Guide number of the Godox V860II at different zoom settings
Asked 11/19/2018
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I can only find the Godox V860II's maximum guide number specification, but not guide numbers for each flash head zoom position from 20mm to 200mm. Is there an official chart for GN at different zoom settings? If not, what is a practical way to estimate or measure the guide number at each zoom step myself?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
3
A guide number (GN) is the power of the flash to illuminate a subject correctly at ISO 100 at a specific distance using a specific f-number.
Normally this distance is 10 ft for easier calculations, so the GN is
GN = 10 x f/number
The thing here is that we need to know if you have a correct exposure so the first approach would be to use an incident light meter.
But if you do not have one, you can use the histogram on your camera.
1) Prepare a target, a white wall for example. This part is tricky because a different color will render the histogram in a different way and this white wall can potentially render a histogram graph clipped on the right side. Point the camera at the center of the illuminated zone.
2) Put the flash at 10 ft from the wall. You can put your camera closer so you do not have to worry about zooming in and out, remember that the GN does not care about your camera, it is about the flash.
3) Take a shoot using F6 as an aperture, because the flash declares a GN of 60 and see your histogram.
The GN is a number at full power at 200mm, but I would change the power of the flash to make this histogram to be in right on the middle, so depending on the wall, probably you need to lower the power at 1/2 or 1/4 for example.
This shoot is the "calibration" this combination of settings is your reference.
4) So now start zooming your flash without changing the other settings. I would not do the full range of the flash, I would personally just do 100mm, 50 and 20.
Take a shoot and adjust the aperture so your histogram is again in the middle. If you used now, for example, f/5 the GN is now 50; if your histogram is ok at f/4 the GN at those settings is now 40.
If you have a gray card, you, in theory, do not need to lower the power of the flash to have the histogram in the middle.
Using an incident light meter will give you more exact results.
Originally by user37321. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user37321
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Godox does not appear to publish a full guide-number table for each zoom setting, at least not in the information referenced here. One community suggestion is to use the Canon 600EX as a rough comparison, since it has the same 20–200mm zoom range and the same quoted maximum GN of 60 m at 200mm.
If you want your own figures, you can measure them. Set ISO 100, place the flash 10 ft from a neutral target, and fire the flash at a chosen zoom setting. Determine the correct aperture for proper exposure with either an incident meter or by checking the camera exposure/histogram carefully. Then calculate:
GN = distance × f-number
At 10 ft, that simplifies to:
GN = 10 × f-number
Repeat this for each zoom position to build your own table. This will give you practical guide numbers for your unit in your real shooting setup. Just keep the target, distance, ISO, and flash power consistent, since different targets and exposure judgments can affect the result.
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