Viltrox Appreciation Post: One Graduation Celebration, Three Lenses, & A Vintage Z2 Mini TTL On-Camera Flash.
Subtitle: Far better flash than its humble $39 price point would lead one to believe.
Another one of my young cousins graduated college recently and we had ourselves a celebration.
I am an only child, but his mother and aunt lived above us in the same apartment building in Upstate NY from birth until we moved to the ‘burbs when I was seven. As such they are close as I will ever have to siblings, even though they returned to NC (State of our family homestead.) not long after.
So.
You know my main concern.
What do I bring to capture images with?
Of course. Right?
My goal.
Small, but tiny is not needed. Capable. A flash. Wide to tele reach. Non threatening. No bag if possible.
So… No bazooka zoom that sends children and elders scrambling for cover and causes strangers to side eye you. Ultracompact cameras are a nope, as I preferred full frame.
The solution.
Sony A7C II.
Viltrox 50mm f/2 Air.
For mid distance pics.
Viltrox 85mm f/2 EVO.
For distant candid pics.
All has gone to plan so far, But an inexpensive wide prime lens,…
…and a little $39 flash…
…completely stole the gear show.
This was the pairing used for pics in front of the GOAT marquee. Here are the pics with with more thoughts about the flash afterwards.
And then your truly was shoved in front of the camera for a pic with my cousins.
Thoughts.
This flash is very impressive. Far better than its humble $39 price point would lead one to believe. But this is a common Viltrox thing. Take the lenses mentioned above, and also their 14mm sibling…
…and the X100 wide and tele adapters.
They all perform flawlessly and are all easy on the wallet. This flash follows suit.
Unlike similarly sized and priced compact flashes it has TTL.
It lacks a screen, but effectively uses the LED lights to indicate status and settings.
Combined with the + and – buttons it is a device that I figured out in a few minutes without a manual.
- Toggling between TTL and manual flash.
- Long press -.
- Control flash power in manual mode.
- + and – butons.
- Turn flash on and off.
- Long press power button.
- Test flash.
- Short press power button.
The lights also indicate battery level when charging the flash with the USB-C port.
For Sony a button press locks and releases the flash from the hotshoe.
Has
When not in use it folds flat to the body…
…and flips up to gain some distance from the lens when in use.
Along with TTL flipping up was a big selling point for me.
You see that gaffer tape? A result of my dropping/misplacing the light modifier for a good chunk of time this first night. It slides on and off quite easily. As a result it fell off I thought it was lost until my wife located it, SO most pics above were taken with no modifier, but I prefer to use it so I decided to secure it with gaffer tape for future use.
Result?
It just works. No. it will not light a room, but it is not meant to. It does successfully provide a bit of fill light and creates a nive catch light in the subject’s eyes. Just what I bought it for.
Do I recommend it? Yes.
I will close here and share some additional product pics after the close.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 