Flashpoint R2 Pro C – Updated 9-19-19

Update September 19 2019

I have run an actual test of the various Flashpoint triggers. That post can be found here.

Update June 26 2019

I am sorry to report that my experience with this trigger has not been stellar. Misfires have happened time and time again regardless of how the venue is constructed. I recently did a product shoot and the strobes were only 2 to 5 feet from the transmitter! In this case 10% of the shots were misfires where the strobes did not fire. I am going to try the new Flashpoint R2 Mark II when it is released. As of this writing they are on pre order to be released on July 1 2019.

At this point I HIGHLY advise others to not purchase this trigger. More to follow.

Update March 4 2019

I was reminded today by a frequent visitor to my blog, Fritz N that I had not posted any further information about my misfire issues with the R2ProC. He’s right, it’s because I have very little to report. I have found that the trigger ‘seems‘ to misfire based not on distance, but the particular construction of the building and how many wireless devices like routers are in proximity to my strobes and trigger. Yet I have nothing scientific or objective to report. The building in my January 13 2019 post below is of normal commercial construction. Aluminum framed joices, sheetrock and tile. They do have a number of consumer routers in the building. But nothing out of the ordinary.

I’m literally stumped as to what may or may not cause misfires with this trigger. If anyone has experienced the same issue, please let us all know in my comment section the particulars of where you were shooting. Thank you.

Update January 13 2019

Unfortunately I am having an issue with this trigger. During a recent studio dance shoot it misfired 10% of the time which is really unacceptable. I’m not sure why this has happened. But at this point I will be trashing this trigger. I’m scratching my head as to what caused this malfunction.

The greyed out images in Lightroom are where the the flashes did not fire. It was not a specific strobe, as they malfunction went back and forth. The two strobes are Flashpoint 600s. Very sad and I won’t be using this trigger again.

UPDATE March 4 2018

Yesterday I was commissioned to create imagery of a dancer for an upcoming magazine cover. It was all on location and I was using xPLOR600s one with a H600 remote head. All of the locations were outdoors. In the first location I was completely outside with no walls or ceilings around me. The Flashpoint R2 Pro C worked flawlessly. When I moved into an area where two vertical walls were present that’s when my troubles began. The strobes would not fire. I had to restart my camera (1DX Mark II) as well as restart the R2 Pro. The strobes would then work for about 4 flashes and then the same issue would occur. I got my shots and then moved to the final location. Again one without walls, but during the last portion I was shooting in a tunnel which of course has walls and a ceiling. In all but the aforementioned venue the R2 Pro worked flawlessly. I’m not certain what would have caused the misfiring. I have my trigger set at the 0-30 meter setting and the strobes were well within those distances. Strange….

I am literally at a complete loss for why the R2 would misfire in my second location. So as a backup I now plan to carry both the R2Pro and an X1 whenever I go on location. I am using rechargeable alkaline 1.5v AAs in the unit which were fully charge. I have another outdoor on location shoot this coming Friday so I’ll be taking both.

UPDATE December 9 2017

I just returned from a two day studio session using the Flashpoint R2 Pro C on my Pentax 645Z. The unit performed well and I discovered that when using the transmitter with another non Canon (C) camera the Standby feature does not function as it does on the camera it’s designed for. I have the R2Pro set to Stby in the menu and when mounted to my Canon when I half press the shutter the R2 comes back to life. Not so with my Pentax. I must physically press any button on the R2 unit to revive the transmitter. Other than that (no TTL or HSS) it works well.

UPDATE November 15 2017

I recently had the opportunity to use the Flashpoint R2ProC during a commercial session.  The short story is it worked flawlessly. My issue with the XT32C sometimes misfiring when standing right next to my key light did not occur at all. I have the unit set to 0-30m distance in the Custom Functions. The most significant feature I can highlight at this point is being able to view most if not all of my strobe settings at once. It’s wonderful. I did run into one issue that is totally user error when attempting to use the ALL button to change all of my light settings…

I had left A-E lights active but for this session I was only using two lights. I became frustrated when trying to adjust all of the lights at once since the unit seemed to only allow a 2 stop range down or up. What I realized when I got home is that by having more than the number of strobes I was using active on the screen, the unit will only go up or down based on the lowest or highest setting of a group.

To explain:

Let’s say group D which you’re not using is set at 1/64th. If you scroll power down and have your units set to 1/128th as the lowest setting all of your adjustments down are limited to just one stop. So the answer when using the unit is ONLY KEEP ACTIVE those light groups you’re actually using. I tried to find this in the user guide but it is not listed. Now you know.

Original Post

I have assembled some of my initial impressions and comments about this transmitter. It will be a few weeks until I can actually use the transmitter in sessions. But that won’t be before I run it through some of my own usability tests. I must admit that I was hoping Godox would develop a transmitter like this. I want to say straight off that in life there isn’t a single thing that is perfect for everyone. I laughed out loud when I read one person was concerned about the angle of the R2 Pro which they felt is ‘too angled’ and forced them to tilt their camera ‘too much’ to see the display. Another person complained about the R2/X1 controller having no tilt and hitting him in the forehead when he looked through the viewfinder. All things can be improved including human attitudes. The important thing is if a piece of equipment is right for YOU. And of course every manufacturer can and should improve their products, and the R2 Pro is living proof of that concept!

For many years I enjoyed the use of the PCB’s CyberCommander with his Einstein line of strobes. Sure the CyberCommanders involved a bit of a learning curve, was not the most elegant interface…BUT it was so well designed from a function/operational standpoint those aforementioned issues seemed petty. I loved being able to view the power settings of all of my strobes in one look. The range of the CyberCommander was excellent and the variety of controls I had at my fingertips made my job so much easier and more importantly was my ability to focus on the talent, not the lights.

One of the things I noticed right off about the R2 Pro was the battery level indicator. (BTW neither the R2/X1 or the XT32 have battery level indicators) I had just put fresh rechargeable Enloop AAs into the unit and in a matter of seconds it went from 3 bars to 2. Strange…so I changed to a new pair and it was the same. I then got out two fresh Duracell Alkalines and guess what? Three bars stayed. Since I had not yet read the manual and figured I needed to put batteries into the unit to follow along I began to search for the answer in the user manual. Page 09 states:

“AA alkaline batteries are recommended…..Low Battery Indicator When the battery power is weak, less than 2.5v…replace them to assure a strong wireless signal and reliable flash triggering.”

Well there you have it. Alkalines are 1.5v and rechargeables are 1.2v. So right off the bat 2.4v is BELOW the 2.5v they recommend if batteries need replacement. This is certainly not a deal breaker even though I use rechargeable batteries for all of my gear. I will research if anyone makes 1.5v rechargeable batteries. And I will have to find out through testing if 2.4v affects the transmitter’s ability to consistently fire my strobes. If not, then it’s back to using alkaline batteries in this unit. It’s also very interesting that the battery indicator does NOT come on immediately when you boot up the unit. There’s about a two second delay before it appears. I surmise that the unit is ACTUALLY testing the battery level before displaying the remaining voltage…..interesting.

I should also state that I am NOT a speedlight user. I may use one now and again, but my work does not lend itself to speedlights. My work involves the use of strobes so I won’t be testing/writing much if anything about the unit’s compatibility with speed lights. Sorry. I’m not a review site, but like to post what I observe to help other shooters who may or may not operate with the gear I talk about. While I’m on that subject I realize that this unit has TCM, TTL Converted to Manual. Never had that, seldom if EVER use TTL. I’m the old school light meter kinda OG and with digital hell I don’t really need to use my light meter all the time. I can get pretty close because I do this so much and adjust my lights/aperture/ISO/Speed after looking at the shot and Histogram. So I will get around to ‘testing’ the TCM at some point and report my findings. It seems like a cool feature though…

Initial operational observations

HSS and Second Curtain Sync

The R2 Pro requires you to select HSS, Second Curtain Sync or nothing. Unlike the R2/X1 and the XT32 which automatically switch to HSS above Canon’s sync speed, you must enable HSS on the unit or the camera will not go above the sync speed, at least on the 1DX. With the X1/R2 when the shutter is set at 1/30th or slower the camera automatically goes into SCS. The XT32 does not and you must set SCS in the camera’s flash menu when using the XT32. On the R2 Pro C you must set SCS on the transmitter or the flash will remain in first curtain sync. Unless I plan to use SCS I found that leaving the controller in HSS allows it to function in both HSS or normal sync.

Modeling light

In the Group view you must press the MOD button which lights all of the group’s modeling lights. Only then can you turn OFF individual modeling lights for multiple strobes. If you do not turn on all modeling lights in the group view then selecting a specific group with the physical buttons on the left side of the controller does not show the MOD choice on the menu. Sounds confusing I know, but once  you get a unit you will see. I prefer the ability to decide which strobe’s modeling light is on or off and the unit has that ability.

Sound

Like the modeling light I prefer to control individual units beeping, but it appears it’s an all or nothing choice with the R2 Pro. Certainly not a deal breaker! The nice thing is this unit has a Menu button which easily accesses the former “Cf” function area. That’s where you can enable or disable the sound along with other functions.

Individual Group On/Off function

There are often times when I want to turn an individual strobe on or off and this can easily be done with the R2 Pro. You simply go from the Group view to an individual Group and toggle through the choices of M, TTL or Off using the physical Mode key. Easy!

Distance

This is in the Menu area and it’s welcomed. There have been a number of times when I was using my XT32 that I’d get misfires while standing right next to my keylight! It was not all the time, but sporadically and at random times. Now in the Menu area is a DIST choice of 1-100m or 0-30m. In studio and on location I tend to shoot within the 30m distance so it’s nice to have that choice. I’ll be testing to see if I get any misfires when close to strobes. I’ve never had an issue with either my X1/R2 or XT32 at long distances.

ALL

Good god I love having an ALL button that is physical so I can easily turn all of my lights up or down keeping ratios I’ve set before the same. I’ll use this feature all of the time.

Something I’ll miss….

On the XT32 when you change Channels in the upper right hand corner is a little diagram of how the old school dip switches correspond to your channel selection. I know most of you don’t use those old dip switches anymore. But for me when I use my Pentax 645Z and the old FT-16 USB receivers to get HSS with xPLOR/Godox strobes I am often changing channels. It’s pretty idiot proof for me to just look at the diagram and switch those little dip switches. Oh well… I’ll just carry my XT32 as a backup anyway.

Initial Summary

These are just my initial impressions of the long awaited R2 Pro! And the topics I’ve outline above are the features that are important to me and my work. I have yet to test the unit other than to see how HSS/SCS work and they perform just fine with both the xPLOR/eVOLV line of strobes. I’ll be posting more as I have the time to test the units and finally in commercial work. So stay tuned.