Kenko AB600-R AI

£399/$399 www.intro2020.co.uk/kenko

Kenko, a brand usually associated with lens filters and teleconverters, is out to dazzle the flashgun market with this, its first ever flashgun: the AB600-R AI.

It boasts an Auto Bounce head that automatically calculates and moves the head to give you optimal bounce angle for more flattering flash illumination. The feature works whether your camera is in landscape or portrait orientation, and it can bounce sideways off a wall, or upwards off a ceiling.

The head also incorporates an Auto Lock function that lets you finetune the automatically calculated

bounce angle. The system will also remember the altered setting and automatically re-adjust the head when you move your camera between horizontal and vertical orientation.

It’s not just the fancy new head that impresses. There’s also plenty of lighting power thanks to a GN60 output rating (ISO100 at 200mm), and the trick head also incorporates a motorized zoom to adjust the flash burst to suit lens focal lengths between 18mm and 200mm. Handy extras include TTL auto metering, and a built-in 2.4GHZ radio receiver in addition to an optical slave sensor for wireless off-camera and multi-flash shooting. The radio receiver can even allow a master AB600-R AI to remotely control the auto bounce angle of a slave AB600-R AI. There’s also the usual complement of first- and second-curtain sync modes, along with high-speed sync. Power comes from four AA batteries that enable recycle times of 0.1-3.5 seconds, or alternatively there’s the optional Kenko BP-1 Battery Pack, costing £119/$129, which can be loaded with up to eight AA batteries to further reduce recycle times and increase run-time.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Combining both brains and brawn, Kenko’s first flashgun’s auto-bounce functionality is sure to turn heads, while the beefy GN60 output rating is a match for the most powerful speedlights around.