Review Addendum: Godox Lux Junior

Review Addendum: Godox Lux Junior

Preface: If you sell something unique, well built, and unique and it actually works at a reasonable price I will likely buy it.

Need? Pfft. What?!?!

Are you actually a photography nerd? What kind of question is that? <ahem> Pardon me. I mean to say…

The Godox Lux Junior ticks all of those boxes.

What we are going to do here is tell you about my most recent use case, cut and paste my prior early review, show you some recent pics using it, all followed by some parting thoughts. Here we go.

Most recent use case.

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. Right up my alley. To wit:

Nonsense camera: SIGMA sd Quattro.

• You think your camera is unique, even odd maybe, or special? Well pre relatively sensible Bayer sensor in a box fp SIGMA would kindly ask you to hold their Red Bull.
  • No video.
  • Foveon sensor.
  • Ergonomics, AF, ISO performance, and memory card reading speeds only a mother could love.
  • Choose a 21:9 crop? You get a 21:9 crop DNG file.
  • Choose Monochrome? You get a Monochrome DNG file.
  • Want Infrared photos? Easy. Remove the made to be taken out and replaced hot mirror.

But… If you hit this every pixel gets some RGB no extrapolated color compensating calculations needed love camera’s sweet spot oh man will it reward you, whether color, Monochrome, and color and B&W Infrared.

Nonsense lens: SIGMA DG 105mm f/1.4 Art (SA mount).

Why do I say a nonsense lens regarding one that has received positive reviews? Well because I found my own oddball way of going about it.

SA Mount.

The realization: Adorama had an SA mount variant of this lens for sale new. But here is the thing. There was currently no SIGMA SA mount camera for sale.

The theory: They are going to mark this thing down. And when they do I will buy it and an MC11 SIGMA SA to Sony FE mount.

Result: I am happy to report that they marked it down $429 and I jumped on it and an MC11 adapter.

Why?

• Sale.
• It is a 105mm DG f/1.4 Art portrait lens.
• Versatile.
  • I can use it on my “real” work Sony kit, SIGMA digital, and film.
  • Yes, I own a SIGMA SA mount film camera also. Came in at about $50 or less.

For the last piece and most sensible part of the setup I will start the cut and paste part of proceedings…

First off this is a unique product as far as flashes go. The kind of product I did not know I wanted until it was released.

Had considered both this and the Godox Lux Senior. Then, as often seems the case, I walked into my local camera shop and there they were. I went for the Junior first. The dp2 Quattro is a perfect choice. Had no plans of picking up a SIGMA compatible flash since it would not see much use, but something like this would be great fun. Put in 2 AAA batteries, strapped it to my little SIGMA dp2 Quattro without bothering to read the instructions and fired.

Nice. Ok. That went well. What about a portrait? Graham was game.

We have a winner ladies and gentlemen. Things went a bit fuzzy and when I got home I had a Lux Junior and Senior in tow. Two flashes would seem to be an indulgence, but not really. More on that below. I will start with the Junior in this post.

I will admit I have not had a ton of experience with this flash so far, but it is really not necessary. The beauty of these flashes is that they are very simple. Let me first run through different aspects of these flashes. Then I will run through my experiences so far and then some sample photos.

This flash does not have one party piece, but a few.

Universal

These flashes will work with anything. Was talking with Guillermo and Graham about these flashes and Guillermo was asking what cameras they were compatible with. That is the beauty of them. The answer is yes.

• System agnostic.
  • A one pin affair. If it has a hot shoe it will work.
• No hot shoe. No problem.
  • Comes with flash sync port and cable so older film cameras are game.

Full Manual Controls

Has a handy dandy exposure chart on the back if one should choose to make use of it.

Cool. Me?…

Includes Automation

Has an Auto mode. Huzzah! A gift to the attention span hobbled such as myself. There is a light sensor at the front.

Since there is no intelligent communication with the camera it comes with a chart with recommended optimal ISO and aperture combinations. The ones that matter most for me are the combinations of f/2.8/ISO 100, f/4/ISO 200, and f/5.6/ISO 400 since those are the films speeds I use most. Very easy to memorize. But the whole chart is fairly easy to memorize.

ISO	50	100	200	400	800	1600
Aperture	2	2.8	4	5.6	8	11

And it works as billed.

Off Camera Capabilities

These flashes can be remotely triggered by an optical sensor.

Pretty straightforward.

• Works in manual only.
• S1 is for non-TTL flashes.
• S2 is for TTL flashes. Ignores the pre-flashes.

Set the power level, place it where you want it and fire away. That is about it. Once again, it works as billed.

Good Looks

The Lux Junior is a good looking piece of kit. Helps that it comes with a carrying bag and a good looking packaging. None of these things help you take a better picture, but it makes for a nice purchasing and ownership experience. Surprising consider the fact that these flashes and very…

Reasonably Priced

The Godox Lux Junior costs $69… $69! Godox has a history of competitive pricing with their mainstream system TTL flashes and strobes. But I am impressed that they carried the same pricing to these flashes also.

Functional Nostalgia

Using this flash reminds me of the days when I used flash with my Dad’s Pentax ME Super back in the day.

With the added benefit of an auto mode.

A Tool For the Task

As mentioned above regarding my conversation with Guillermo this flash can be used with practically any camera. Film or digital. Full frame or medium format. New or old. Brand name does not matter. For my first test round I chose a favorite rig of mine. The Konica Hexar RF teamed with the 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1.

Why film first? Figured I would try to most challenging use case. Ilford HP5 was the choice of the day. Result? Fantastic. On to the images.

Sample Images

Welp. That is about it.

Do I recommend this flash?

Yes.

There is so much to like and I cannot identify a single downside of note. As I close I have one more note.

Fun

This thing is fun to use.

That is definitely worth $69 all by itself.

Ok, cut and paste done on to the images from this day. SIGMA SD Quattro with their 105mm f/1.4 Art and the Godox Lux Junior.

I did not search long but I had not been able to find a compatible TTL flash for my SIGMA Foveon cameras. Not sure such a thing exists. But if I am honest I believe the Godox Lux twins (Senior post here.) are a better fit.

I did not go with the available auto mode since I wanted to use the lens wide open. Auto mode suggests using f/2.8 and ISO 100 or some relative combination. After a few quick tests I found the following settings worked well indoors.

• Aperture priority.
• f/1.4 aperture.
• Auto ISO set with a top limit of 800.
• Lux Junior in manual mode set to 1/64 power.

The scene was a stop through my local camera shop to pick up some film. Fortunately they were game.

Thoughts.

I am really happy with how these images came out. I will definitely have to find a way to use this rig for a portrait series. Perhaps individual portraits for 100 Men In Black. Anyhoo. I will wrap this one up here.

Recommendations.

I have none. If you are a rational person none of this makes sense and I hear you. But this is about fun for me. And this set up is great fun for me.

Happy capturing.

-ELW