The Godox Light System, will this work out for me?

Browsing over our last blog, we noticed it has been more than a year before we followed it up with this one.  Blame it on the pandemic that hit us early 2020 that shut down all the events and stymied the mobility of yours truly.  Everyone was afraid to go out, not with the virus, but to the authorities who wish to penalize us instead of helping us LOL.

Any how, with the onset of 2021, everything changed for the better and we were given some limited freedom to move around.  A few events and opportunities opened up for us so we took that limited freedom to good use.

Honestly we haven't shot for almost 3/4 of 2020 so shooting again for this year shook away the rust in our steps.  We also said goodbye to some trusted gear away to make way with the new ones.  A drastic change in our inventory was shifting away from our Nikon Flashes (I had 4 of the SB-900s) mind you it was a very difficult decision.

First, it was a painful thing to let go of the flashes as I have become loyal to them.  They trusted me and I trusted them through thick and thin. I have grown attached to them, and they are built like a tank.  I dropped one of them and broke a piece of it yet this one still fires as if they were still new. 

Second, financial consideration.  During this time of no clients and no gigs, it was a painful decision to just simply drop them flashes and transfer to a whole new system.  I wasn't simply upgrading my Nikon's to a 910 but I chose to shift to the GODOX system.

YouTube knows how much time I spent watching product reviews of the Godox V1, the AD200 Pro, the AD300 Pro, and the AD400 Pro.  I also watched videos on the X trigger systems from the X1T, X2T and the X Pro.  I wanted really to know that this decision to shift was a good, wait not good, but a great one.

Shifting means I had to let go of my speedlights and my trusty pocketwizards.  Since I had separation issues I decided to sell some of my pocket wizards, not all, but some.  I had 6 of those but I only sold 4.  I had a Profoto D1's a main part of my legacy gear I wish to still use and I needed 2 to fire these babies till kingdom come.  To salvage the speedlights, I opted to buy one Godox X1R-N.  This will receive signals from my trigger, firing my SB900.  And I bought a Godox V1 for Nikon (V1n), taking a small step into the Godox system and a Godox X2T for Nikon (I'll explain later why I chose this trigger over the Godox X Pro).

Holy shit I had now a myriad of lights, 3 to be exact.  I had myself firing my Profotos, Nikon speedlights and the Godox V1.  All were working great and I thought I had a great thing.  I still could hold on to my legacy systems, and I get a taste of the new thing in Godox.

The Godox X2T was a great choice for me to fire up the legacy and the Godox lights for me.  The X2T had the hotshoe on top so I can still place my pocket wizards to fire my profotos, and it had blue tooth so I can control it via my smartphone. The X Pro had none of the two so it was the X2T for me.

The thought of having this situation was a short one for me as I realized some things, just a few exactly, that this was not an ideal set up to begin with.

One, the Nikon Speedlights must be on TTL mode to work well with the X1R-N.  Great idea, and it worked.  However, the speedlights were no match to the Godox V1 and the profotos.  My SB900s were jealous somehow or maybe, as it reared its ugly head at me.  The overheating issue came up again (I had this under control before) and it keeps stepping on the thermal cut off.  It keeps shutting down.  I had to use a fresh new SB900 with fresh batteries in order to keep up with my other lights.  The V1 was young and fresh and still have that spring in its step that my SB900s did not.  I had to let them go.  I haven't sold all of my SB900s as of this writing, so they are still with me for back up.

Two, the Pocketwizards on top of my X2T was working great until I shut off my X2T.  I realized then that I can't fire my profotos unless I had this X2T turned on.  It was a surprise for me (maybe I did not read the whole manual oops) so I had to be mindful whenever I use both next time.

Three, having 3 systems at the same time restricts me to use the full power of the Godox system.  The main point of having this system was to trigger and make changes on the lights remotely, which it can do with my SB900s (with the X1R-N) but can't with my Profotos. 

With 3 systems to check, it was a very mindful exercise that I can't focus on my creative anymore, instead I worry about my lighting more.  I can't work like this, I had to give something up.

So last March 21, 2021, I had to drop my legacy system and fully embrace the Godox system for this playdate.  I now own two (2) Godox V1 and the X2T which I used for this day.

To keep my bag light, I also purchase a set of small modifiers, the AK-R1 that went well with the V1.  This was highly recommended by the people I watched on YouTube.  It was also compatible with the AD200 Pro with the round head (for future purchase) so I feel I can still use this set.

True to the ones I watched, the V1's performed exceptionally well.  I had trouble adjusting at first, but I nailed my shots in the end.  I must admit, I'm a guy with separation issues with my Nikons, so it was delight to know I made a good decision of shifting to Godox.  Not that Nikon's were bad, they are still great speedlights if you ask me, somehow my needs changed and simply it was time for me to move on.

Fortunate for me, Godox gears aren't as expensive as the Nikons and the Profotos, so I know in such a short time, I will be able to transcend to the other Godox lights such as the AD200 Pro.  Or maybe skip that one and decide on the AD300 Pro instead.

The photo above was shot using my resurrected Nikon D300, using my early purchase 18-200 Sigma lens.  So for today, I did not only test the Godox system fully, but my camera + lens as well.

Thanks to the following people who made this playdate a successful testing for me, Theody Lorilla, a fellow media photographer who freelanced also with Sash Factor with me.  We shot together this day using his place as our studio.  Daravy Mendez, the model whom I had a chance to worked with 5 years ago and haven't seen each other since.  Sam Maningas, a friend of Daravy whom she pulled into our playdate.  It turned out that Sam also studied and finished Hair and Make Up studies in Dubai.  This made me at ease as I was also working in Dubai before and we exchanged stories about our experiences there.

Overall, Godox is a new system for me, I'm still at a learning curve, but I feel it will just be a short period for me.  Just a few buttons, just a few settings, how hard can it be?