A Good Basic Flash Lighting Kit for Sony Mirrorless Cameras
My friend Jenny is looking for a good starter lighting kit after realizing that the basic level Godox speedlight she has is bollocks for anything other than the occasional family portrait, or garish American Apparel style photo shoot.
I think when considering your first lighting kit for your camera, whatever the brand may be, you first need to determine the main application for the lighting.
Are you shooting events, sports, or portraits? Are you shooting primarily indoors or outdoors? These factors all play a big part, and ultimately it is difficult to have one light satisfy all of these requirements perfectly, but you can aim for a good compromise. In my kit I have both portable studio strobes for location and studio work, and speedlights for events and sports photography. In the beginning I only had the speedlights with off-camera remote triggering and softboxes, but it was what I had and it worked pretty well. Joe McNally has defined a big part of his career on use of speedlights.
If money was no object this would be an easy conversation, you would just buy the light best for each scenario, but when looking for one light here is what I would consider.
Knowing the work that Jenny is doing I’m thinking that this light will be primarily for portraits and events, with the event component putting the most strain on the requirements here.
For events you need a light that can be mounted on-camera that has a fast recycle time. For portraits you need a light that can be moved off-camera to a variety of different positions. While Profoto probably offers the best in all regards here, the price is prohibitively expensive for someone at the beginning of their photography career. The branded solutions from Sony are also quite expensive, so in this case we arrive back at Godox.
Godox is making some great equipment for the money. Of course you get what you pay for, but after a certain point we are talking about diminishing returns. Profoto and Elinchrom make amazing gear, but it is a luxury to have the best tools, and most often that is earned over time.
Westcott also makes some interesting solutions at a middle price point, but they are just entering the high powered wireless strobe game, so their offering doesn’t offer what Godox does in versatility. Godox probably makes the best tools for the money on the this end of the spectrum, so here is what I have come up with.
GODOX TT685S SPEEDLIGHT
This is a great value speedlight with a fast recycle time and wireless triggering capability. This will work well for on-camera event photos, and also off-camera portrait lighting with a suitable softbox or modifier.
GODOX XPRO-S WIRELESS TRIGGER
The nice thing about this wireless trigger is the price. Most other brands of wireless strobe control are triple the price of this one or more. The ability to control multiple Godox lights also means you can affordably build your lighting arsenal down the road as budget permits.
Neewer Octagonal Softbox
This is a good softbox on the budget that also comes with a speedlight mount and pistol grip so you can mount it to a lighting stand, or have an assistant handhold it. I can’t attest to the longterm durability of this one, but for the price and given my past positive experiences with Neewer products I think this is a good place to start.
Light Stand
This is a basic stand, but you will need one for off-camera work. They’re always handy to have around anyway. I also advise using a sandbag or two to make sure the light is stable.
GODOX AD400 PRO STUDIO LIGHT
This is something that is intriguing for an additional purchase down the road. I prefer to work with higher powered studio strobes when possible. They’re not efficient for certain kinds of photography, but it is a game changer to have something like this in your kit. I like that Godox offers the ability to add this into your kit at a relatively affordable price. In theory you can also use your speedlight with this studio light and the wireless transmitter to create a two light setup.