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I have a Canon 60D, 18-55mm kit lens, and a 70-200mm f/2.8 that I use to shoot my kids sporting events. I want to replace my 30+ year old flash with a new unit. I am considering Godox and Yongnuo third party flashes as Canon are out of my price range.

I have questions about:

  • Trigger differences. Should I be using RF or Optical triggering?
  • Master/slave functionality.
  • Yongnuo 600EX-RT vs the Godox v860c. Any advice between the two. There is about a $50 difference between the two.

Other considerations:

  • I want to get a flexible powerful flash with a range of at least 150ft.
  • High school sports are fast action
  • I would prefer Li-Ion batteries but AA are fine as well
  • I would like to have a TTL radio transmitter for future use
dpollitt
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BostonMacOSX
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    Your requirements are questions. And your question title isn't a question. Can you edit this to clarify what the question is here? Is it "How can I choose among differing flash triggering options?"? If so, please edit the question title to be as such and remove the other pieces from the content that do not relate. – dpollitt Dec 12 '16 at 18:31
  • Sooooo.... the question is "What are the differences between Yongnuo 600EX-RT and Godox v860c, particularly for kids' sporting events?" – mattdm Dec 12 '16 at 19:17
  • Well it is for daily use..I've been a hobby photographer for awhile...sold some prints here and there..never a career. Kids are swimmers so flash isn't really an issue ...not distracting...

    Been able to use the old flash & illuminate the life guard at the other side of the pool I don't need 1/8000 maybe 1/500 to freeze the action. Also want to dabble with multi flash setups and product/portrait photography. Like the LI-Ion battery..not sure I like the $50+ in price. Seems like the Godox works w/the YN transm but it looks too as if the Godox has the transmitters and receivers as well X1C.

     – BostonMacOSX Dec 12 '16 at 19:31
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    This site really works best with one specific answerable question per question. Can you break it down? – mattdm Dec 12 '16 at 19:35
  • And by "range", do you mean you want to trigger at that distance, or are you wanting to light things that far away? – mattdm Dec 12 '16 at 19:35
  • "Range" illumnation distance. – BostonMacOSX Dec 12 '16 at 19:40
  • @BostonMacOSX Other than the sports angle, all of your questions (triggering systems, brand compatibility, etc.) are well answered with existing questions and answers on this site. Since the YN600EX-RT uses the Canon wireless radio (RF) protocol it should be compatible with any other device that also uses the Canon RF protocol. I'm a big fan on Yongnuo but you need to do your homework with them because they do make flashes and triggers in several different systems. With 3rd party flashes you also need to view the lower price as the exchange for a normally shorter service life. – Michael C Dec 12 '16 at 20:26
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    Since you didn't edit the question to clarity it any better, I've tried my best to clean it up. But you still need to focus this question to a single direct question or it will likely end up closed as unclear. – dpollitt Dec 13 '16 at 04:40
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    Also, you may also want to look at: Flash Havoc's overview of the Godox 2.4GHz system, What are the Yongnuo flash naming conventions?, and What should I look for in a wireless flash trigger for a home studio?. We are not here to be your information concierge service, we're here to build an answerbase for everyone. :) – inkista Dec 13 '16 at 05:42

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For most sports, you are going to shoot with ambient light, using a flash with many sports would be ineffective in the best cases (due to distance and positioning) and would interfere with the athletes in the worst case, and downright dangerous in some cases (like gymnastics for instance).

I don't think you are going to get too much light from a single flash at 150ft, and with HSS, none. When shooting with HSS, the flash trades the intensity of the light for duration.

Robin
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    These are relatively powerful flashes for their price. I bet you can get some impact at that distance if you use ISO 6400. You might need multiple flashes, though — I definitely agree with skepticism about this being a good approach at kids' sporting events. – mattdm Dec 12 '16 at 19:36
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    Unless the flash is well away from the lens' optical axis I can tell you from personal experience that using flash for distance sports will make the photos look like crap. With a lot of experience you can learn to blend it in a little but then you're only using it to fill shadows, not to illuminate the scene. You're still using ambient for that. For sports ambient is the only way to go. Suck it up, use the ISO you need to get the Tv (shutter time) you need and deal with the noise in post. – Michael C Dec 12 '16 at 20:19