Home Reviews ,,,,, Anyone who wants to improve photos with iPhone, does what you do with the SLR, like an external flash for photos with iPhone. In the world of photography it is among the most useful accessories as it allows you to acquire high quality images even in low light conditions or even in the dark. With iPhone Apple has done a great job, especially with the latest iPhone 8, as regards the built-in flash but if you want to be able to manage artificial lighting more precisely then an external flash like the Godox A1 we had can be useful. way to try in the past weeks.
It is a LED flash specially designed to collaborate with iPhone via an app, with the ability to also manage the power manually just as it is usual to do with professional flashes. It is a good product that greatly improves photographs, especially for the absence of wires that allow it to be used even at a distance, positioning it at forty-five degrees from the subject for more natural lighting.
As did
The flash is 8 x 6.3 x 2.2 centimeters large and weighs around 110 grams. It has rounded edges and is held well even with one hand, so it can be used safely off-camera (see following photo) even for improvised shots on the go .
On the base there is a universal 1/4 '' screw connection, so it can be easily fixed to a tripod or a gorillapod, on the back there is a magnet that allows you to attach it to the back of a smartphone or a metal surface using one of the two iron plates included in the package (each has a 3M adhesive layer on one side to be fixed to a cover).
On the side, protected by a rubber cap, there is the USB-C input for recharging the internal battery while on the upper edge there is the OLED display, a ring and three buttons to manage the flash settings directly from it. as well as an On / Off button for turning the flash on and off.
How does it work
Once the external flash for photos with iPhone is turned on, you can press the (Light) button to turn on the three front LEDs, very useful for having a small continuous light that allows you to better direct the flash or to facilitate focusing on the subject in case of shots in complete darkness. With the (Flash) button you can instead make a quick test of the flash of light.
To adjust the flash it is necessary to hold down the (SET) key, in this way it is possible to choose the mode, between manual “M” and automatic “A”, the channel (from 1 to 32) and the group (from A to F ) if more than one flash is used at the same time and activate the firmware upgrade (setting the UPGFW panel to “Y” yes).
The application
To use the flash with iPhone you need to download the free GodoxPhoto app. At the end, simply turn on the Bluetooth on the iPhone, then start the app and go to the Bluetooth panel: the flash will be recognized in an instant. For the first pairing it will be necessary to enter the PIN code to allow access to the flash (the default password is 000000).
At this point you can start the Camera section to take advantage of the iPhone camera and take photographs in collaboration with the external flash.
Through a slide on the screen it is possible to quickly adjust the exposure between ± 2. There is also a button to adjust the white balance by choosing the automatic mode or setting it in one of the available scenes. It is also possible to activate the iPhone flash using its continuous light as a light source to help with focusing (the iPhone flash will not activate together with the Godox A1 during shooting).
Clicking on (FLASH) accesses the flash adjustment panel. Here you can quickly adjust the lighting power: in Manual mode you can choose between 1/16 up to 1/1, with steps of ± 0.3, while in Automatic mode you can decide the flash lighting, possibly correcting the power. ± 3 in ± 0.3 steps.
How is it going
Those who already have experience with an SLR flash will not find many differences in the use of an external flash for photos with iPhone like Godox A1. The immediacy of use is the same, just as it is very easy to manage the power of the lighting, both directly from the app when the flash is perhaps positioned in an inconvenient place, and directly from the flash through the built-in keys.
Below we show you a gallery with some shots taken on the spot to evaluate the quality of the product.
photo without flash 
iPhone flash photo 
flash photo from above 
photo with flash at 45 ° power 1/16 with three sheets as diffuser 
photo with flash at 45 ° power 1/8 with three sheets as diffuser 
photo with flash at 45 ° power 1/4 with three sheets as diffuser 
photo with flash at 45 ° power 1/2 with three sheets as diffuser 
photo with flash at 45 ° power 1/1 with three sheets as diffuser 
playing with light
The flash power is more than enough to properly illuminate even two faces in the foreground, or a subject a few meters away from the iPhone camera. At full power (1/1) it is not possible to take pictures in sequence as the flash needs a few seconds to recharge.
What is actually missing is an integrated system to soften the light. Most SLR flashes incorporate a handy pull-out curtain that we would have liked to find in this accessory, at least for outdoor shots. For the photographs of objects in the house we have in fact helped ourselves with a sheet of paper (however, nothing prevents you from self-building something handmade in order to soften the light even on the move).
Compatibility
As anticipated, you can choose the radio channel and group to tune the flash to. This is because Godox A1 can actually collaborate with other flashes of the same type. It can also work as a Master with the Godox V860II, AD200 and AD600 SLR flash, or as a Slave with the Godox X1 series transmitters. So if you decide to use iPhone as the main camera and set up a small photo studio at home, consider purchasing two or more flashes to be used simultaneously in the shots. A good set includes three flashes, two of which on the sides at 45 ° from the subject and one placed behind the subject to illuminate the hair. However, our advice is to start with a single flash and maybe expand the set later: with a single flash you can already get excellent photographs.
Conclusions
The added value of an external flash device for photos with iPhone is being able to avoid the front flash of the iPhone which, although with the latest generations has been significantly improved especially from the point of view of color, inevitably produces “cold” photographs precisely because of the inconvenient location of artificial lighting. Angling a light of 45 ° with respect to the subject is something indispensable and having a flash even on the iPhone has allowed us to take home photographs that we would normally have instead discarded.
However, the support application needs to be improved, especially for focusing on subjects: it inevitably requires clicking on the screen for each photograph, an operation that sometimes made us lose the perfect photo due to its lack of immediacy. use. We look forward to a future update that brings the user experience closer to that of the native app.
Price to the public
Godox A1 is on sale on Amazon for € 67.90.
,,
