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Flashpoint eVOLV 200 TTL Modular Strobe Kit with Built-in R2 2.4GHz Radio Remote System (AD200 Pocket Flash)

Mostly Great With A Few Minor Flaws

My unit just arrived yesterday. Overall, I'm quite happy with it. The form factor is great. It fills a much needed gap between traditional strobes, which are very portable but have limited power and can be cumbersome to use with light modifiers; units like the AD360, which are more powerful but cumbersome due to separate battery pack and cords; and battery powered monolights like the AD600/XPLOR600 which are self contained and powerful, but much bulkier and heavier. I consider the SMDV BRiH...T-360 as the closest competitor to this light. While I prefer the overall design of the SMDV to the eVOLV 200, it is significantly more expensive. Another advantage the eVOLV has is compatibility with a broad range of other lights from Godox and Adorama, whereas the SMDV is the lone light in the SMDV lineup. One final advantage of the eVOLV is the diameter of the mount on the Godox AD-S7 speedbox is much smaller than the SMDV speedboxes, making the AD-S7 version much more compact when not in use. The option to switch between the included fresnel head and barebulb head is very cool and not just a gimmick in my opinion. The fresnel is more compact, has a built in modeling light, and comes with an excellent set of barndoors. The barebulb is less compact and more delicate, but has some great light modifiers available to use with it. Unlike the identical Godox AD200, this kit comes with barndoors, grid, and magnetic clip-on gels. The metal barndoors have impressive build quality. The gels are very clever, but I wish it came with a blank gel clip for mounting your own gels. The grid that snaps inside of the barndoors is a thin plastic, but I'm not concerned about it getting damaged since the barndoor flaps protect it when not in use. One thing I don’t like about the barndoors are how hard it is to detach. I was worried I might break the light the first time I took them off. And while I like the magnetic attachment method for the gels, I don’t like that it makes the barndoor attachment significantly wider than the rest of the light. Something I absolutely love about this unit is the total size, weight, speed, and power of this unit with the bare bulb head combined with the Godox AD-S7 softbox. Throw in a compact light stand or a small travel tripod and you have a very nice lighting kit in a very small package. I'm really happy with the interface of this unit. Clean, decent assortment of features, but most importantly quick and easy to change settings I use most frequently. I find some strobes such as the Godox TT685 overwhelming with all it’s modes which can slow me down in the middle of a shoot. I also like the clearly labeled and easily accessed “reset” function. This can be great if the light isn’t working as expected because of maybe a custom function you forgot you changed. Rather than having to dig through menus, just hold the reset buttons and it’s back to factory settings. My biggest complaint about this light is the mount design. It has three 1/4" holes, one on the bottom, one on the side, plus a third one on the side of the barebulb head. While I like that it has multiple attachment points, and 1/4" threads are better than hotshoe feet, 1/4" thread is not very secure, especially without some kind of rubber material to help minimize the included stud from unthreading. Especially because the unit is heavier than a traditional strobe, it is prone to coming loose with just a little rotational force. The included umbrella bracket is nice and small compared to traditional ones, but makes little sense how it attaches. A male spigot threads into one of the light’s 1/4” holes, the spigot goes in the top of the mounting bracket, and then a screw tightens on the spigot. This makes little sense because it makes it difficult to sufficiently tighten the spigot enough to not be prone to loosening from rotational force. And if you do tighten it sufficiently hard, you then have a spigot sticking out of the light which makes it inconveniently shaped. If they had designed the mounting bracket to prevent rotation like on the BRiHT 360, it would have eliminated this problem. What I did to remedy this was attach an arca swiss plate to mine. It hardly adds any bulk, and it's very quick to attach/detach to a light stand with an arca swiss compatible ballhead mount on top. It also easily attaches to my tripod now too. You lose the umbrella mounting capability with a ballhead, but if that’s important you can alternatively attach an arca style clamp to an umbrella bracket. What I really wish was if the unit had an integrated arca swiss rail along the entire side of it. Other minor complaints: No zoom function on the fresnel head. No modeling light on bare bulb. Screen and controls are flush on rear panel. Would be nice if there were corner bumpers to protect it. Doesn’t come with protective cover for the bare bulb.