I’m a victim of Instagram ads. They are responsible for an unsettling number of impulse purchases I’ve made, and the most recent is the Godox Lux Master Retro Camera Flash.

This sleek-as-hell-looking flash made me drool and then made me grab my credit card to shell out about $250 (plus another $20 for the reflector with the dome and $90 for the X3 trigger, but more on that later). It’s got a beautiful old-timey look with a cool silver fan reflector, and the whole thing mounts with a bracket on the side of your camera to transform you into a 1930s press photographer. I’ve got the Luddite gene and love all things vintage, so when it arrived on my doorstep, I couldn’t wait to show up at my next event looking like Weegee and shouting, “smile, kiddo,” with a wink and a cigar hanging out of my mouth.

My usual flash for event work is the Canon Speedlite 430EX II. Yes, the same one I bought in 2009, with the DEMB Classic Flip-it! Reflector I probably bought around the same time, but the Velcro magically still works. Events are a smaller part of my photography business, so upgrading in that department clearly hasn’t been on my radar for a while.

 

But the Godox Lux Master Retro is incredibly different from an average speedlight in its shape, design, and usage, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone what I learned in my field test: you can’t really use it in the same way you’d use a hot-shoe-attaching speedlight. This could be awesome for some photographers and abhorrent for others. I’m not one for in-studio practicing and testing of new equipment before using it in the field—I guess I’m an adrenaline junkie—so I spent about five minutes familiarizing myself with the buttons and then immediately took it to a corporate event I was photographing in a beautiful vintage building, where I figured it would fit right in.

Here’s my setup: the Godox Lux Master Retro Camera Flash, the X3 trigger, and the dome reflector.

I bought the reflector with the dome to have a softer alternative to the shiny silver fan-type reflector that comes with the flash because I was worried it might be too harsh on people’s faces, and I wanted some options to play with. The silver fan reflector did have harsher shadows, which is cool if that’s what you’re going for, but it wasn’t what I wanted for this event. I also found that people were somewhat distracted by the big shiny silver dish next to the camera and looked at that instead of the lens. It was a problem I didn’t have when using the dome diffusion over the white reflector, which was shaped like an adorable little bitty beauty dish with a smooth white dome over it.

Here are a few grab ‘n grins using the Lux Master:

Here’s one I nabbed with my usual setup in a room with really warm lighting, which I usually like to cool down a bit and then later adjust the skin tones and pop some blues. This was taken with my Canon Speedlite, cooling the ambient colors by adjusting the white balance in the camera, and then using a CTO gel on my flash, straight out of camera (SOOC) with no post-processing yet:

And here I used the Lux Master, with no gels, and adjusted the white balance in the camera so all the light is the same temperature, SOOC with no post-processing:

The dome setup did seem to have a little trouble getting light farther to the back rows with larger groups, as you can see here where it didn’t overpower the ambient light at all:

What I Liked

• Cool as hell to look at, super fun for grab ‘n grins at parties
• Well-constructed, sleek, and easy-to-understand touchscreen controls
• Fun modifiers to play with
• The option for TTL and off-camera flash on a stand

What I Disliked

• Bulky and heavy as hell, which makes it a great second handle for your camera, but that’s something 1930s news photographers are used to and not us modern photographers, so all that extra weight is hard on the shoulder
• It tilts upward to light the ceiling, but with no modifier that includes a forward bounce, so it’s really only best for grab ‘n grins with the flash pointing right at the subject
• If you don’t want to use the triggering cable, you need a separate trigger. I got the X3 and had one set on TTL and the other on manual or something because the X3 was changing the settings I was making on the flash. It’s a learning curve I was apparently too impatient to work on.
• 2-hour charging time without removable batteries, so it can’t be your only flash for a long event
• No easy way to attach color-correcting gels

Overall, the Godox Lux Master Retro Camera Flash is a cool bonus flash for seasoned event togs looking to try something new (or old, that is) and fun. It has enough versatility to try new things if you’re bored with your usual setup, but don’t make it your go-to speedlight for all event conditions.