That's why I bought the Godox iT30 Pro. An on-camera flash. I know, I know. Sounds like surrender. And maybe it is, a little. But sometimes you just have to be pragmatic. Besides, I like stepping outside my comfort zone. Doing something rough around the edges. Images that look like snapshots. Raw and real.
This flash is absurdly small. About a quarter the size of a regular flash, weighing in at just 120 grams. You'd think it was a toy. It's not. The battery easily handles 400 flashes with a fast recycle time, so I almost never have to wait for it to be ready. That's pretty insane considering how tiny this thing is.
Now I'm sitting here, torn between TTL and manual. TTL would be convenient, sure. The camera handles everything, no thinking required. But what I actually want is for nobody to notice I used flash at all. Just a subtle lift, a gentle nudge into the light.
That's also why I picked up the flash extender. The Godox TR-S TTL Hot Shoe Riser Extender (a name that sounds like an engineer came up with it after work, slightly drunk). It lets me tilt the flash toward the ceiling. The light becomes softer, more indirect, more invisible. Just the way I like it. For 19 euros.
But of course there's a catch. There's always a catch. It only works in landscape orientation. Portrait? No chance. The flash won't rotate. It's like buying a car that can only turn left. Annoying. And honestly, the three centimeters of extra height are really only necessary if you're using thick or long lenses that would otherwise cast a shadow. I could have saved myself the purchase. But you live and learn.
Still, I'm happy. Because the entire setup costs under 110 euros. For a flash I carry as a backup, that's next to nothing. I sleep better now knowing that when the weather won't cooperate, when the location is darker than expected, when the sun decides to hide behind the clouds and throw a little party up there, I have a Plan B. A very small, very light Plan B.
Is the flash perfect? No. But it's there. And sometimes that's enough.
For anyone who, like me, will have completely forgotten how TTL flash works with an on-camera unit in a few months, I've put together a cheat sheet for download:
And since the instruction manual comes printed so impossibly small that I can't read it even with glasses, here's a link to the PDF manual: