Hey youtube its robert hall and today we're comparing the Profoto a1 versus the new Godox v1
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Profoto a1 versus Godox v1. This has been a pretty dramatic release
I think these two companies have been competitors for quite a few years now
But this is the first time that we're really seeing Profoto acknowledge godox as competition
If you don't know what I'm talking about and you're interested in any of this drama
I've got links to the stories in the description below if you want to check that out
But that's not what I'm gonna focus on today. I've now used the Godox v1 on multiple shoots all as an off-camera light
That's really how I'm interested in it
but one of the cool things about both the Profoto a1 and the v1 is that these are both
master speedlights. I don't care if Profoto says that it's the world's smallest studio light
It's a speed light and that's what they're designed for
They're designed to be used on camera or off camera and when using it on camera you can use them to control
Their suite of lights now
I think that this battle so to speak
Is kind of influenced by how Profoto marketed the a1 as being the world's smallest studio light as being this
Natural and soft light source, which I don't think is really an honest representation of the light
These are both very small light sources and left unmodified. They are going to be really really harsh
I mean, here's some samples
You can see of both the Profoto v1 and the a1 used a key light without any type of modification
And they're hard light sources, right? There's nothing that you can change about that
there's nothing that you can do to fake relative size right short of bouncing and
You're in that instance you're using a large surface
I just want to make that clear guys that this whole round head thing is not gonna be some type of game
changer. It is cool to have the access to the quick magnetic modifiers like both systems have
But it is not going to automatically change the quality of light
You're not going to be able to start using this ten feet away and getting beautiful soft light on your subject
That's just not how the physics of light work. Just want to make that abundantly clear
For both of these products. All right. I've blabbed on enough about the landscape surrounding this competition
Let's get into how these two lights compare head-to-head. Cut right to the big question power outplay
How do these two compare to one another is one of these more powerful than the other?
No, I tested them both 36 inches away from a meter and both of them registered an
f/ 22. absolutely identical
F-22 and going down the range they were pretty consistent head-to-head. You can see on screen right now
I've got the numbers of what they registered at their various power
settings now both of these lights also have a nine stop power range meaning they can go from full power all the way down to
one
256th of their power on
Profoto they represent their power levels with integers so you can go from 10 all the way down to 2 and
Both of these can be controlled with 10 stop increments
Now they both have that 9 stop range and the Profoto actually hit 9 stops on the head
I mean it was perfectly 9 stops from its
Highest power rating to its lowest power rating and the godox actually had a little bit more. It was 9.2 stops
So right there the Profoto is a little bit more dialed in a little bit more accurate
Throughout its power range and the Godox has a little bit more range now power doesn't just matter in regular sync
we also want to know how efficient these lights are when they enter high speed sync and both of these lights lost a
Significant amount of power once they enter high speed sync roughly 3 stops when we tested them outside
They seemed equally capable with high speed sync at similar distances. So all things point to these being
absolutely identical in terms of power capabilities
Now what does stand out as a big difference from them is their light pattern. the Profoto market itself on how
natural and soft the light pattern of the light is and no it's not soft. Yes
It's very even. It's a very smooth transition from edge to edge
it's much improved over speed lights that we've seen before but
Godox completely showed them up on this the glite pattern from the godox v1 is such a smooth
Transition, it doesn't even look like it's a fresnel head at all. It is really really impressive
So definitely quality of light pattern goes to Godox. On SLR lounge
we posted a poll to see which one people would like better without knowing which light was which and
The percentages were over
90% in favor of the godox light pattern and when I put it in another group, it was probably over 95% online
Pretty much everybody agrees here. The more pleasant light pattern is from the godox v1
I don't think there's any arguing that but once you start bouncing or modifying this light those minor differences between them
They're not going to be very present
So if you're using this modified chances are you're really not gonna see that difference at all
recycle time another situation where these two are neck-and-neck the Profoto a1 recycles in
1.2 seconds the godox v1 recycles in
1.2 1.3 seconds
So there's a very very tiny edge in the past
I've done these graphs where we see what?
recycle time is associated with what light output but there's no need to do that here because they're hitting the same exact light outputs at
their full power
so these two recycle at the exact amount of time now one advantage I do want to note about Profoto here is they're able to
sustain that
recycle speed without ever getting into any type of thermal issues
Whereas the godox v1 after about 30 full power flashes
You go into thermal protection mode where it is protecting the battery and it's a counter
It's not actually based on heat that system hasn't changed at all
So yeah, the godox V1 kind of loses
If you're looking for how much you can get away with like shooting this light really fast the Profoto a1 is definitely a little bit
Superior that's based on the idea that you've actually got a battery to shoot on and this is
probably Profoto's biggest shortcoming is battery life. On the surface the Profoto a1 is capable of
350 full power flashes whereas the Godox V1 is capable of
480 full power flashes now that's in ideal circumstances and it's not really accounting for things like standby time
Well, the godox does great with it standby time. It does not soak up a lot of the battery
however
The Profoto a1 has to be one of the worst lights I've ever seen in terms of standby time
Just in the metered tests when I was trying to go through and meter it we lost like half of the battery's power
Over only shooting like 30 or 40 shots
Not even at full power. This was across the entire power range
So in preparation for another shoot, we charged it all the way full again
we went out we only shot with it the second time for a really short amount of time and when we came back we had
Under 60% battery left and at that point
I went live with Francisco and we were talking about our experience with the light live on his channel and
it kind of became a joke of
Will the Profoto a1 die on standby by the time the stream was over over the course of that 90 minute stream
We fired the flash once just to show the flash duration
which we'll get to here in a moment and
It went from just over 50% power to dead and the only thing that was on was the air receiver
Which is what's waiting for the signal to receive a signal from the transmitter and we posted about this and joked about it
people said well that kills the battery but that is a basic function of using the flash off-camera is
Having that receiving on and for it to lose that much battery
just sitting around waiting for a signal is I think the biggest shortcoming of the Profoto a1 next
Let's talk about color consistency. Both of these products are designed to be extremely consistent with color
Meaning that the color as you change the output level of the flash or change the conditions that you're in maybe the temperature changes
Both of these lights are going to stand up to that and deliver a very consistent color temperature
Throughout the power range and I got to test them with my Sekonic c-800
Which thank you Sekonic for the c-800
just so I could conduct these light tests because color is something that I've not been able to go over in detail before but now
That I have this c-800
I can deliver some really accurate information to you. the Profoto a1
Throughout all of my testing and metering it
the highest color that I saw was 5873 Kelvin and the lowest that I saw was
5613. That is phenomenal color accuracy and
It's also the color range that we would expect right around daylight, which is 5500
So that is really well done by Profoto
Now the godox kind of beat and lost to it at the same time the Godox only moved
94 Kelvin over the entire power range not including HSS
But only moved 94 Kelvin which is like plus or minus 50
That's really great however the color was from 6180 up to 6274 Kelvin
So this light is actually on the blue side for daylight balanced flashes
So that's a touch higher of a number than we're used to and I would expect more around the 5500 range
So just be aware of that that this v1 is a little bit cooler than the typical daylight standard next
Let's talk about the flash duration
the flash duration on both of these at full power is right around 1/400th of a second and that is
t.1 flash duration. now, I did not just take this out of the specs
This was another thing that I was able to test using the Sekonic L-858d meter and I'm saying 400
but if I'm being specific that Profoto a1 at full power was 1/384 and the
Godox v1 was 1/
405 very slight edge to the v1, but not much to really make a point about however at their minimum power
Which is the number two on the Profoto or 1/
256th on the godox v1 same output level for both of them the Profoto a1 got one over
12,700 which I was like dang that's impressive and the go times v1. Got one over
27,800 that is the shortest flash duration that I've seen on any light equipment that I've ever tested
I've seen you know, 15,000. I've seen close to 20,000 never seen that number and then when we did it live on stream
we're going to test this one
Its higher it seemed faster higher. 1/31700 that is
Ridiculous absolutely insane number. I don't know how useful that is considering. It's such a small flash burst. I mean one
256 of a speed light
Not many application that that's gonna be useful in however that does lend itself to comparing across the entire range
so as you go into the higher power levels, that means the godox v1 is
outperforming and the
Profoto kind of catches up every output that you go and it really never catches up completely until you get to full power
It's pretty much the same and that just means it's gonna be a little bit better at freezing subjects
At least that those really low powers
Both of them are operating it such a short flash duration that either would be excellent for stopping motion overall build quality
The godox v1 feels really nice and solid
The Profoto a1 that I was using has a little bit of play in the head now. This is a rental
So who knows who had this before and if they smacked it around a little bit
I don't know what that thing's been through before it got to me, and I don't know if that's any cause for
Concern we also have an a1 that's been out for a while and has a lot of user feedback. Whereas the v1
We're still talking about beta units and the newest ones are just hitting people's doorsteps
so we really don't have a history to compare to and
I really can't make a call here as to which one is better built and you guys should be aware by now that both of
These pretty much has the same selection of modifiers
They both have bounce card grid gels little snoot all those little attachments that you can put on the head
There's not much to talk about here. They felt about the same level of build quality and thickness and durability
I will say that the godox has a little bit more secure of a connection with the magnets
It just feels like a little bit stronger of a pull
I don't think this is not very scientific at all but
And then the
Yeah, what'd that prove? That proved about as much as jared polin sniff test the Profoto still felt great
Even if I shook it around like crazy the magnetic modifiers weren't going anywhere. So both do their job exceptionally well,
Hey shake that ish, that's a prototype
So my final take on comparing these two is that I think godox kind of one upped to Profoto at their own game
I mean so many of the specs of this light are
Identical when it comes to the important things like the power when it comes to battery life
Godox definitely outshined Profoto when it comes to the light quality the base light quality
Godox definitely outshined Profoto
and then you take that information and you apply it to the fact that the godox v1 is
one-fourth of the price of the A1
I try to stay as unbiased as possible to just give you guys the information you need because
Hey, if you decide based on the stats that I tell you that the Profoto is better for you. Great
That's good
But I really this is one instance where I don't see a significant argument for the Profoto
Short of I already have a bunch of Profoto gear and that's what I want to trigger
I need a Profoto A1 to do so that I can't argue with. Alright guys. Thank you for watching
I really hope that you enjoyed this video on the Profoto a1 vs the new godox v1
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