Well, it looks like Yongnuo finally jumped on the Lithium Ion battery powered flash train. Releasing its first Li-Ion powered speedlight, the YN686EX-RT, the new Yongnuo is designed for the Canon RT system. The flash was first mentioned a couple of months ago, but now it’s available to buy. The YN686EX-RT features a 2000mAh Li-Ion battery, capable of producing over 750 full power flashes on a single charge. It integrates a 2.4Gh transceiver that can act as either a master or a slave for Canon’s RT system. But, it will also work as an slave in Nikon’s CLS/AWL optical system.
Guide Number GN60 (ISO100 zoomed to 200mm)2000mAh Lithium Ion batteryFlash modes : ETTL II, M, MultiHSS : to 1/8000th1st & 2nd curtain syncFlash exposure compensation : 1/3rd stop incrementsFull power to 1/128th in 1/3rd stop increments20-200mm zoomable flash head2.4Ghz Canon RT radio master and slave modesCanon optical wireless master modeCanon & Nikon optical wireless slave modesRadio flash groups : A/B/C/D/E (15 channels)Optical flash groups : A/B/C (4 channels)S1 and S2 optical slave modes1.5 second recycle time at full power750+ full power flashesFlash duration 1/200-1/20,000th of a second
Ever since Godox got on-board with Lithium Ion batteries in their strobes they’ve become a “must have” for speedlights. I was initially drawn to them myself, but they do have one big drawback. There’s no option for an external battery pack either the Godox Li-Ion speedlights or the YN686EX-RT.
Some will say “Well, it’s Li-Ion, it’s a faster recycle anyway, it doesn’t need it”, but for me, sometimes it does. A regular AA powered speedlight with an external pack like the Godox PB960 can still get much faster recycle times than the V860II. During those times when I need faster recycle times than a standard AA powered speedlight can offer, 1.5 seconds just isn’t enough. Still, it’s nice to see that more are adopting Li-Ion power. [via Lighting Rumours]
