Hardware Update plus Store Name-drop: Yong Nuo 560 via Tay Hua Trading

It's arrived! It's here!


I ordered a YN-560 from Tay Hua trading corporation the other day. Used their order form, paid through the bank in the morning, then they shipped it same day. It arrived Friday afternoon.

Some back-story for the interested:

I've fiddled with Yong Nuo flashes before, though mostly with YN-462 (which is a fully manual guess-what-intensity-I'm-on kind of flash) which I either bought for my friends, or for myself which I eventually sold to friends and/or relatives.While the YN-462 basically satisfies a person's need for off-camera lighting, it's lack of zooming capability, and the guesswork nature of its intensity input leaves much to be desired. I personally think it gives you bang for the buck though.

Having sold all of my YN-462s, and being stuck with a burnt out Sunpak and a vivitar with a broken shoe, lighting-wise I was left with my FL-36R. A flash is a flash is a flash mind you, but I'd rather that I keep the TTL-capable flash close at hand instead of mounted on a stand where I can't use said capability (since I'm using PT-04 flash triggers). Earlier this week though I decided to give myself an early Christmas present and order me a new, more powerful flash. Here's where the YN-560 comes in.



David Hobby, the man behind Strobist, was able to do a semi-review of the YN-560 in comparison to the LumoPro LP-160 (which, to the best of my knowledge, is not available in the Philippines, and is easily twice as expensive). Unfortunately the unit he was given had two faults: broken zoom motor and no ready-beep. Mine, however, have both working. :) Sorry Dave. 
   Not only that, the folks at Tay Hua also packaged it with a set of 5 diffusers of different colors, where the usual package from Yong Nuo for their other flashes only has one.



I've tested it a couple of times, on the camera and with the PT-04. Seems to be working. Beeps and Zooms and everything. I'm excited to put it to work. And it looks and feels professional. Hahaha.

You can get one from either of 3 sources in the Philippines that I know of: Tay Hua, Filters Exchange on multiply, or The Echo Store. I opted for Tay Hua because I'm a repeat customer of theirs, and while they're the most expensive of the three (4000 VS. Filters Exchange is currently on sale and selling theirs for 3,500, and I've only just found out that The Echo Store is selling theirs for 3,900), Tay Hua is offering 6 months warranty, VS Filter Exchange's 1 month, and I have no idea if The Echo Store will honor any.

Also didn't think 4000 was too big of a deal because if you buy it direct from the manufacturer from ebay, they sell at roughly the same price, though with a 1 year warranty, however if you happen to get a lemon like Dave did, you'll have to send it back to HongKong.

Total damage: 4000 pesos for the unit, 250 php for shipping via LBC.

EXCITED to put it to good use.

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