New to flash, not to photography. This will be for Nikon Z5ii. This unit should be capable of TTL and manual, it should have a rechargeable battery and residual value as I grow. Budget is $300.00 Of course I've been poking around and it would seem that Godox might be a good place to start. I appreciate your comments and advice.
As you seem to guess and others have indicated, Godox has
by far the largest and most flexible flash system, and it offers Nikon TTL units. Just be aware that there are also Godox TTL versions for several other systems, so make sure you get a Nikon version. IMO Godox build quality is good to very good for the price. But assuming you decide to get a Godox, a series of issues awaits you.
* It sounds like you probably don't want a what I might call a mini-flash, basically a shoe-mountable version of the flashes that have been built into many moderately-priced cameras. With rare exceptions, such flashes can't tilt or swivel, and don't put out much light. Godox flashes in this class are the iT20, iT22, and iT30.
* IMO
especially because it doesn't sound like you plan to use the flash that much / that often, the choice between a flash that takes regular AA batteries--including regular rechargeable AA batteries, if you want--versus one that takes a dedicated lithium ion battery pack is an important one. As someone who can go many months between flash uses, I don't want anything other than one that takes AA batteries. In the Godox line, that basically means the smaller TT350 or the larger TT685 II. I have the latter and like it, but if you'd prefer somewhat smaller and the TT350 meets your needs, then it's also a capable option. Pretty much all the others take dedicated lithium ion battery packs.
* Among models that take dedicated lithium ion battery packs, some have roughly rectangular heads more or less proportioned like the image area, and others have round heads. Rectangular heads tend to be able to 'zoom' to cover a larger range of focal lengths, but many people think round heads offer somewhat nicer-looking lighting. The rectangular head models are the V350, which is a counterpart to the TT350; the V480, which is the newest; the V860 II; and V860 III. The round head models are the V1, V1 Pro, and V100. The bigger and more expensive ones tend to put out more light.
* A few of these flashes have modeling lights, albeit not very powerful. I think that's one of the step-up features from the V860 II to the V860 III. I think all the round-head flashes offer modeling lights.
Last and IMO least, I don't think any of the $300 flashes, Godox or Nikon or any alternative, is going to hold much residual value. Back in the day maybe a big Metz with a belt battery pack did, or maybe today a Profoto studio monolight would, but if you buy a new $300 flash, be prepared to get half that or less if you sell it in a couple of years.
