCCESS!

Whilst I am pleased to have my two working units back again it is slightly concerning that it didn't allow me to carry out two back-to-back updates originally and this was the second time I had deleted and re-downloaded the file as part of my efforts to get the upgrade completed. Positive outcome in the end :)
 
What I don’t get is the negativity here and elsewhere about this, it is a free upgrade that you do not have to use.

There are many functions on various bits of my gear that I do not use but I never complain about them, whereas I would complain about features I need and don’t have or that do not work correctly.

Mike
 
Mike, thanks for your support and positive suggestions to help me out on this. I always aim to keep my firmware up-to-date, regardless of what it will offer me and I'm pleased to be able to achieve that after a few "bumps".
 
soeren said:
He I bet the systems tolerances is way more than.0.1 stop.
Robert Hall showed differences up 0.2 stops with the the brand new AD600PRO so de pending on your luck a 0.1 stop adjustment may well result in a 0.3 stop difference i Exposure. And how about your aperture? Some tolerance must be expected here too.
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Been chatting to Rob Hall and he can't remember ever saying that, be interesting to see where you got that quote from

Mike
 
DG Phototraining said:
Yet most agree you can't actually see it
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Of course you can see it, the difference is tiny but it's there.

DG Phototraining said:
And even if you could the chances are the equipment can't actually do it at all power settings, and even a reduction of 0.1 might actually be more or less than the starting point due to inaccuracies
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If your equipment can't properly adjust between power settings that sounds like a good argument for getting better equipment rather than complaining about having too fine control of said equipment.
 
simonbarker said:
Of course you can see it, the difference is tiny but it's there.



If your equipment can't properly adjust between power settings that sounds like a good argument for getting better equipment rather than complaining about having too fine control of said equipment.
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I'm not complaining at all - I just think .1 is pointless and that as (apparently) equipment can't always accurately adjust that fine anyway its again pointless

I'm not talking about the nuances of high end commercial work, but in portraiture and the processing thereof that I've seen on workshops by some of UK's best etc. no-one has ever said "I think .3 isn't quite giving me it, lets put it on .4, ah yes, sorted now". Its working at, or perhaps pretending to work at, a level of accuracy that isn't really needed or even there

Dave
 
soeren said:
He I bet the systems tolerances is way more than.0.1 stop.
Robert Hall showed differences up 0.2 stops with the the brand new AD600PRO so de pending on your luck a 0.1 stop adjustment may well result in a 0.3 stop difference i Exposure. And how about your aperture? Some tolerance must be expected here too.
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What Rob Hall actually said was

"All 3 lights were very close to their listed “9 stop power range”. The AD600 Pro came in just below at 8.8, and the other two were slightly above 9 stops. They also all showed extremely stable outputs. The Broncolor Siros was the most stable but altogether the most the lights shifted the same power level was +-.1 stop. For the AD600 Pro and Profoto B1X these are big improvements, especially at their lower outputs. Also, it’s worth noting here that the Siros and B1X offer 1/10 stop control whereas the AD600 Pro only offers 1/3 stop increments."

So that is 0.1 stops of inaccuracy and NOT 0.2 stops and that is not actually listed as an issue with a particular light but against both the B1X and the AD600PRO, as I said this firmware update is IMHO pitched to compete with the B1X.

NOW if the B1X had shown no shift it would look very different, but it seems they are a very similar specification/operation

Mike
 
simonbarker said:
Of course you can see it, the difference is tiny but it's there.



If your equipment can't properly adjust between power settings that sounds like a good argument for getting better equipment rather than complaining about having too fine control of said equipment.
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TBH Simon that sounds exactly like you have fallen for the marketing hype and is what the manufacturers want you to beleive - 'our latest studio flash can adjust in 0.1 increments accurately and you must have it'.
 
Fraser Euan White said:
TBH Simon that sounds exactly like you have fallen for the marketing hype and is what the manufacturers want you to beleive - 'our latest studio flash can adjust in 0.1 increments accurately and you must have it'.
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You appear to have missed the bit where this isn’t a new piece ofgear but a free firmware update for existing gear. ;)
 
mike weeks said:
Actually it is the other way round, people want the 5.3 they set on camera and not the 5.2 or 5.4 they have to accept because they do not have that granularity of adjustment.

As you say, can you see it? Well I know of one Major photographic company that insists that photographers that work for it use lights that can be adjusted in 0.1 stops because they insist that key light is set at f8.2

Mike
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Hi Mike - not criticising the firmware update at all - it is free :)

Can you explain to a numpty like me why they would insist on a main light setting of f8.2 and how they would tell if it wasn't exactly f8.2? This 0.1 increment might make more sense as I am damned if such a small increment would make any difference to me as a viewer but I have very limited experience.
 
Phil V said:
You appear to have missed the bit where this isn’t a new piece ofgear but a free firmware update for existing gear. ;)
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Hi Phil, I hadn't missed that - I have an Xpro trigger and haven't got a problem with the 'free' upgrade.....................but is the 'free' upgrade done to make you think your lighting that can 'only' adjust in 0.3 stops is 'old hat' and needs replacing with their latest studio strobes? (It was Simon who stated this in his reply by suggesting Dave 'needs to look' at the accuracy of the other parts of his system, hence I quoted Simon's post that stated 'that sounds like a good argument for getting better equipment rather than complaining about having too fine control of said equipment.'
 
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Fraser Euan White said:
Hi Mike - not criticising the firmware update at all - it is free :)

Can you explain to a numpty like me why they would insist on a main light setting of f8.2 and how they would tell if it wasn't exactly f8.2? This 0.1 increment might make more sense as I am damned if such a small increment would make any difference to me as a viewer but I have very limited experience.
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It is called a light meter (most can read in 0.1 stops) and the reason would be that their whole processing system is based on consistent lighting at a certain level, (how they determined that level we may never know) now there is another question to that and that is can it be seen, most definitely on a meter, by eye most likely not but they do say he who pays the piper calls the tune

Mike
 
Fraser Euan White said:
Hi Phil, I hadn't missed that - I have an Xpro trigger and haven't got a problem with the 'free' upgrade.....................but is the 'free' upgrade done to make you think your lighting that can 'only' adjust in 0.3 stops is 'old hat' and needs replacing with their latest studio strobes? (It was Simon who stated this in his reply by suggesting Dave 'needs to look' at the accuracy of the other parts of his system, hence I quoted Simon's post that stated 'that sounds like a good argument for getting better equipment rather than complaining about having too fine control of said equipment.'
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I answered that earlier, the B1X which has to be seen as the nearest competitor can do 0.1 stops

Mike
 
Fraser Euan White said:
TBH Simon that sounds exactly like you have fallen for the marketing hype and is what the manufacturers want you to beleive - 'our latest studio flash can adjust in 0.1 increments accurately and you must have it'.
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Marketing hype? Your point is ridiculous and you haven't understood mine, it's a firmware update not an advert in a brochure or an attempt at deception. I find it incredibly unlikely that anyone will change their equipment around this update and the suggestion it was done to influence sales seems fairly risible.

I have been told in this thread that you can't see 0.1 adjustments, which is clearly wrong.

I have been told the equipment can't do it, as I don't own an AD600 pro I can't confirm but it's clearly wrong for other equipment.

I have said repeatedly I find this change convenient as it now matches most of the other equipment I'm using (ask yourself why most studio equipment works this way). The only thing that surprises me is that so many have found a negative from this change which is just giving us more options that you don't have to take if you don't want to, there is no downside.
 
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DG Phototraining said:
I'm not complaining at all - I just think .1 is pointless and that as (apparently) equipment can't always accurately adjust that fine anyway its again pointless
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Which equipment? The AD600 pro? The AD400 pro? All future Godox heads? This is a change that's relevant to future equipment, even if you're correct and the existing equipment isn't accurate enough I'd still be glad for the change so all my equipment is working off the same adjustments, one less minor thing to distract.

DG Phototraining said:
I'm not talking about the nuances of high end commercial work, but in portraiture and the processing thereof that I've seen on workshops by some of UK's best etc. no-one has ever said "I think .3 isn't quite giving me it, lets put it on .4, ah yes, sorted now". Its working at, or perhaps pretending to work at, a level of accuracy that isn't really needed or even there
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I don't think you should assume how someone else is going to use their equipment, it'll just lead to bad conclusions, why for example assume it's just being used for one type of work?

I can recall times I've adjusted by only .2 stops as that gave me the result I wanted, absolutely I could have lived with .3 instead but I don't understand why that's an improvement.
 
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