Budget lighting: Flashpoint 180 Monolight review

Why would I buy something that is likely to break?

nice

I still gloat over my garage sale purchase of 2 1600 w/s Balcar strobes with power pack. Cost $2.00

Question to Anyone:
What advantage does this have over simply using a speedlight?

With a guide number of 48 which equates to even most cheap speedlights in the $100 range it's not producing any more light.

At five seconds for recovery, it's slower than any speedlight I have (even my cheap'o Yongunuo).

And it's still five times heavier and larger than a speedlight...

I fail to see any advantage here.

Great dirt bike indeed

That's a clean KDX200!

I used this for a couple weeks until I returned it. I really like the price, the weight, the quality of light. Pared with a Chimera foldable octa 2 beauty dish it was heavne. I could fit a whole light kit and camera in a backpack...witha tiny fooldable light stand. The only issue i had was the wire from the battery to the flash unit. It was too short...and the battery did not clip well to the mono light...it fell multiple times with the slightest movement and the housing for the battery cracked. Had they a longer chord where I could just put the battery on the floor I would have kept it. Anyhow...tiny flash, great power, great price. I hope they release a better longer chord.

alberto_neconi - not sure about ancient Greek, but in modern Greek "mono" can mean "single"or "only" - so "monolight" could mean only the light, without an integral power source (hence the second pack for the batteries).

This story isn't funny. What kind of April Fool's is this?

A MONOlight is a self-contained unit (mono= one).
If you have TWO boxes it is not "mono".
This is a purely linguistic observation, but not a minor one: expecially if you work "in the wild" loose power cables mean oxidised connectors, people tripping over, wires kinking and internal copper threads breaking. For that money I would get a bucket of chinese thinghies on AA penlights and a good wireles trigger, and get better flexibility, more total light and a decent recharge time - with 5 secs you may only shoot still life. A guide number of 48 is nothing to boast about, while 250 bucks with QC issues and not even an el-cheapo stand is a matter for serious meditation.

1 star for the review.

This light unit doesn't have much power and as stated by others it has a rather slow cycle time. For the same price you can buy couple of decent used Nikon strobes. They also use off the shelf batteries (AAs) and it gives you a of different options as far portability, etc.
I do a lot of strobe photography with cheap used strobes. Here's one example: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151843425982673&set=a.10151842731197673.1073741843.766737672

Hey....after reading the whole review...This is a no-brainer for someone who wants to learn strobes....Sounds like there are some quality control issues...but definitely a good system to learn with. I just don't know how reliable this would be if you were out on any kind of serious shoot...it could let you down....

For the price, it's hard to argue about the value of this unit. I love the idea of using cheap, widely available camcorder batteries. The main thing that would put me off if I were in the market for a 180W flash (which I'm not) is the recycle. Five seconds is an eternity when I've finally got a portrait subject warmed up and they're laughing and moving.

Thing is, 180W is only about one stop more light than a good hotshoe flash. For the same price, I can get a pair of very nice Neewer TT850 manual hotshoe flashes that recycle in 1.5 seconds and, together, will give almost the same output as the Flashpoint. Faster recycle, more flexibility, smaller package, and remotely adjustable output. Also, no extra battery packs dangling and cords to trip over. OTOH, a monolight is a bit easier to set up, and, crucially, it offers a modeling light that can assist focus when working in a dark environment.

"It carries a guide number of 48, which means it can cast usable light from a maximum of 48 meters"

That's a bit of an oversimplification, don't you think? The correct definition would be something like this. "At full power, it can provide proper illumination from a distance of 48 metres when using an f/1 lens and a sensitivity setting of ISO 100/21°, as long as you shoot without a light modifier."

Otherwise a fine review (though I do believe Biowizard has it right and you ought to substitute Watt seconds for Watts). What I do miss are the t0.1 and t0.5 figures, even if I realise they do not matter much when using a 5D Mark III with its measly 1/200s sync speed. Some of us use cameras that sync at much higher speeds and it does matter if the t0.1 time at full power is 1/200s or something closer to 1/500s.

Kind of. an interedtng product and half the price of the Godox bare bulb options ( that Adorama is marketing under its Flashpoint brand now too). It's clearly just a fill light outdoors but definitely a bargain.

I've had one of these lights for about a year and use it regularly for location portraits (Head and Shoulders, etc.) -- it is an absolute bargain, since it has everything you need except a light stand in a small carrying case.
The modeling light is a bit of an afterthought, but adequate for light placement.
I will probably be ordering another just to have as a backup -- it's a bargain in my opinion -- especially it you catch it on sale at Adorama.

That's a strange choice of subject mater for a strobe review. With all their curves, angles, and shiny bits, I thought vehicles are generally lit without modifiers, or in a full blown cyclorama.

This seems like a good value. It wasn't that long ago I paid more than this for just a portable battery to shoot outdoors. At this price you get a low cost strobe that doesn't make you paranoid to use in uncontrolled outdoor environments. Watching a $500-$1000 mono light topple over in the wind isn't a good feeling.

I say go with this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SMDV-Speed-Light-PS-360-Bare-Bulb-Flash-aka-Godox-Wistro-AD-360-PB960-Battery-/321311581242?pt=Digital_Camera_Flashes&hash=item4acfa9a43a

or this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/By-UPS-Godox-WITSTRO-AD-180-Flash-Light-Speedlite-w-PB960-Black-Battery-Pack-/261181051986?pt=Digital_Camera_Flashes&hash=item3ccf9a9452

You are TOTALLY portable with lots of power and fast recycle!!!!!!

I really WISH people writing technical reviews would understand their units. If this flash REALLY produced just 180W of power - for the 1,000th of a second or so that it is illuminated, it would be of no use to anyone. What it DOES produce is 180Ws (Watt seconds), or 180J (Joules - same thing as Ws). And 180J in (say) 1,000th of a second is actually 180,000W.

Brian

err... have you seen the price?! 3 SB900's are going to cost serious money compared to this!