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Nissin releases i60A flash unit with a guide number of 60m

Published Feb 23, 2016 | Damien Demolder

Flash manufacturer Nissin has announced a hotshoe flash unit that features a guide number of 60m and the company’s NAS 2.4GHz radio wireless control system. The Nissin i60A can control three groups of flashes in its role as a commander, or it can be controlled via another Nissin flash unit (only the Di700A at the moment) equipped with the NAS system or by the company’s Air 1 commander unit. Although each unit will have a TTL system dedicated to the mount it is designed for, the i60A also comes with multiple control systems built-in. This means that every flash can be used off-camera in an optically connected network of Canon, Nikon and Sony TTL flashes, no matter the mount. The i60A is equipped with 8 channels.

The zoom head covers focal lengths of 24-200mm, and it is at the 200mm that the quoted GN60m@100 ISO has been measured. The unit has been designed to be small so that it will be attractive to owners of compact system cameras - it measures 98x73x112mm and weighs 300g without batteries. Manual control allows 1/3-stop increments from full power to 1/256th, and auto exposure compensation is available up to +/-2EV.

The head rotates 180° and tilts directly upwards, and the unit is powered by 4AA cells, that Nissin says will provide 220 full power bursts, or via an external battery pack.

The Nissin i60A will be available for Nikon, Canon cameras in May 2016, and Micro Four Thirds, Sony and Fujifilm cameras in the future. No pricing information has been released yet. Nissin doesn’t have any English information posted yet, but there is a Japanese press release PDF on the website.

Tags: accessory-news, flash, nissin

Comments

Total comments: 40

I wonder what the GN is at 105mm.
For the Nikon SB-910 the GN is 53 at 200mm and 49 at 105mm.
Does this mean the GN would be around / almost 56 at 105mm for the i60? That would be a stop more than the i40.
Hard to believe for this little flash.

But then again,,, it’s hard to believe what the i40 is able to do.

0 upvotes

I like the dails on the i40, this display is to ugly for me. So most probably I will keep my two i40s.

Anyway, is Nissing planning to support wireless TTL for Fuji? Either Fuji's optical TTL or via the Air commander?

0 upvotes

I like the ideal of having more directed control.

One day, flash will have more dials and rings liking cameras.

BTW, I also like the color LCD panel of this one.

2 upvotes

Hoping it to be priced south of 300 USD

1 upvote

The i40 was and still is an excellent flash and really rescued Fuji users IMO.

Great (enough) power, simple interface, and not too sluggish on the recycle times. TTL was good enough, although I mainly use it in manual mode anyway.

looking forward to this i60 for the same reasons, but hoping that the recycle times might have been improved. Nice to see the extra power at the long end - will improve bouncing in some venues.

3 upvotes

The question Im wondering is...will the AF assist light work on any of the MILC versions of this flash.

1 upvote

No, you can't have flash AF assist on mirrorless cameras.

1 upvote

Why can't mirrorless cameras have flash AF assist, as mentioned above?

0 upvotes

You can't have af assist on mirrorless ever Becuse af assist on flashes only work with phase detect on mirror. Period. Thus some flashes designed or mirrorless actually started to skip the feature altogether (take Olympus flash for example) instead putting in a video light

1 upvote

Thanks for the info!

1 upvote

Thanks for replies.....perhaps Im reading your replies incorrectly but you're both wrong it is possible.

I used to own the Samsung NX30 and its purpose built Samsung SEF580a flash (just a rebadged Metz 52 af1) and it had an af assist beam on it that worked with the camera, and ofcourse the Samsung nx mount is mirrorless. If you don't believe me you can google it.

Granted the AF assist light on flashes built for DSLR cameras and its on mirror PDAF WILL NOT work on MILC. But af assist beams on flashes built for MILC focus systems will work.

Comment edited 24 seconds after posting

3 upvotes

@Absolutic Your explanation doesn't really explain why this is true. My A6000 has an AF assist lamp on the body that works with the mirrorless phase detect. It just gets blocked by longer lenses and is less useful. If the body can have an AF assist lamp, why is it not possible for a hotshoe flash? I can respect that maybe the same AF assist algorithm cannot be used, so one flash unit is either for mirror or mirrorless and mfrs just haven't made a flash unit for MILC with MILC-only AF assist. I have yet to see any other specific explanation why it is not possible in some future device.

3 upvotes

CDAF mirrorless and point & shoot cameras routinely have an "af illuminator", which is just a small red light that acts as a flashlight.

There's no reason why that light can't be on a flash unit for mirrorless cameras. Its usually not done because the camera usually has one already, so its redundant.

My 5D3 has no such illuminator, so its actually necessary for the Canon flashes to incorporate one.

The benefit of having it on the camera is that its always with you. The benefit of having it on the flash is that its further away from the body and isn't blocked by large lenses, hoods, or filters.

2 upvotes

Wrong. It is possible to have an AF assist flash on an external flash and have it working on a mirrorless camera. However no manufacturer has actually built such a thing that is specifically designed for a mirrorless body, most external flashes use a different system for DSLRs and are therefore not compatible. Crazy how manufacturers like Sony have a full fledge pro mirrrorless bodies and lenses, and none of them are compatible with their own af illuminators in their external flashes.

0 upvotes

1/256 power, that should be quite fast T90 bursts.

When will the Pentax edition be ready?

1 upvote

I like the two multifunction dials. Clever.

3 upvotes

http://speedlights.net/compare-speedlight-specs/ is a great resource for comparing flashguns, if a little dated. They test the flashguns' output themselves.

Amazon should buy the site, update it and merge it with DPR.

Comment edited 16 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

@SataFeBill, in the (distant) past guide numbers were occasionally expressed in feet (not to mention DIN/ASA film speeds). Same process for determining f/stop though, as long as you use the same unit of distance.

I would also agree with MartinsB. Guide numbers should be universally given either at the wide end (usually set as default for bounce flash) or 50mm, the commonly accepted 'normal' focal length.

4 upvotes

It should be mandatory to indicate flash GN for 35 or 50mm (FF equiv.) focal length coverage.

9 upvotes

I don't understand a guide number of '60m'. (I assume that means '60 meters'.) From my manual flash days, I think I remember that a GN was a unit-less number. You found the GN of the unit for the ISO of the film you were using, determined (or guessed :-) ) the distance to the subject, and then divided the distance into the GN to find the f/stop.
Do I have this wrong?

2 upvotes

You're right, at least partly. The GN (used in ads) were usually for 35mm coverage and ISO 100, but it was for meters or feet depending on the region. You would often find the feet GN in the US and the meter one in Europe and other countries using the metric system.

Comment edited 19 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Here we go "200mm that the quoted GN60m@100 ISO", 200mm.

1 upvote

Yes, and GN at 50mm (in FF terms) is ... 1/4 of 60 ???

1 upvote

What a horrible arrangement of symbols on the rear panel. totally confusing.

4 upvotes

Only if you're a flash noob.

13 upvotes

I bet this version comes with a user manual.

0 upvotes

This is a much needed flash for mirrorless compact cameras. It is a shame, however, that the radio slave function will only be for Canon, Nikon, and Sony.
Fuji and m4/3's owners would snap this up if off camera TTL was available.

0 upvotes

there were a lot of complaints about text on dials peeling off for i40, lets nissin has fixed that. other than that tiny issue, i40 was brilliant flash for macro photographers. looks like i60A might just take that crown if its priced properly. waiting for price details and availability.

2 upvotes

My guess $600

0 upvotes

600 buck...for this crap?..haha

0 upvotes

Nissin i700A with Air commander is selling around $280.00, so I will guess $300.00 max

0 upvotes

i40 is $265 and this flash is similar in dimensions to i40 but with a lot more functions and with today's rate exchange it would be at least double of i40.

0 upvotes

both Sigma & Nissin 24-200 flash coverage on same day, curious

2 upvotes

"GN 60 at 200mm iso 100" so is this flash more powerfool than fx some other GN 50 at 150 and iso 100?? Wanted to find some comparision calculator, but could not find anything about that.

1 upvote

Bloody hell why did i buy that I40 3 months ago.

3 upvotes

I bought di700A two weeks ago :'(

At least for sony will need some more time. Not sure about if it carries enough upgades tho

0 upvotes

Because of smaller!

2 upvotes

Yes i bought it because it was small took the relatively low output for what it was.

This seems barely larger but MUCH more powerful

0 upvotes

The i40 only has a 105mm maximum zoom range compared to the i60's 200mm, and the GN goes up the tighter you focus the flash output. What reinish was saying is that the higher GN could be an artifact of the longer zoom range. If you're shooting at focal lengths wider than 105mm, you'd probably not see a significant (if any) difference between the two models.

5 upvotes

What is the equivalent GN of i60 @ 105 mm? Anyone know? It would be easier to make the comparison then.

1 upvote

Total comments: 40

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