Godox V100 flashgun review

I’m a big Godox flash fan. They’ve been my go-to flashguns for the last couple of years and I’ve loved the power, versatility, and reliability both for camera-mounted and off-camera use, the latter with a Godox wireless RF trigger. The only thing I’ve criticized the flashguns for is their old-fashioned control panels which look and feel a decade or two out of date. The V100 puts that right with a new color touchscreen interface and a raft of other upgrades.

The original Godox V1 was very much a round-headed version of the VING V860III. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, as they had super stamina and very fast recycling speeds, based on a Li-ion battery. The main difference was that the V1’s round instead of rectangular tube delivered a softer and smoother light, featuring a front lens that aimed to give a more gradual falloff towards the circumference and eliminate a central hot spot.

The V1Pro added USB-C charging and a new battery, plus a clip-on sub-flash module for fill-flash illumination in bounce-flash mode. Let’s see what the new V100 brings to the party, as it aims for a place among the best flashguns on the market.

Godox V100: Specifications

Godox V100: Price

One of my favorite flashgun setups is a pair of rectangular-headed Godox VING V860III which I use on-camera or remotely with a Godox XPro TTL wireless RF trigger. The setup is amazing value for such a powerful kit, the flashguns costing $229 / £179 / AU$329 each and the trigger costing $69 / £66 / AU$129. The original Godox V1 round-headed flashgun is a little pricier at $259 / £239 / AU$370 and the V1Pro is a step up again at $329 / £308 / AU$549.

Considering the hike in power and new color touchscreen interface of the latest V100, I reckon it’s equally great value at $349 / £339 / AU$610. Incidentally, the XPro TTL trigger is compatible with all of the V1, V1Pro and V100 round-headed flashguns but a more seamless fit for the V100 is the newer Godox X3 / Xnano wireless RF trigger which also features a newer style color touchscreen, and costs $89 / £79 / AU$149.

Godox V100: Design & Handling

Most flashguns have a maximum power rating that’s quoted as a ‘Guide number’, along the lines of Gn60 with ISO and meters or feet being taken into the equation. The Godox V100 follows on from its predecessors with a ‘Watt second’ rating, more often used in studio flashheads. And there’s a sizeable power-up over the previous V1 and V1Pro, which were rated at 76Ws, the V100 topping out at 100Ws. That’s mighty powerful for a hot-shoe-based on-camera flash, although it still falls short of most standalone flash heads, like the 200Ws Godox AD200 Pro II.

Along with an increase in power, the V100 boasts a faster turn of speed. Hi-speed sync supports shutter speeds of up to 1/80,000^th of a second, making it fully compatible with cameras that feature a ‘global shutter’, like the Sony A9 III. I also really like the blisteringly fast recycle speeds. These are virtually instantaneous at power settings up to and including 1/4 power output. This puts high-speed continuous shooting on the menu, complete with flash, for when you’re trying to nail a definitive moment in sports, wildlife, or press photography, as well as for catching fleeting expressions in portraiture or at events like weddings.

And you’re not just limited to shooting in short bursts, thanks to the V100’s new cooling system. Even at full power output, you can take up to 100 consecutive shots and the flashgun will keep a cool head. At least, that’s the case in the 80-105mm section of the flash zoom range, although it drops off to between 70 and 90 shots in the 28-70mm zoom sector.

Despite the powerful 100W rating, the 2980mAh battery has sufficient stamina for up to 400 full-power flashes on a full charge (down from 500 shots in the V1Pro). Naturally, you’ll get very many more flashes per charge at lower power settings. An upgrade over the original V1 is that the newer VB30 battery has its own USB-C port that enables fast charging, as used in the V1Pro. You can also run the flashgun from a mains adapter or power bank via the USB-C port.

Additional VB30 batteries, should you feel the need, cost around $55 / £51 / AU$94 each. Another alternative is that you can buy a separate, optional Godox PB960 battery pack for $120 / £105 / AU$175 that feeds the flashgun via an umbilical cord. One advantage of this is that the recycle time after a full-power flash is boosted from about 1.7 seconds to just 0.8 seconds.

I really like the full range of flash modes and adjustments featured in the V100. Full TTL dedication is available with separate Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, OM System and Pentax versions of the flashgun. There is a -7 to 120 degrees of vertical bounce and 150 or 180 degrees of swivel to left and right, respectively. The motorized zoom head has a 28-105mm range (in full-frame terms). That’s not overly generous in the scale of things but is due to the round-head nature of the flashgun, whereas the rectangular V860III has a 20-200mm zoom range.

The V100 features a red AF assist light which is useful for DSLRs, although it’s incompatible with mirrorless cameras. To get around that problem, there’s also a pretty powerful LED modeling light built into the main flash tube, which works for AF assist as well as for modeling. Advanced flash modes include the typical up-market range of High-speed sync, rear-curtain, and programmable repeat (or strobe). The last of these is ideal for sequential flashes throughout a long exposure, for special effects.

Unlike some flashguns that only contain a built-in RF receiver, or no RF connectivity at all, the V100 continues the Godox tradition of featuring an RF transceiver. This enables you to use the flashgun as either a master or slave unit in multi-flashgun setups. It’s based on a 2.4GHz transmission and features five groups and 32 channels, with a range of up to 100m / 328 feet.

I’ve saved perhaps the biggest new feature until last, and that’s the color touchscreen interface. As I’ve mentioned, the interface of previous recent Godox flashguns seemed quite antiquated to me. The mono screen and row of context-sensitive buttons for the various functions also looked pretty dull. By sharp contrast, the color touchscreen of the V100 looks and feels bang up to date. You also get options for adjusting power output in the usual fractions of full power down to 1/256 power levels, or on a scale of 2.0 to 10, the latter being more akin to studio flash heads.

I mostly love the touchscreen interface and only have two minor niggles. Firstly, switching the flashgun on is a two-stage process. Instead of simply pressing and holding the power on/off button to switch on the V100, you have press the button and then rotate the rotary dial or apply the same action on the touchscreen once the screen comes to life. It seems an unnecessary extra step to me. Secondly, I liked that the rotary dial in previous versions also worked as a 4-way pad. For example, you could increase or decrease the power output in full increments with up/down presses, or in 1/10^th increments with left/right presses. Sliding the power bar on the touchscreen to set the output can feel a little hit and miss by comparison, and the +/- touch points are only for small 1/10^th increments of change.

The gallery of images below shows what’s on offer in the color touchscreen interface.

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Godox V100: Performance

As I said at the outset, a main selling point of the previous V1 and V1Pro flashguns is that their round heads with a special lens built into the front deliver a lovely quality of light, which is softer and with a nice gradual falloff towards the circumference, while also eliminating the central hot spot for which rectangular flashguns are notorious.

Another bonus of the round flash head, as far as I’m concerned, is that it gives more natural looking catchlights in the eyes when you’re taking portraits. This advantage is largely lost if you use the clip-on sub-flash module, but the sub-flash can work really well for still life photography and other scenarios where you want to use bounce flash for softness while adding a little direct flash to add detail or reduce the depth of shadows. I like that the output or the sub-flash module is independently adjustable on a sliding scale, via the color touchscreen.

For further enhancing the quality of light, I’m pleased that Godox offers a range of modifiers, which are easy to attach to the V100 via magnetic attraction, just like with the previous V1 and V1Pro. Favorites include the Godox AK-R22 collapsible diffusion dome at $27 / £25 / AU$45 and the Godox AK-R1 accessory kit at $56 / £58 / AU$85. The latter is especially good value, comprising a diffusion dome, three warming filters, a green filter, a filter holder, snoot, honeycomb grid, 4-way barndoor set and bounce card with frame.

In terms of outright flash power, I found that the V100 only gave a slight increase over the previous V1 and V1Pro editions, equating to about 1/3 of a stop in my tests. What really did impress me is that at any manual power setting, there’s very little difference in the intensity of output throughout the entire 35-105mm section of the zoom range. I only really noticed a drop-off at the shortest 28mm zoom setting. I really like this for when I’m using manual power settings rather than TTL flash metering, and changing between different focal lengths.

As advertised, recycle speeds are super-fast. I found virtually no lag at all when using power settings of 1/256 right up to 1/4 power. Even at 1/2 power output, recycle speed was a quick 0.8 seconds, dropping to 1.7 seconds after a full-power flash. As I’ve mentioned, you can speed up the recycle time after a full-power flash to just 0.8 seconds if you buy the optional Godox PB960 external battery pack.

Godox V100: Sample Images

The following sample images of a bunch of flowers were taken with the round-head Godox V100 and rectangular-head Godox VING V860III in various direct and bounce modes, for comparison.

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Godox V100: Lab Results

We test all available features for each flashgun that goes through out labs. To test power output, we used a Sekonic flash meter placed at a distance of one meter from each flashgun. We check the complete range of manual power settings, in one-stop increments. Based on a sensitivity of ISO 100, the figures correlate directly with the Gn (Guide number). The results are double-checked by taking shots of a gray card with the appropriate lens apertures and using the camera’s histogram display in playback mode. This is done for flash zoom settings of 24mm, 50mm and 105mm (in full-frame terms), where available.

We also check the accuracy and consistency of electronic/intelligent TTL (Through The Lens) flash metering, and the speed with which each flashgun can recycle to a state of readiness after a full-power flash, using both Ni-MH and alkaline cells, or a Li-ion power pack where supplied.

Power output:

With its smoother, more even lighting and the absence of a hot spot, maximum output power isn’t quite as strong as with some top-end rectangular flashguns, as measured at the center of the image frame. However, power output is remarkably consistent throughout the 35-105mm sector of the zoom range, only dropping off a little at the shortest 28mm setting.

TTL accuracy:

Automatic TTL (through the lens) flash metering is very accurate and very consistent, throughout the zoom range.

Recycle speed:

As I’ve come to expect from flashguns that run on a Li-ion battery rather than alkaline or Ni-MH AA batteries, recycling speeds are very fast. However, in the 1/2 to full power sector of the power range, the V100 isn’t quite as fast as the original Godox V1 or V1Pro, due to its greater output power.

Godox V100: Verdict

For my money, the Godox V100 is the most desirable flashgun on the market right now. It’s very powerful, has a full set of advanced features and functions, and runs on a Li-ion battery that enables excellent stamina and very quick recycling speed even after a full-power flash. Meanwhile, the advanced cooling system enables long bursts of continuous shooting. The new color touchscreen is very well implemented and makes advanced functions more intuitive to use and quicker to get at. All in all, it’s a spectacular flashgun that’s available in a wide range of dedicated options to suit most makes of camera, and it’s excellent value at the price.

Alternatives

The Godox V1 is the company’s original round-headed flashgun, based on the V860III rectangular flashgun. If you’re content with its slightly lower maximum power output and relatively old-fashioned interface, it’s great value at $259 / £239 / AU$370.

The Godox VING V860III is a very powerful and highly versatile flashgun with a more conventional rectangular head. It boasts a similar Li-ion battery, top-end features and a full range of advanced flash modes, for the bargain price of $229 / £179 / AU$329.