Godox Announces New Products
Godox has recently launched the Godox AD100Pro. It is powered by a 2600mAH battery with an output of almost 360 flashes if used on full power. It sports a can shaped design and the flash head is magnetic, allowing the usage of accessories like AK-R1 kit.
It has 2.4GHz wireless functionality making it compatible with, X1, X2 or XPRO triggers. It is also compatible with various brands of cameras like Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Pentax. The flash has 100W power and its output can be adjusted in 9 steps. It has a colour temperature of 5800K +/- 200K and has a recycle time of 0.01-1.5 sec. The AD100Pro is available at an MRP of INR 22,490.
Godox has also launched the CL10 multicolour LED webcasting light with built-in RGB and HSI colour function which offer 36,000 selectable colours and 39 special effects such as lighting, TV, candle, ambulance etc. It comes with APP and IR Remote Control along with a heat control mechanism. It can be powered by adaptor and Type-C charging type power bank and is available at an MRP of INR 4,990.
The company has also launched the SZ150R Bi-Colour LED zoomable light with an in-built RGB mode. One can change its beam angle from 20 to 65 , simply by rotating the zoom knob. Its HSI mode allows you to adjust Hue, Saturation and Intensity of any colour. It has 13 tuneable special effect presets which help you add cinematic special effects in your short film or video and comes with a CCT mode which offers colour temperature range of 2800K to 6500K. The SZ150R is available an MRP of INR 57,490.
Godox has also released the TL60 light with multiple colour modes. It comes with options to choose from RGB, HSI, Gel, CCT and FX and is reportedly capable of giving 1500 LUX at 100% brightness. It features 40 built-in Rosco and LEE Gel Filters and the light can be controlled using multiple options like remote control, mobile app, on-board control and DMX. With 2600mAH battery, it is expected to function up to 2 hours in single charge. The TL60 is available at an MRP of INR 15,990 (Single light kit), INR 32,490 (Two light kit) and INR 63,990 (Four light kit).
National Institute of Photography (NIP) is a renowned photography training institute based in Mumbai, in operation since 1983. An ISO 9001:2015 certified institute, NIP offers theory and practical sessions to provide in-depth knowledge of the subject. NIP’s alumni include students from all corners of the country, in addition to overseas students. In a conversation with Smart Photography, Amoggh Deesai, Director of NIP, spoke about the recent challenges faced by the institute during the Covid-induced lockdown and how the institute realigned themselves to meet the new challenges. For details about the programmes, contact info@focusnip.com or call on +91 9820109479 / +91 9029643364
How did the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown affect your business?
Like all other businesses, Covid-19 induced lockdown had an immediate impact on our business too. Being based out of Mumbai, and the city being one of the worst-hit places with the pandemic, the impact was quite high. The operations entirely came to a grinding halt and the ongoing batches of all the courses had to be stopped abruptly. The pandemic put up a new challenge of imparting the same knowledge that we have been sharing for years in classrooms and studios, now through online mode. Additionally, to make sure that the quality of our teaching remained the same, we (our entire team) had to work ourselves up physically and mentally to brace up to this challenge. Our students had to wait patiently for of line lectures to resume. Once they did after a long gap of almost a year, we had to spend extra time and effort to revise all that was taught to them before lockdown and then continue afresh with the practical sessions. But loss of revenue and running costs that were still on during the lockdown period, impacted us inancially too. We were fortunate enough to sail through the turbulent times.
Tell us how you scaled up to meet the new and unforeseen challenges?
In the wake of lockdown, online mode of learning picked up drastically. It was easier to adapt for theory-based learning than for practical-based learning. Since photography has been mainly taught via theory and practical sessions, it was a major challenge to adapt photography learning to the online mode, especially the practical part. Our faculty team worked on this since early days of lockdown, speculating that it may last longer, and online mode would be required. We devised ways in which we could impart our theory-based lectures and how we would cover up for the practical part of the course. After some amount of research and trials, we redesigned our sessions for online learning through the Zoom app. We conducted some trial lectures for our existing students to take their feedback. Based on their feedback, we improved our techniques and then introduced fresh batches for Basic and Advanced Photography courses in online mode. For the practical part, we took up a shoot and feedback mechanism, wherein students would shoot images as per our instructions (either from their homes or surrounding areas itself) and we would discuss them in sessions. Once of line sessions resumed, we called those students to the institute for separate practical sessions.
With the threat of the pandemic still not over, what are your plans to sustain the learning process?
Based on our experience in teaching via online mode, we are better prepared now to continue with it if need be, though our core emphasis will be on regular learning mode only. Keeping in mind the Covid restrictions, we have reduced the intake per batch so as to maintain the distancing norms between the students. If the number of students increase, then we plan to split them into more groups at different timings and manage the sessions.
What do you think the future of photography would be in a post-Covid environment? And how do you prepare the students for this scenario?
Covid has changed the scenario in all the ields of work. The quality of opportunities that professional photographers would get in future would not be the same as it was precovid. They may have to upgrade themselves, in terms of knowledge, skills, services they offer to the customers, work on how they can be different from other fellow photographers in the fray and so on. For instance, a wedding photographer may have to upgrade himself or herself on may be, the album designing part or gain more knowledge on new trends, introduce some creative trends in pre-wedding, portraiture, etc. Cinematic videos could be a wonderful skill to gain in coming times. It can go together with different genres of photography viz. Fashion, Tabletop, Wedding and Events, Interiors, etc. We are emphasising on these points to our students to upgrade themselves to the new post-Covid era. As someone has rightly said – “Whatever brought you here, may not take yo there.”