Post your latest purchases.

[Blue439]

One thing leads to another, you know how it is... Having received the AD200 Pro II flash, I was thinking about something a little bit stronger than the Manfrotto Nanos (which are fine for the smaller AD100) in terms of light stand, yet still very portable... I have Century C-stands that are astounding and I trust them with my life, however they are so heavy I can only use them in the studio! After some comparative research, I settled on this K&F Concept stand which folds “legs up” like a traveling tripod, weighs less than a kilo with a payload of at least 4 (should be enough, the flash is less than a kilo too), and appears quite well made.

I am no fan of the levers to lock and unlock the three sections, but that’s the one drawback (in my opinion) and it didn’t deter me from buying it. We will see if that was a mistake or not.

Now that the stand issue is behind us, there remains the transport case issue... The AD200 Pro II comes in a very nice Godox-branded hard case with all the parts neatly arranged within, except that they fit so tightly it takes ages to pull any component out, and the flash tube is not even plugged into the head. If I were to use that original case, it would imply taking the bulb off of the head every time I want to stow the flash away, then back on before I use it again. Very unpractical, and very risky for the costly and fragile component that is the flash tube.

So, I am in the market again, rifling through my stock of existing soft and hard cases...

 

[hark]

Since the AD Pro II is the updated version that I don't own, I don't know if what I say will be applicable to the newest body. But if you are looking to transport these strobes with the bulbs attached, Godox makes a separate bulb protector for transporting while the bulb is still mounted. I just don't know if it will fit your new model strobe.

Here is the US Amazon link for it so you can see what it's called. https://www.amazon.com/Godox-AD-S15-Protector-WITSTRO-AD-180/dp/B0169YY5OW

 

[Blue439]

Interesting, thank you very much! I have found the AD-S15 in Europe where it is not indicated for the Pro II version of the AD200, however one customer gives a feedback from this month in which they say that it fits perfectly, so I will most definitely get one!

 

[Blue439]

The protective cap arrived today, it is light but solid metal, feels like magnesium, slots right in and twists to locked position perfectly on the AD200 Pro II barebulb head. I'm so happy I ordered a second one as a spare (at about 3 euros per unit, I'm not about to break the bank). Thanks again Cindy!

(Sorry for the ugly iPhone snap!)

 

[hark]

The protective cap arrived today, it is light but solid metal, feels like magnesium, slots right in and twists to locked position perfectly on the AD200 Pro II barebulb head. I'm so happy I ordered a second one as a spare (at about 3 euros per unit, I'm not about to break the bank). Thanks again Cindy!

(Sorry for the ugly iPhone snap!)

View attachment 416183

I'm glad you took a chance on it since online reports were questionable about whether or not it was compatible. Glad to know it fits!

 

[Blue439]

Got lots of accessories for my new Godox flashes over the past few days. One of the most helpful seems to be the H200R round head for the AD200. It includes a coiled flash tube that puts out a nicely round light, unlike the standard Fresnel head that looks a bit too squarish. However, it does not disperse the light too much like I suspect the barebulb head does. It looks like this:

The circular top mount is magnetic, so I can attach all the accessories designed for the AD100 Pro II, which has the same diameter round opening. I used the half-sphere diffuser today to shoot inside a 6th century crypt where there was not much light, using for the first time the “flambient” technique I leaned from real estate photography, and the results look quite encouraging.

 

[Clovishound]

Well, the cat's already out of the bag, but here is a crappy picture of my newest purchase. OK, I'm not a still life photographer. I know, I should have dug out the polarizing filter, etc, etc.

The new Z8 is setting atop the, actually, very nice "free" shoulder bag that came with it. It also had a decent SD card thrown in. It's amusing that B&H has the body only deal, and a basic kit deal, for the same price. The SD cards are cheap, but why buy one, when I can get one for nothing extra. I really didn't need the bag, but the Pup grabbed it up, saying she was looking at buying something like it for times when she wants to carry less than the full backpack.

I took it out again this morning. The Pup tried out my Z7ii and 105 micro, while I hoped to get some more ospreys in flight. I didn't have much luck with the ospreys, but did get a couple decent airborne wood ducks.

 

[bluzman]

I posted in early December 2024 that I had sold my Z50 and purchased a Z50ii. I really liked the former but IMO the latter is well worth the upgrade. Meanwhile, I've been considering getting a lens with more range than the Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR kit lens that I got with the original Z50. It's a great lens but there are times when more range would be a boon.

Besides longer range, weight was a major factor in my consideration. A few years ago, I had a Sigma 100-400mm (2.6 pounds). At that time, its weight was at the upper bound of what I was willing to carry and shoot handheld. The heaviest FX format lens I currently own is the AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR (1.5 pounds). It's also a great lens. If it's attached to my FTZ adapter the combo comes in at 1.8 pounds. Still, I like the idea of a native Z lens to satisfy my requirement.

A third factor in my quest was price. The Z 100-400mm and 180-600mm are too expensive for my budget and way too heavy for this 81 yo to be lugging around. In the Nikon line up, the Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR seemed to fit the bill regarding weight and price. A couple of things raised caution flags, however. The aperture spec of f/4-8 merits further investigation although I am mainly a wildlife-in-daylight shooter. The other caution flag is the wide focal length range. This lens falls into the one-lens-for-everything category. My experience with that genre was a Tamron 18-400mm 18-400mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD that I bought to use on my DSLRs. It was ok but not terrific for BIFs at 400mm and only had 2.5 stops of VC (what Nikon calls VR). I sold it and have stayed with my AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR for my D500 and D7500 bodies.

Bottom Line: After watching many YouTube videos and reading a bunch of reviews, I bought the 1.6 pound Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR on Amazon for just under $1K. So far, I am moderately pleased with its performance but I need to use it a bunch more to give a fair evaluation.

 

[Blue439]

So far, I am moderately pleased with its performance but I need to use it a bunch more to give a fair evaluation.

Given your age bracket, your weight concerns sound legitimate. The Z mount has allowed engineers to design lenses that perform better, all things being equal, than most of their F-mount equivalents, so you should see an improvement over your previous zoom lens. That said, I cannot even imagine how enormous that zoom range is, and the difference between the optical issues that have to be dealt with to perform well at 28mm and at 400mm...! So, I wouldn’t be too surprised if, in spite of the improvements brought by the Z mount, you end up not being astounded by the image quality... especially if a reasonable pricing comes into play. In a domain still largely analog, there is no miracle.