While deployed to Afghanistan I took a chance and ordered the Godox AD360ii (a/k/a Flashpoint Streaklight 360, Bolt VB-22, Cheetahstand CheetahLight CL-360) for a Canon 7D Mark ii DSLR issued to me to photograph military events. The reason I decided to buy the Godox 360 was to use the promised 3x times flash power it has over standard hotshoe style flash systems.
Since most of my photography took place outdoors during the day either from early morning to late afternoon, the Godox 360 series flash system seemed to be a good choice to do the job. After a little research, I ordered the Godox 360 system with battery pack and waited patiently for it to arrive to my military base in a remote part of Afghanistan.
If making a decision and taking a chance of ordering a third party flash system wasn’t enough complications just to get my hands on the Godox 360, many vendors had problems shipping the battery pack version of the kit to Afghanistan due to lithium battery shipping restrictions. Making the matters worse, i had to order from one of the random sellers on Amazon which did not have a problem to ship it to Afghanistan. Turns out the Amazon seller I used was Letwing based in China. My fear of ordering the Godox 360 from the arbitrary Amazon seller Letwing will eventually come to haunt me to this day due to their lack of customer service responsiveness. But more on that perhaps later.
Eventually, I did receive the Godox 360 flash system for the Canon DSLR I was using.
After getting over the size of the flash head, especially when mounting directly onto the hotshoe of the DSLR camera, I began taking pictures with it.
Though this is not a full review of the Godox 360 flash system, I do describe how the unit performed under rigorous military use in a combat zone. In a nutshell, the Godox 360 did perform outstandingly under a number of conditions to include full sun outdoors, poorly lit conditions indoors, and when remotely fired using its built in wireless receiver.
The Godox 360’s TTL system worked flawlessly, I did manage to find a way to bounce the flash using a large Rogue Flash Bender II not designed to fit around the large reflector of the Godox 360. But I made it work. I developed a dependency on using the smaller Rogue Flash Bender on a standard flash system. Therefore, and after ordering the large version of their flash bender, I was back in business.
One thing that I praise Godox for doing is actually making each and every position of the Godox 360’s flash head a solid click and lock based system. That is to move the head to a different angle up or down, or to twist the head around, a button is required to be pressed. Othersize, the weight of the large Rogue flash bender would have caused the flash head’s position to move either while shooting or while holding (or running around) with the Godox 360.
Getting this article back on track, I should now turn the discussion toward using the Canon version of the Godox 360 with a Nikon DSLR. I’m genericizing the Nikon camera because the primary issue is whether the Godox 360 flash system designed for a Canon DSLR can be made to work with a Nikon DSLR.
Well, at first you might think why not just buy Nikon specific Godox 360 flash units. Sure, that is an option, and I have already done that – once. So I do have a fully Nikon specific Godox 360 flash I purchased from Adorama so it’s called a Flashpoint Streaklight 360 (for Nikon).
Having ordered the Nikon specific Godox 360 I now at least have the peace of mind of being able to use it with my Nikon DSLRs without worry of whether it will be fully compatible and functionally, especially when set to fire in TTL mode.
However, when looking at the two Godox 360 Canon based flash systems just sitting in a box I decided to see if they can be configured to work with a Nikon DSLR. At the least, could I set the Godox 360’s I have for Canon to manual mode, and have them triggered some way from my Nikon DSLR.
Thus far I have tried or explored the following steps with the indicated results below:
- Just connecting the Godox 360 (Canon) within my existing Godox (or compatible) flash arrangement;
- Physically replacing the hotshoe plate on the AD360ii-C to a Nikon hotshoe plate.
- Updating or changing the internal Firmware of the Godox 360 (Canon) so it will programatically work when receiving Nikon signals either via the hotshoe or via wireless transmitter.
- Didn’t get this far in my research due to finding out that the AD360ii-C will adapt “off camera” to the transmitter it is receiving signals from (i.e., R2 connected to a Nikon DSLR camera configured to the same Channel and Group).
I did eventually find out according to listings for the AD360ii-C in the features text (see listing here that the AD360ii-C “when used off camera (not on the hotshoe)” will flash properly while adapting to the respective transmitter being used. Whereby:
- When using the AD360II-C off camera, Canon E-TTL II or Nikon i-TTL system can be automatically switched according to different cameras when adopting the Godox 2.4G wireless X system.
- According to a listing for the product here. (i.e.,
So when you put the R2 (Nikon) transmitter on your Nikon DSLR and set the respective settings on the AD360ii-C (for Canon) to corresponding Channel and Group settings, the AD360ii-C will receive and process the Nikon R2 Transmitted signals.
I have confirmed this somewhat by simply trying it out (Step 1 above) and when you watch the AD360ii-C display panel the indicator screen changes from “Canon” to “Nikon”.
Further tests are going to be made to see if in fact the TTL information is being sent, received and processed by the AD360ii-C flash unit to properly expose the subject. Additional tests will be conducted to verify that when sending “manual” power settings to the AD360ii-C flash from a Nikon R2 equipped DSLR, the manual flash power is also being adjusted accordingly.
I’ll include reference links to the above steps 1-3
References:
GODOX Photo Equipment Co.,Ltd.
Factory Add: Building A4, Xinhe Huafa Industrial Zone, Fuhai RD West, Fuyong Town, Baoan District, Shenzhen 518103, China
TEL : +86-(0)755-25701197,25726373 / FAX : +86-(0)755-25723423
Sales Enquiries: godox@godox.com / Marketing Promotion: marketing@godox.com
After-Service & Technical Support: servicesupport@godox.com
Godox AD360ii-C Wistro Instruction Manual
Other References:
Unverified Approaches: Swapping out the Canon hotshoe with a Nikon hotshoe plate:
- Actual AD360 replacement hotshoe –> here. (URL: http://www.cheetahstand.com/product-p/cl-360xnhs.htm)
- Similar replacement hotshoe which clearly says it will not “work” to convert a Canon flash to work with a Nikon camera’s hotshoe –> here. (URL: http://www.cheetahstand.com/product-p/v860xnhs.htm).
Product Listings indicating that the AD360ii-C will work “off camera” when triggered by a Nikon DSLR equipped with an R2 transmitter.
- Link: http://www.schoolofimaging.ca/97611-GODOX-WITSTRO-AD360II-C-TTL-FLASH-W-BATT.aspx
States that:
When using the AD360II-C off camera, Canon E-TTL II or Nikon i-TTL system can be automatically switched according to different cameras when adopting the Godox 2.4G wireless X system.
