The rear LCD screen is on the bottom of the flash. It's small but functional and the buttons are logically placed. The buttons and dial feel nice and responsive. If you’re not familiar with the Godox AD200 flash. Prior to the AD200, if you wanted a portable flash solution for location shooting. Your choices were extremely limited. Sure you could use a single speedlight but outdoors the humble speedlight was limiting. Combining them together was a cumbersome affair.

What people generally mean is. Can the Godox AD200 overpower the sun on a REALLY sunny day at a certain distance? Again, it all depends on how far you are away and how bright the sun is. At high noon on a summer’s day? You could struggle, even if you're a 3-4 meters away. Sunset with the golden sunlight then you should be fine. But you would have problems if you wanted to light them up from across the lake. The main addition is colour stability mode which keeps the colour temperature within 100 Kelvin. This is not really an issue wedding photographers will care about but if you are a studio/commercial photographer then this could be a feature you want to pay for. Using my Sekonic light meter I have tested the Godox AD200 against its bigger brother the AD360 as well as the trusty Godox v860ii. For the bare bulb test I have used the same 5" standard reflector. For the Fresnel head I did not use any modifier. Testing was done from a distance of 3m. Godox V860ii @ 35mmTechnically not a Godox AD200 accessory but I think it’s fair to say that this is the light modifier of choice for most wedding photographers. It is worth noting that the AD200 Pro does have a recessed LCD screen which should help though I still remain sceptical it would survive a 2m drop. Top of the list for me was Magmod. Suddenly I could use their innovative lighting solutions and still pump out much more power than a single speedlight. But more on this later! The answer for me is ‘no’. Not for wedding photography anyway. The changes are too small to justify the extra money. And the power adjustments for 0.1 instead of 0.3 is actually very annoying for weddings since it slows me down.

So no real surprises. The AD200 is less powerful than the AD360 but more than the normal speedlight. However, It may surprise some that there is only a 1/3 stop difference between the AD200 and the AD360. Whilst in percentage terms that seems a lot (ie. 33%), the AD200 of course is much more portable with the integrated battery. The reason is because more powerful, I can use a lower power setting to emit the same amount of light and minimise the flash recycle time. For example if using speedlights I had to use 1/4 power to light a scene. With the AD200, I could shoot at say 1/32 and have almost unlimited flashes whereas on the speedlight I'd have to wait for the battery to recycle. This means if something unexpected happens. I don’t need to worry about the flash recycle time and I can concentrate on capturing the moment. The photo above was taken just before sunset with a single Godox AD200 using the Magmod & Maggrid/Magsphere from camera left. And single AD200 behind the bride & groom with fresnel head, no modifier. The very first LED light designed for the AD200. Being honest I was disappointed. There’s no ability to focus the light and there’s not many LED’s so the power output was also pretty poor. It made it wholly unsuitable for lighting speeches at weddings. Only times I used it was to find my car keys at the end of the evening in my camera bag. Godox H200R - Round Head As always, the aim of this review isn’t going to be full of stats and shooting test objects. I will be focussing on what I’ve found to be important (and what’s not) from using it as a busy wedding photographer in Derby& Nottingham over the past few years.The Maggrip fits over the Fresnel head. Just make sure you take care and don’t cover the heat vents. The Maggrip does JUST about fit over the H200R head but it’s not recommended. I’ve seen plenty of people split the rubber this way. Three years after their release, there are imitators but no-one close to competing with this innovative flash. The Godox AD200's really are the perfect mix of flexibility, portability as well as being great value for money. Overall the LCD is perfectly usable. My only minor quibble is I'd like to have seen the rear LCD to be a little brighter. It can be hard to see in bright sunlight but it's not a big deal. You can change groups by pressing the GR/CH button and change to a different channel by holding down the same button for two seconds then using the dial to choose which channel you would like. For portraits, my favourite combination is to modify the fresnel flash head with the Maggrid and magsphere. I do realise this will not give me the kind of soft light a large softbox would. But as I have said before, weddings are often a compromise between speed and portability.

The unit feels chunky and solid in your hands. With the battery and flash head, the AD200 is definitely heavier than a speedlight. The on/off switch at the side has been changed. The original AD200 switch was not easy to find if you don't know what you are looking for. I've had assistants who have never used the AD200 be unable to find it. The Pro switch feels a bit better and more obvious. It's a small improvement but hardly groundbreaking. If you are mounting AD200's on a light stand. Then my strong advice is to either have someone hold it or use a weight like a sandbag to stop the stand from toppling over. If you do find yourself often in these situations at a wedding then you may want to consider a more powerful flash. Godox have released a range of strobes with more power. From the AD300 right the way to the upcoming retina burning AD1200! More powerful flashes will give you the option to use larger light modifiers to help you project softer light for better results.I get asked this question a lot. And the answer is “It depends”. Any light source can overpower the sun. It just depends on how far the subject is from the light source and the time of day. Even with the introduction of the Godox AD300 which are much more like the Profoto B10's, I am not remotely tempted to switch. The fact they fit neatly into my camera bag. Slip into my think tank pouch so I can carry one on my hip when I am walking to take photos. It’s just perfect for a wedding photographer on the move. With the introduction of the AD200. Suddenly we had an all in one solution that used the Fresnel head. Suddenly we could use all the light modifiers designed for speedlights! Something us wedding photographers did a lot.

As I said, I’m not going to ramble on about specs but for a review, it does make sense to at least list the most important features: Power Flash power can now be controlled by 1/10 increments and minimum power is now 1/256 rather than 1/128 on the original Godox AD200.At weddings, the Godox AD200’s are my main flashes for pretty much everything. Outdoors for groups. Portraits. Indoors, I use them to light speeches, first dances and occasionally if the situation demands, wedding ceremonies. There! If you are a stats nerd then fill your boots! 🙂 Suffice to say it pretty much has all the features you'd expect from a modern flash and some you'll probably never use. Interface To get into the custom menu, long press the C.Fn button which is also the test fire button. One of the first things I recommend you do if like me you will be using this for weddings is switch off the beep. This is F01 and it should be set to OFF. The reason I use the AD200’s indoors rather than speedlights is simply because of the power. And by that I don’t mean I shoot at full power. No no! That’d be retina scorching after a while.