Power. It’s said that people desire power. Why? Power gives you control. Power gives you flexibility. And power gives you freedom. I recently spent the day shooting with the Flashpoint XPLOR Power 1200 Pro R2 Flash, and I can confirm that the power built into this battery powered strobe gives me all of those things and more. Photographically speaking, of course.
With 1200 watt seconds of energy, this is the most powerful unit from Flashpoint. Before I get into the specs, let’s talk about what can you do with that much power.
During my shoot, I wanted to capture volleyball player Jackie Orlowski in mid-air. It was the middle of the day with harsh overhead sun (and I still have the sunburn to prove it!). Shooting with ambient light only, I could just aim her away from the sun so that her face wouldn’t have any bright hard shadows.
The problem is that I have to expose for her face, making the overall scene too bright for my taste. The background is distracting and the areas where the sun is hitting her left leg, left arm, and the top of her head and ball are all blown out with no detail.
Normal flash only allows you to shoot up to the camera’s max sync speed (normally around 1/200 second) because the flash has to have time to use all of its energy and light the scene before the shutter closes back up. That slow speed won’t freeze the action and will force me to use a smaller aperture, rending my background more in focus than I’d like.
High speed sync (HSS) is a technology that allows the use of shutter speeds that are faster than would normally be available and is perfect for this situation. But the tradeoff is that HSS uses more power than traditional flash.
No problem for the XPLOR Power 1200 Pro. Even at 1/4 power, I was able to set my shutter speed at 1/4000 second and still had enough light on her using the included reflector from about 15 feet away.
HSS by itself doesn’t darken the background. It’s the flash power that controls your exposure in relation to the background. Increasing my shutter speed darkened my ambient exposure, making my background darker and eliminating those blown out highlights on the top of her legs, arms, and head.
Let’s go over some of the important specs for the XPLOR Power 1200 Pro R2 Flash.
First, we have 1200 watt seconds with a guide number of 124. That means you can shoot ISO 100 using the standard reflector with the strobe 124 meters (407 ft!) away at f/1.0. In the real world, shooting at f/4, for example, you can get 100 ISO from just over 100 feet away!
It’s Flashpoint’s first strobe to use a separate pack and head system. That allows you to put the 12.7-pound pack on the ground or hang it on your stand for stability, while the relatively lightweight, fan-cooled head can go up top at the end of a 12’ long cable. There is a standard Bowens mount so you can choose from a huge selection of light modifiers.
The strobe is truly portable with the included WB1200H large-capacity, rechargeable, interchangeable lithium battery. The whopping 5.2Ah, 36v battery charges in two hours and lasts for at least 480 full power flashes. Obviously, if you’re shooting at anything less than full power, you’ll likely be able to go all day without swapping batteries or recharging. There’s an optional AC adapter and a 2.6Ah battery (WB1200) which is legal to carry on most airplanes.
Flashpoint XPLOR Power 1200 Pro R2 Flash ()
Power is adjustable from full to 1/256 in 1/10 stop increments, which gives you the flexibility to shoot virtually anywhere. Recycle time is just under two seconds at full power and .01 seconds at lowest power, allowing it to rapid fire even with the fastest camera burst modes.
Fast flash durations are available up to 1/10,860 sec at lowest power, with actual durations indicated right on the pack. The light is daylight balanced at 5600 Kelvin with a +/-200K variance, which can be reduced to just +/-75K in the stable color temperature mode for more color-critical work.
The Flashpoint R2 wireless system is built-in, so you don’t have to add a receiver if you’re using an R2 transmitter. They are available with compatibility for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Olympus, Panasonic, and Pentax bodies.
The XPLOR has all the features you’d expect from a top-of-the-line strobe. TTL, high speed sync up to 1/8000, first or second curtain sync, five wireless groups, 32 channels and wireless ID option to avoid radio interference and other photographers, slow sync and stroboscopic modes, optical sync, custom functions for masking, delay, and sequence, and a 40 watt LED modeling light.
Build quality is superb, and the entire package comes in padded, rolling case for easy transport. There’s another case inside for the power pack with a shoulder strap, air vents, and a clear window on top so you can work without ever removing it from the protective shell.
In addition to my sports action shoot, I wanted to put the XPLOR 1200 into a large modifier to see if I could overpower the sun. Jackie’s sister Sammie sat for me and I placed the strobe in a 60” Photek Softlighter overhead. Her mom Brenda assisted me by holding a Lastolite Halo reflector underneath for fill. I had the power pack hanging from the stand and used two Flashpoint water bottle weight bags for ballast. Those travel much easier than sand bags!
First I wanted to shoot traditional flash with a 1/250 sync speed. The light on Sammie is beautiful, but at f/8 to balance my background light, there is just way too much depth of field. That building is quite distracting.
Without flash, I went to 1/8000 second shutter speed and opened up my Canon 85mm lens all the way to 1.4 and the background looks much better.
With high speed sync activated, I turned on my flash – filling the inside of a 60” modifier — and had no problem shooting TTL with a very fast recycle time between frames.
If I had a strobe with less power, I might have been limited to using a smaller modifier or none at all, which would have created more shadows and less flattering light. Also, since I didn’t have to shoot at full power, the recycle time allowed me to shoot fast and I could capture all her facial expressions.
“So who is this light for? Anyone in a situation that would benefit from power and speed!”
So who is this light for? Anyone in a situation that would benefit from power and speed! This includes wedding photographers who want to light up groups or large dance halls, big group shots like school classes or corporate meetings, stylized sports action shoots, fast-paced fashion photography in the studio or on location, architectural photographers lighting interiors to balance with the outdoor light, or anyone who just wants to work all day on-location without having to think about battery power. This amount of power allows you to easily use an extra large light modifier for fashion or place it in the rafters to light up a basketball or hockey arena (with permission, of course!).
I couldn’t let the family go without doing one last shoot. Having this much power also gives me faster flash durations while still having plenty of light when dialed down from full power.
I was shooting outdoors, but found a shady spot against a wall. Without the strobe, I set my exposure so the ambient light was almost non-existent, so any of the light in the image would be coming from the XPLOR Power 1200 Pro.
At 1/16 power, flash duration was 1/3700 second — more than enough to freeze Jackie in the air. At that speed, you can just barely see some motion at the very end of her hair and the tips of her feet. In the studio, where you can eliminate every bit of ambient light, I could have dialed the strobe down to 1/256, giving me a flash duration of 1/10,860 sec. This would be ideal for a fashion shoot with the model moving, jumping, or dancing around and can work for freezing special effects like water splashes or a balloon popping.
The Flashpoint XPLOR Power 1200 Pro R2 Flash is a versatile strobe unit that gives you enough power to handle virtually any situation.
