If you are seriously into photography a speedlight is a valuable asset that can help you get the lighting just right, which I have found to be particularly helpful when dealing with portrait shots. I have worked with other K&F Concept products and have had consistently good experiences with them so I expected the same from this speedlight. I have not been disappointed. I encountered a couple of minor speed bumps along the way, based largely on learning curve.This is a sizeable device, and it has a bit of heft to it when the batteries are installed. Please make sure you have proper support for the camera when you are using this light as it can unbalance the camera and make it awkward to use. This is not specific to this particular speedlight but to speedlights in general.First things first – this thing takes 4 AA batteries and that adds weight. The battery compartment is easily accessible and it is easy enough to install the batteries.The controls on this light are very straightforward though knowing what the settings do is a different matter. If you do not know what slave mode is or how the settings relate to the zoom, you are going to find yourself frustrated. It took a little bit of research and some experimentation to get the hang of this light and I have found the best use for me is to use it in slave mode to supplement the lighting my the flash that came with my camera, though through the hot shoe I can install it on my camera.Read the manual that comes with it. It will help a lot in learning how to use this light properly.The light comes with a small stand so it can be set up independently from the camera and in that manner it can be used as a standalone flash. Turning on slave mode allows for positioning it so that it can add the right balance of light in reaction to the flash on the camera and as a result you can get very good backlighting.The mode button on the back of this light allows for switching between modal settings and making adjustments, There are also 4 directional buttons that are used for making individual setting adjustments such as zoom. There is the on/off switch which toggles power but also toggles the backlight on the LCD display. Finally, there is a flash button that allows for activating the flash manually. The flash can be fired repeatedly in manual mode but seems to be on a 3-second recharge when not so.The light has 90 degrees of freedom of movement so that it can be positioned as desired. I like the fact that the neck has angular measures on it for 45, 60 and 75 degrees,Be aware that this speedlight is not universal and does not work on all cameras. It works fine with a Canon camera; my Samsung camera does not register the presence of this flash at all so to use it with my Samsung camera I have no choice but to use it in manual or slave mode.This is a nice speedlight and it works well, It is not the fanciest or most expensive but it gets the basics down very well and it has not let me down. This is an affordable speedlight and it is good for the photographer who wants to learn how to improve their lighting techniques.Disclosure: I was provided a sample of this product in exchange for a fair, honest and thorough review. Even though I received this product at no/minimal cost I have rated and reviewed this product without bias, based solely on my experience with it.

This is an odd flash - it has been a lot of years since I've seen a truly fully manual flash. This flash is as basic as they come, there is nothing fancy about it. It is a MANUAL flash, meaning you set the power on the flash and then you'll have to figure out the f-stop based on the distance to the subject. The flash doesn't even have a distance / ISO / f-stop scale on it. You pretty much have to divine the correct settings.The flash looks like much more expensive flashes - frankly the mold is similar to the Canon 520 EX-II (replaced by the 600 EX). The parts inside this flash are nothing like anything Canon ever sold (well maybe they sold some flashes like this back in the 1960s). There is the biggest problem, a person might think this is just an inexpensive version of the Canon flash; that person would be very wrong.The attempt at looking like a Canon flash goes pretty deep. Inside the box there is a vinyl pouch in virtually the same shape as the Canon. There is a plastic cold shoe stand - mimicking the Canon stand. The flash head has a pull out clear lens for wider angle coverage, and a white card for catch light. The head and body have a similar look.Things start to look bad compared to Canon - putting in the batteries. Canon has really great waterproof seals on a hefty door for the batteries. This has a small sliding door that is somewhat difficult to close and not at all waterproof for four AA batteries not included. The head tilts freely with slight click stops at major angles. On the Canon two buttons have to be pressed to release the head. There is a round PC cord socket behind a rubbery flap. On the Canon there are two different sockets behind a truly waterproof flap.The display screen is slightly smaller on the K&F. Button pressing is not very intuitive. The Mode button switches between Manual, Slave (S1 and S2), and Multi-flash. There is a zoom adjustment.The display is incredibly basic. In manual mode, adjust the power in fractions. Along with the word Manual, and the mm zoom setting; that's it. Nothing more. The flash really needs an ISO setting and f-stop / distance scale. In order to use this flash, you have to do some crazy mental exercise with a manual flash calculator; or just shoot a bunch of test pictures until you get the exposure right. There's no other way to get this right.In Slave mode, you'll need a master flash (this cannot serve as a master flash) - one of those expensive Canon flashes. One mode ignores the preflash a lot of automatic flashes use to get the settings all aligned correctly.Multi-Flash worked in test mode. I could not get it to do multiple fires when connected to a camera.Now a person could say, professional strobe lights are fully manual - they just have a power dial on them; and professionals use them every day. Well, they also set those up in studios, and they usually have a flash meter to get the exposure right. And they are way higher powered with modeling lights.If you have a need for a completely manual flash, this is pretty good. It is powerful and recycles very quickly. It can be used wirelessly with a master flash. I wish it didn't try to look like something it isn't.A free sample was provided for review.