FlashQ Q20II reviews

 

 

I have really started to bond with my Ricoh GR III, and it has very quickly become my default carry when it comes to cameras. However, I do miss having some kind of flash ability in low-light situations. I often go to the pub with some friends, or I walk around the streets late at night when I can’t sleep, but the Ricoh GR III is not great in low-light situations. So, I decided that I needed some kind of flash solution.

I immediately thought of the Meike MK-320F flash that I used with my Fujifilm X cameras, but I wasn’t in love with the flash. It was kinda ugly, and I never enjoyed using it that much compared to the bigger flash units that I use on my Nikons. So, after watching a few videos on YouTube, I stumbled upon the FlashQ Q20 flash system, and it seemed perfect. I ordered it that evening online, and it arrived the following day.

 

 

 

My first impression of the flash was that it was tiny and would fit perfectly in my everyday carry when I go out. The flash runs on two AA batteries, so it really doesn’t weigh a lot. The LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii is really tiny, but it has a lot of tricks up its sleeve with the added benefit of working on all camera bodies. I mostly shoot with Nikon, Ricoh, and Fujifilm, so I will test the flash on all three systems to see if it works.

 

 

 

The LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii has a lot of features packed into this very small package. It is a small portable flash, has a wireless transmitter and receiver, a tiltable head, colored gels for shooting, a video light, and a modeling light. Finally, it has the ability to recharge the batteries in both the transmitter and flash unit via a USB cable. It sounds almost too good to be true, but this little unit really does deliver on most of its hype and promises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FlashQ Q20ii really does seem very small, especially when you remove the transmitter, but when compared to my old Meike MK320, it is roughly the same size. Turning on the FlashQ Q20ii is slightly more tricky than I first expected, and this is not well explained in the user manual. There are two steps you need to follow to use this flash. The first step is to turn on the power of the flash unit, and the second step is to power on the transmitter separately, even if you are going to shoot with the flash mounted to the transmitter. If you don’t turn on the transmitter, the flash won’t fire. It turns out that there are no connections between the FlashQ Q20ii and the transmitter, so you always have to follow those two steps to use the FlashQ Q20ii.

 

 

 

Looking at the back of the flash unit, the operation of the flash is very simple. You have the on/off switch on the right side of the unit, which triggers a quick LED light show as the flash powers on. There are two arrow buttons to control the flash power. The flash has a guide number of 20, and the power can be controlled from 1/64 to 1/1. When it comes to using a flash, that is all you really need.

The head of the flash is slightly tiltable, but it is not like a professional flash where you can tilt the head in any direction. However, there is an easy solution to this, which I will discuss a little later. The unit does come with a modeling light if you want to try and create the perfect lighting setup, but I have never used the modeling light on this flash, and I likely never will. I bought this flash for simple fill or maybe to add some color to a scene at night when I am walking around the street.

 

 

The LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii also has a video light that you can switch on and use, and just like the flash, you can control its power with the two arrow buttons above the “Video Light” label. Thankfully, you don’t have to turn on the transmitter to use the video light. Just turn the FlashQ Q20ii body on and press one of the video light arrow buttons. This is great if you are shooting with something like a Fujifilm camera and you want to quickly shoot some video, but the Ricoh GR III is not exactly a video beast, so I probably won’t use it. However, I might use it as a consistent light source in a shoot one day.

The LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii runs off two AA batteries, so I am not sure how long the Flash Q20ii will last as a video light, as there is not a lot of power in those two small batteries. In a test with my rechargeable 3200 AA batteries, the video light lasted for 38 minutes on full power, which is not bad, but I would not use this light on a project unless it was an emergency.

 

 

 

The best feature of this flash is the simple fact that the LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii can separate from the trigger with the press of a single button, allowing you to shoot with off-camera flash. This is great as the flash head can only really be tilted up at variable angles, ranging from 45°, 60°, 75°, to 90°, so bouncing light anywhere but up is really difficult. Luckily, with the FlashQ Q20ii flash unit in your hand or mounted somewhere, you are free to control the light to meet your own requirements.

I plan to shoot the LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii almost completely off-camera. Even if I am doing a quick run-and-gun portrait, I would rather have the flash separate in my one hand, held out high above my head and to the side, than mounted onto the camera. The LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii uses 2.4GHz low-power digital radio, so the range is not great—around 10 meters in an open space and slightly less indoors. But this is fine. I don’t see myself setting this flash up miles away and trying to trigger it. I will mostly be using this with either my Ricoh GR III or my Fujifilm X-E3, both with a wide-angle lens, so this is perfect for me.

 

 

The colored gels are the real interesting part for me. As we are in COVID-19 lockdowns right now, I am not at work shooting, so I am mostly doing my shooting early in the mornings, walking down small streets in China, hunting down LED and neon lights. I think that the colored gels might come in very handy in the future. I like that the gels are really tiny and easy to carry and install, but I am worried that they could easily be lost. I have lost hundreds of small accessories over the years at work. My camera bags seem to be the proverbial black hole, and they swallow up small accessories all the time, never to be seen again.

 

 

The flash uses two AA batteries, which is great as they are light and compact. The LightPix Labs FlashQ Q20ii provides USB charging for the batteries as well, which is perfect. That means you can use the flash and charge the batteries while walking around with a power bank. The trigger has a built-in battery that can also be recharged via USB.

One important thing to note is that you need to charge the remote and the batteries separately. I initially thought that the FlashQ Q20ii and the transmitter were connected and the flash could recharge the transmitter, but I was wrong. The FlashQ Q20ii simply provides a space to store the transmitter, but they are not electronically connected in any way—they only communicate wirelessly. The remote doesn’t charge when you plug in the USB cable into the flash unit.

This caught me by surprise the first time when I had charged my batteries for the FlashQ Q20ii with the USB port and was expecting the trigger to be charged as well. It didn’t work when I was out on the street. I actually thought that the flash was broken at the time, as the unit would turn on and trigger with the slave option, but it wouldn’t fire when I clicked the shutter button.

 

 

 

I love the idea of using rechargeable batteries and having the ability to charge the batteries in the flash unit, but there is a downside to using AA rechargeable batteries, and that is the charge time for each cycle of the flash. There is a noticeable difference between the recharge times with your normal alkaline AA batteries and your rechargeable batteries. The LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii is not a quick flash to recharge at full power, even with normal alkaline batteries, but if you are using this small tiny flash unit for fill flash, you will probably never be shooting at 1/1 or full power. If I needed to shoot at full power very quickly, I would bring one of my bigger flash units with me.

 

 

I like the tripod screw mount at the bottom of the flash so if I separate it from the trigger, I can mount the flash to a small-rig of some kind and set it up for a shoot very quickly.

 

Here is a quick test of the LightPix Labs FlashQ Q20ii mounted on the Ricoh GRiii vs the Fujifilm XE3 with the Meike MK-320F flash and the Nikon Z6 and my Nikon Speedlight. Each camera is set to ISO200, shot with a 28mm lens stopped down to f2.8,  a shutter speed of 1/10, and the flashes set to Manual with a full 1/1 power setting. This should show how powerful the different flashes are. I am bouncing each flash off the ceiling in the room.

 

 

 

 

As expected, the LightPix Labs FlashQ Q20ii is the weakest flash with a guide number of 20 but it is more than powerful enough for a bit of fill flash or a quick bounce of a wall or ceiling indoors.

 

 

So far, I have been singing the praises of this small little unit, and it is a good flash for the price, but it is not perfect. Firstly, this flash has no type of TTL metering; it is a completely manual flash. There is no automation here, but I don’t think that is such a bad thing, to be honest. Once you have learned the basics of shooting with a flash, it is better to shoot in manual modes as you have more control. But for a beginner, this might be problematic. The second major problem for someone new to flash is that you really have to turn the flash on twice to use it on the camera. First, you need to power on the flash unit, and then you need to power on the transmitter. They really need to make that clearer in the manual, as this confused me, and I am used to working with flashes and wireless triggers.

 

 

The LightPix Labs Flash Q20ii flash is a small portable flash unit that is extremely versatile. It can be triggered by just about any modern camera, and with its removable transmitter, it becomes very versatile, allowing you to shoot with off-camera flash in just a few seconds. The build quality of the flash is okay—nothing spectacular but perfectly acceptable for the price of the Flash Q20ii. You would be hard-pressed to find a cheaper, lightweight flash to carry around with you.

The only negatives I can give this flash are that it is not very powerful, powering it on takes two steps, and it is a fully manual flash, so it is difficult for new shooters to use. I bought the FlashQ Q20ii for use with the Ricoh GR III, and I think it is perfect for that camera.

 

Shaun.