First monolight. Godox. But which one?

For the new 2.4Ghz system, X1 and X-Pro triggers the USB reciever is XTR16. The FT16 is the older 433MHz system. The two won't work together. The GT400 does hav a wireless control port.
http://www.godox.com …ash_Gemini_GT_S​eries.html
The GT series will work with the XTR16 USB reciever just like the AD360 And is thus compatible with the X1T and X-Pro system, offcource without ttl etc.

That is where the confusion is. It is a USB port, but they keep calling it a wireless control port, which is entirely too vague. It took some searching through videos to see that indeed, that is a USB port with the old XT16 receiver, so yes the XTR16 receiver should also work. Godox needs a single "compatibility" page of all their flashes/strobes and the corresponding wireless protocols/devices that work.

The SK400II has all that nice stuff built in though, which eliminates some headaches.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18532474
That is where the confusion is. It is a USB port, but they keep calling it a wireless control port, which is entirely too vague. It took some searching through videos to see that indeed, that is a USB port with the old XT16 receiver, so yes the XTR16 receiver should also work. Godox needs a single "compatibility" page of all their flashes/strobes and the corresponding wireless protocols/devices that work.

The SK400II has all that nice stuff built in though, which eliminates some headaches.

The nice thing with Godox is the upgrade on the FT16 triggering system, or the receivers to the 2,4GHz X1 system with their XTR16 taking older flash units into the new age.

soeren wrote in post #18532478
The nice thing with Godox is the upgrade on the FT16 triggering system, or the receivers to the 2,4GHz X1 system with their XTR16 taking older flash units into the new age.

Sure, but this is because they changed things so rapidly, they almost had to do this. I would think alot of buyers would have been a bit alienated to have purchased a strobe, and 6 months later, they had to do all these kluges to make the 433Mhz and newer R1/R2 protocol all work with various transmitters all cobbled together. I don't think they had too much a choice here, but am glad they did it too!

I had 2 AD360s, when all the new R1/R2 flashes and strobes came out, and I wasn't ready to go any further until I saw that they were willing to retro the old items into the new protocol. That allowed me to get rid of all my Yongnuo devices and Canon flashes, and go with Godox units, something I probably wouldn't have done, had I been stuck with the AD360s and then worried about the future of other Godox purchases becoming obsolete in short order.

A company that works on backward compatibility while bringing new things onto the market will keep my attention!

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18532474
That is where the confusion is. It is a USB port, but they keep calling it a wireless control port, which is entirely too vague. It took some searching through videos to see that indeed, that is a USB port with the old XT16 receiver, so yes the XTR16 receiver should also work. Godox needs a single "compatibility" page of all their flashes/strobes and the corresponding wireless protocols/devices that work.

Yes, very much so!

I know, but from what I read the GT400 is the better strobe. For one thing minimum output power of the GT400 is 1/64 vs 1/16 on the SK400II. That's important to me.

soeren wrote in post #18532471
For the new 2.4Ghz system, X1 and X-Pro triggers the USB reciever is XTR16. The FT16 is the older 433MHz system. The two won't work together. The GT400 does hav a wireless control port.
http://www.godox.com …ash_Gemini_GT_S​eries.html
The GT series will work with the XTR16 USB reciever just like the AD360 And is thus compatible with the X1T and X-Pro system, offcource without ttl etc.

Okay, so the XTR16 receiver on the GT400 will work with the X-Pro. Cool. Thanks.

soeren wrote in post #18532471
For the new 2.4Ghz system, X1 and X-Pro triggers the USB reciever is XTR16. The FT16 is the older 433MHz system. The two won't work together. The GT400 does hav a wireless control port.
http://www.godox.com …ash_Gemini_GT_S​eries.html
The GT series will work with the XTR16 USB reciever just like the AD360 And is thus compatible with the X1T and X-Pro system, offcource without ttl etc.

IIRC (I don't use monolights, so I'm just soaking up stuff that elv writes over on Flash Havoc and stuff you guys write here), the reason that Godox is currently updating their plug-in monolight series to mk II versions is to a) build in an X/R2 receiver, and b) to switch the monolights to use the same ratio power settings (1/2, 1/4, etc.) that the speedlights do, rather than a percentage control that the older non-Mk II lights do.

I asked elv about the X-system/XTR16 compatibility of the FTR16-capable monolights in the comments threads on the Flash Havoc Godox system overview, and he wrote:

I'd actually say getting a QSII or GSII series strobe (both of which do 1/32), might make more sense than getting a GT and adding on an XTR16 receiver. Or possibly waiting to see if the GT series also gets upgraded to a Mk II.

So far, Godox has upgraded the QT, QS, DP, GS, and SK series to Mark IIs. I'm a little curious to see if they do this all the way down to the Mini Pioneers.

Yes, go with the MK II lights when you possibly can.

I don't know why Godox have not added the alternate power scales to the current Xpro transmitter, and we are at the point with the coming Flashpoint version that I can't argue for things like this anymore, as no one wants to delay them any further at this stage.

And numerous times now with various firmware updates, the separate receivers are first to lose full compatibility with various bugs introduced.

It all generally runs very nicely together if you can stick with the built in radio gear.

Oh my, the master Himself! Thank you, elv, point well taken. So it seems I have to start over. Any advice maybe on what to get instead?

Thank you too, inkista.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #18533078
Oh my, the master Himself! Thank you, elv, point well taken. So it seems I have to start over. Any advice maybe on what to get instead?

Thank you too, inkista.

It sounds like the question is what is a fairly inexpensive manual Godox strobe that has built-in R2, is 400Ws or more, and can provide lower power down to at least 1/32, or more even?

I tried to research this and only came up with SK400II or DP400II, which meet everything but only go to 1/16th. If this is the case, then is there any way you can modify your lights to reduce the output further when needed? Just the placement of the lights alone to twice the distance will reduce the power, or use a combination of aperture, distance and modifiers to get to your 1/64th.

I used this page to go through the options.
http://flashhavoc.com …-overview/comment-page-2/

It feels like your options are to either spend 2-3x as much on a newer Godox strobe, or modify how you plan on using the lights by using distance, aperture, and modifiers to save money.

I look forward to what Elv can point you to!

Those are the same options I see, Cary. And they're not very good, are they? Maybe I should just go for a really cheap thingy now, like the SK300II and then upgrade to something better, (like a GT400II - surely they will do an update on the GT series too!), later. The SK300II could then serve as a second light. And one X-Pro to rule them all...

The benefit of this route would be that I can learn how to use a monolight and will know much better what I need for what I do. And who knows, maybe the SK300II will be all I need.

Any thoughts?

That makes sense to me but it would good to hear from others too. A 300Ws strobe still produces light greater than a few flashes, certainly more than two anyways, probably around 3 to 4.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18533226
That makes sense to me but it would good to hear from others too. A 300Ws strobe still produces light greater than a few flashes, certainly more than two anyways, probably around 3 to 4.

I think the AD360 equals 4 of the higher powered speedlights

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18533226
That makes sense to me but it would good to hear from others too. A 300Ws strobe still produces light greater than a few flashes, certainly more than two anyways, probably around 3 to 4.

soeren wrote in post #18533267
I think the AD360 equals 4 of the higher powered speedlights

Yeah, so I thought this could be a nice compromise.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #18533281
Yeah, so I thought this could be a nice compromise.

Well it may be higher priced than e.g. the QT400II. It was just a comment on the power from 300WS vs speedlights.

soeren wrote in post #18533295
Well it may be higher priced than e.g. the QT400II. It was just a comment on the power from 300WS vs speedlights.

Yes, I know. I meant, the SK300II could be a nice compromise.