A new hybrid location light wants to be both your next flashgun and video light. Spotted on a manufacturer’s web site, the Yidoblo X-360 is developed by Chinese company Meidike, the same people behind the ambitious Dison Genius hybrid system. It is a bare-bulb flash with a hotshoe mount, designed to be portable, powerful and versatile with light modifiers.
At the moment we only have what looks like 3-D renders, so it’s possible that the form factor could change slightly before they tangibly appear on store shelves (assuming any distributors actually order a batch).
While the feature list is not 100% clear, it looks like Yidoblo’s flash will have a form factor that is neither that of the venerable Godox Witstro nor the humbler Sunpak 120J II. The X-360 will have an internal, removable 12-volt battery, a 360Ws flash tube and a 10W LED modelling lamp. It looks like maybe the battery fits into that shiny part of the bulbous head. Here are the key specifications I have been able to glean from the manufacturer’s product page:
Specifications
- 360Ws bare-bulb flash with removable reflector/accessories
- 10W LED modelling lamp
- Replaceable internal 12V “special” battery: 400 full-power flashes on one charge
- TTL mode
- High-speed sync (HSS) to 1/8000 second
- Stroboscopic flash mode
- USB port
- 2.4GHz radio support (apparently an X-360II model will support ‘USB computer-controlled flash’)
- Head tilts +/-40° vertically; swivels +/-30° horizontally
- Ready beeps
- Overheating protection
- Automatically goes into sleep mode to save power
- Rear LCD features a flash counter and a battery level indicator
As well as the X-360 pictured and the X-360II alluded to, a specifications table refers to a 180W X-5 and 300W X-6, though these might be variations of the same flash. Meidike definitely looks to be working on a radio system that allows a master flash to control several others using built-in or modular 2.4GHz transceivers. If “computer-controlled” means you’ll also be able to adjust settings using a USB dongle and a laptop, studio users could potentially build complex setups with a handful of X-360s.
Compared to the competition, the internal battery appears to be one-up on the Witstro series, albeit at the cost of a bulkier self-contained flash head, while the modelling lamp is not something offered by any other flashes in this form factor that I can think of except the puny 1W LED of the Falcon Eyes Strobe Gun.
No information on pricing or availability has been released yet, but hopefully these will make it to market as a bit more competition can’t hurt anyone.
What do you think? Can you see yourself taking a couple of these to a photo shoot? Is there anything you would change to make it suit you?