Godox with EOS R and R5/R6 - Current state of play?

Note: I'm posting this in the R forum because real-world compatibility with my R and R6 is right at the heart of this!

I'm currently on the Yongnuo side of things. I have a small army of their pure manual models (YN560III) and a single TTL/HSS capable YN685, along with the two triggers, YN560TX and YN622C TX). I've used this kit on many shoots, I'm very familiar with it, and it just works, every time, and switching to the R and R6 hasn't broken anything. I'm considering upgrading all my manual flash to YN685 so that I'll have bit more scope for HSS.

BUT.. I could take this opportunity to flip over to Godox, which seems to be more of a balanced, well thought out system, This decision hinges really on one (for me) big question:

On the R and R5/R6, can I get wireless HSS with *manual* power control, using Godox?

I'd really appreciate feedback from people who have actual experience of this; manuals and spec sheets and promises of f/w updates don't count for much if the kit doesn't actually work in the present.

FWIW, I'd be looking at the Godox TT600 flash and I guess the X1T-C/XPro-C(?), but of course I'm open to other recommendations.

Many thanks in advance.

I haven't tried my AD200's but my AD1200 works perfect with manual settings. I've been meaning to try ETTL to see if I can find settings that work as it's reported not working.

I have the Flashpoint versions for the above, if it matters.

I use it with the R2 Pro II and the R5. I did an entire shoot with the AD1200 and had no misfires or anything that would make me feel like something was wrong. Worked perfectly in all manual using HSS only.

That's encouraging - thank you. I'll have to get the actual Godox kit because so far as I can see Flashpoint isn't readily available here in the UK. I hardly ever need ETTL so if that's the only area that has issues, I'm not too worried.

GammyKnee said:

That's encouraging - thank you. I'll have to get the actual Godox kit because so far as I can see Flashpoint isn't readily available here in the UK. I hardly ever need ETTL so if that's the only area that has issues, I'm not too worried.

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Look for Pixapro branded Godox lights at essentialphoto.co.uk. I haven't checked them all, but they seem to have a wide range.

Cool - thank you!

All I can tell ya is I chose a Godox V1 for my R5 and it works gloriously perfectly. What an amazing flash and value. I got the accessory kit for it as well although it works darn well on it's own. My next thing will likely be a 2nd V1 and their Pro Remote control for them. What a great combo indeed. I most often shoot in controlled TTL or M modes as I always want to modify the output to some degree it's no big deal.

GammyKnee said:

FWIW, I'd be looking at the Godox TT600 flash and I guess the X1T-C/XPro-C(?), but of course I'm open to other recommendations.

Many thanks in advance.

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I am curious why you want the older TT600 instead of the TT685-C ?

I guess the only consideration for the trigger is whether you would ever want to mount something on-camera ? The XPro doesn't have a piggyback hotshoe, but the X1T and X2T do.

Colin

Andy01 said:

I am curious why you want the older TT600 instead of the TT685-C ?

I guess the only consideration for the trigger is whether you would ever want to mount something on-camera ? The XPro doesn't have a piggyback hotshoe, but the X1T and X2T do.

Colin

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Price mostly. It could be useful to have one ETTL flash but for the rest of them, why pay for features I'm not going to use.

GammyKnee said:

On the R and R5/R6, can I get wireless HSS with *manual* power control, using Godox?

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I'm not an R shooter, but I get HSS with a TT600 and an XPro-C on my 5Dii. So, as long as they haven't radically changed the hotshoe protocol for the Rs, it should work. Keep in mind, a TT600 cannot be firmware upgraded, and a TT685-C can.

I get M power and group remote control, as well as HSS. What you won't get that you may be used to from Yongnuo setups are remote wake-up and zoom control. Remote zoom control only works with the TTL speedlights, like the TT685-C, because the zoom setting on the flash has to be set to "Auto" and the single-pin manual flashes (like the TT600) don't have that setting.

I'd highly recommend you consider the extra $50 for a TT685-C well worth it, if you needed remote zoom or TTL (at least on your key light). And, TTL is actually useful if you have an XPro transmitter, because there's a TCM feature. TCM stands for TTL-convert-to-Manual. Whatever power level that's set by TTL? It can be locked and translated to an M power ratio by holding down a button. And that means no more shot-to-shot variance.

IOW, you can use TTL to keep your power level the same while you adjust iso, aperture, and light placement. And then lock it into M for fine-tuning or shot-to-shot consistency. It works surprisingly well and can keep you from locking into a setup, but dynamically adjust and iterate your way through multiple setups.

GammyKnee said:

Andy01 said:

I am curious why you want the older TT600 instead of the TT685-C ?

I guess the only consideration for the trigger is whether you would ever want to mount something on-camera ? The XPro doesn't have a piggyback hotshoe, but the X1T and X2T do.

Colin

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Price mostly. It could be useful to have one ETTL flash but for the rest of them, why pay for features I'm not going to use.

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I think that the TT685 is probably worth for the fact that it is newer and user-upgradable (firmware) so it is likely to be far easier to keep it working with any future Canon bodies. With the TT600 you will need to ensure that it is loaded with a firmware that supports whatever body you choose, and potentially have to send it back for upgrade (or just replace it) if you change bodies in the future - with the TT685, you do it yourself via USB.

At;


the 685 is 75 pounds and 600 is 53 pounds, so unless you are buying a LOT of them, I would think that the extra 22 pounds may be worth it.

Colin

Andy01 said:

GammyKnee said:

Andy01 said:

I am curious why you want the older TT600 instead of the TT685-C ?

I guess the only consideration for the trigger is whether you would ever want to mount something on-camera ? The XPro doesn't have a piggyback hotshoe, but the X1T and X2T do.

Colin

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Price mostly. It could be useful to have one ETTL flash but for the rest of them, why pay for features I'm not going to use.

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I think that the TT685 is probably worth for the fact that it is newer and user-upgradable (firmware) so it is likely to be far easier to keep it working with any future Canon bodies. With the TT600 you will need to ensure that it is loaded with a firmware that supports whatever body you choose, and potentially have to send it back for upgrade (or just replace it) if you change bodies in the future - with the TT685, you do it yourself via USB.

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Actually not an issue. First off the TT600 is not firmware upgradeable. But also, it's a single-pin "universal" flash, which will, so long as you're using a Canon camera with an ISO-compatible hotshoe (i.e., has the sync contact), it will be "compatible" as far as single-pin function goes (i.e., you can fire it in sync). [side note: and the TT600 can still be used as an off-camera radio slave for the T7/SL3/T100, if the transmitter's been firmware updated.]

It's also universally compatible for that across all brands (with the exception of the older Sony/Minolta cameras that use an iISO foot).

But I agree, a TT685-C is a better purchase for a number of reasons:

• TTL, HSS, menu communication on the camera hotshoe
• TTL
• "Smart" optical master/slave capability in Canon's optical wireless system, so remotely TTL/HSS/Gr mode controllable with a dRebel pop-up flash these days.
• Firmware upgradable
• Can also be a TTL/HSS radio transmitter/master on the hotshoe (TT600 cannot do HSS as a transmitter, because it can't receive those signals from the hotshoe)
• Can be firmware upgraded to do cross-brand TTL/HSS.
• Better compatibility with Fuji (I can't get HSS to work with my TT600 and Xpro-F on my X100T. I can with my TT685-C).

Despite all the Strobist brainwashing, TTL is actually useful for more than just on-camera event shooting with bounce flash. TCM makes it useful for off-camera flash. Hobby doesn't know about this because a) he's never had off-camera flash gear that could do TTL locking, and he's been using manual-only gear for decades and has found a workflow that delivers for him and he's sticking to it. But without TTL, you could be inadvertently locking down your flash placement, iso, and aperture settings without realizing it. I've seen one guy boast online that he never needed TTL, because he uses a string to make sure his lights are placed identically distanced every time. [eyeroll]. Don't be that guy.

Go watch Joe McNally using TTL to switch from f/1.4 to f/5.6 on the fly without having to adjust his light power.

Many thanks for that - I didn't know those extra differences between the two models.

All good points - thank you!

Just got delivery of my Pixapro ST-IV (essentially a Godox XPRO-C) and a couple of TT600s. No problems with HSS at all on the R6, controls are intuitive and the build quality of the kit itself seems superior to Yongnuo. I'll get some TT685s to round things off and then I'm set.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

The R5 ( and likely the R6) will NOT HSS and TTL simultaneously with AD200,AD600,and AD1200 strobes. It automatically defaults to full power 1/1 shots as soon as you use shutter speeds faster than 1/250 sec while in TTL and overexposes the shots.

I very rarely use TTL and 90% of the time shoot everything in manual, but if you're shooting in bright sunlight and killing ambient at 1/500 sec and suddenly need a sequence of shots with alternating DOF from shallow to deep or you are happy at F4 and you have rapidly changing ambient to overcome with faster shutter speeds ,you will quickly see what happens.

The control ring on RF lens is wonderfully suited for aperture or shutter speed changes and works especially well with TTL...but TTL and HSS do NOT work together simultaneously on the R5.

I have sent emails to Godox support and Adorama without responses from either and it reminds me of the Sony Alpha camera's inability to TTL properly at apertures faster than F 3.5, which still isn't fixed years later.

Would be nice if Canon fixed their bracketing system while they're at it- any Z camera can bracket the flash output while maintaining shutter speed and aperture,bracket the shutter speed while maintaining exposure in TTL,bracket DOF with aperture while mainitaining exposure in TTL,Bracket WB, even Bracket a combination of shutter speed and aperture simultaneously.... the Canon simply doesn't do any of this...

If the following post is right:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64735545

.. then it looks like Godox ETTL + HSS is likely to overexpose across the board with the R6/R5, but may work - subject to the flash in use - on the RP and possibly the R. I'll be able to test that last bit when I get my TT685Cs.

I use TTL so rarely that I could certainly live with only having the TTL+HSS option on one body, and maybe Godox will get around to fixing it in due course.

Regardless I'm happy with my switch thus far; I've got the extra HSS functionality that I wanted, I'm down to having just one do-it-all trigger box, and it feels like recycling might be a bit faster too, though I haven't put a stopwatch on it.

Using the R5 with the TT350, V1, and AD200Pros via an XT2 transmitter. I did have some issues with the TT350 but they resolved themselves when I updated the firmware which was intended to fix R series compatibility issues. Still testing everything else (and did update to the latest firmware on everything). Have not tried HSS plus TTL yet, but can do so and will report back.

JohnWick4001 said:

The R5 ( and likely the R6) will NOT HSS and TTL simultaneously with AD200,AD600,and AD1200 strobes. It automatically defaults to full power 1/1 shots as soon as you use shutter speeds faster than 1/250 sec while in TTL and overexposes the shots.

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Out of curiosity, what version of firmware is loaded on the R5?

R5 will not HSS with V1c, 860, AD200, with latest firmware.

murzik said:

R5 will not HSS with V1c, 860, AD200, with latest firmware.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4515845

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The post in that thread that mentions loading "the latest" firmware on the R5 is dated as "three months ago". The most recent firmware update for the R5 (v1.2.0) is dated Nov 19, 2020. Which, by my math, is less than three months ago, hence my question. Without the firmware version named by actual version number, it's hard to tell.

And most of the firmware updates discussed in that thread are for Godox device firmware, not Canon camera firmware.

I personally don't think the v1.2.0 firmware will fix the issue, but it might have caused it, as it looks like there were flash communication tweaks for the EL-1:

murzik said:

3. Enables 2nd curtain shooting sync during radio transmission wireless flash shooting when the Speedlite EL-1 flash is attached to the camera.

4. Enables manual flash output (excluding high-speed sync and optical transmission wireless flash shooting) to be selected and set up to 1/8192 from the camera menu screen when the Speedlite EL-1 flash is attached to the camera.

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And that might explain why Godox hadn't heard of the issue until now.

Also. Damn. When did Canon add wireless 2nd curtain sync to the RT system? That it was missing was one of the biggest complaints about the 600EX-RT/ST-E3-RT back in the day, since even the Yongnuo YN-622s did that.