Lighting Reviews

The Litepanels MicroPro Hybrid does double duty as both a constant light source and a flash. The light itself is made of black plastic and is fairly small, at 5.5x3.75x1.5”, and weighs only about a pound when you include the mounting bracket and six AA batteries (standard or rechargeable, and there is an optional AC adapter available). The top has a knurled knob to turn things on and acts as a dimmer so you can control output in stepless fashion. Vents are located around all sides. The battery door, flash ready light, flash sync, and input for the optional power adapter are all located on the back. The bottom is threaded so you can attach it to a light stand or to the (included) nicely made aluminum ball joint with a bottom end that slides into your camera’s shoe mount. Also included is a very short PC cord to be used when using the flash mode, plus there are warming, diffusion, and tungsten conversion filters that snap in easily over the front panel. All this fits into a nicely padded zippered bag.

The LitraPro is a compact, rechargeable, high-output LED light source that offers a broad spectrum of color temperature settings and is fully dimmable from 0% to 100%. The LitraPro operates up to 45 minutes at the highest power setting and, should you land on it when you fall into a 90-feet deep swimming pool, no problem—it won’t break or suffer water damage. Sounds incredible, no?

I’ve worked with numerous macro flash systems. Most focus on the flash being on axis with the lens, often in the form of a ring flash mounted directly onto the lens. Alternatively, a twin-head system can be used, which attaches by way of a mounting ring. Here, the ultra-lightweight/ compact heads practically hug the lens. Usually, the flash heads are tethered to a controller, which also serves as the battery housing. While they may have some freedom of movement, the individual flash heads can’t be easily used entirely off-camera because they have nothing to support them when you’re shooting handheld.

You may have used a beauty dish in the studio. Here’s a very portable model that you’ll find hard to leave at home. It’s quite affordable, too.

Shoe-mounted flashes are handy tools. Where space or weight is a concern, a kit with two or three shoe-mounted flashes is much easier to carry than even the smallest power pack/head combo or a low-output monolight, and more versatile.

I was quite impressed with Nissin’s initial lineup of shoe-mount strobes. The Di866 Professional (now the Di866 Mark II) is quite innovative and versatile in its own right, sporting a full-color menu interface, while providing TTL wireless operation. There’s also the Di466 (for Nikon, Canon, and Four Thirds cameras). And the Di622 has been updated to the largely revamped Di622 Mark II, now the subject of this review.

Wow! That’s all I need to say about the new Nissin Di866 shoe-mount flash. This baby has to be experienced to be believed. I was impressed with the other flash units Nissin first sent me, but this new flash sets new standards in technology and user-friendliness. For starters, the Di866 features wireless TTL that lets me take advantage of the latest camera/flash exposure advances. Second, it...