Let’s face it, we all know that Photography is an expensive hobby. No doubt one of the first things you noticed besides the obvious prices of camera bodies and lenses was the price of name brand speedlights. When you are just a hobbyist, or just starting your business out you have to be careful where you spend your limited budget on gear – That Is where Yongnuo comes in.
The Chinese company has been one of the leaders in affordable low budget photography gear for several years now. We mentioned two of their budget radio triggers last week, this time around I wanted to highlight the king of the budget speedlight market; The Yongnuo YN560/560II/560III.
The Specs
The YN560 and YN560II are the kings of the low budget speedlight market, they are well build and work great. Now before I jump into the specs I wanted to clear something up, the YN560 and the YN560II are the same exact flash. Absolutely nothing is different about the two models except for one thing – the controls. The YN560 is controlled by a series of push buttons an LED indicators on the back, while the YN560II has a digital readout very similar to that of Canon and Nikons speedlights. The digital readout comes at a cost though as the cost roughly 20-30$ more than the original YN560.
The YN-560 III however is updated slightly but has a really neat feature that neither the YN560/II have, and that is built in support for the Yongnuo RF 602/603 radio triggers. That means that you can trigger a YN560 III speedlight with your RF-602/603 radio triggers at up to 100 meters. That is a really neat feature, and puts them right in the $100 per unit range.
Ok, now for the specs
- GN58
- Recycle Time of 3 Seconds
- 24-105mm Zoom Range
- Flash duration of 1/20,000 second
- PC Sync Port
- Battery Pack Port
A Video Review
Don’t take my word for it, checkout this thorough review of the YN560 II from “Photographyvideoblog” on Youtube.
My Experience
I currently have a YN560 and have a YN560 III on order. The YN560 has been a wonderful flash, and is honestly all I would ever need out of a speedlight. It is tough enough to handle being used on a regular basis, thrown by my 4 year old son, and still works like a champ. The PC Sync port works great, and the battery pack connection is awesome! I really can’t recommend this speedlight anymore than I currently do. The only problem is that the original YN560 is getting harder to find since the latest YN560 III is now available.
But that’s for good reason, why would you not want the ability to trigger your flash without having to connect a trigger to it! I can’t wait until my YN560 III arrives and I will do a proper review of it. But in the meantime if you are in the market for a low budget speedlight I highly suggest that you checkout the YN560/II/III – you will not be disappointed.
