Geekoto Flash and Modifiers

Over the years I’ve worked with many different brands and types of lighting.
When I started there was the choice between studio strobes, heavy location strobes, or speedlights. Nobody ever heard of LED.
This always meant that you had to accept the shortcomings in the gear and work around it.

The heavy strobes are awesome on location but very expensive. And you are almost always forced to shoot at your X-sync. Also using a light meter is necessary. The alternative is the super portable speedlight. With techniques like HSS you can break the X-sync limitation and shoot wide open at 1/80000 on most cameras while using strobes. But also the ETTL system helps with those situations where you have to work fast and don’t have the time to meter the light.

Nowadays we work with Geekoto

In 2023 I started using the Geekoto strobes to replace my speedlights. Rogue, from the magnetic system for (also) round flashes,introduced us. Geekoto is a small company, like ours, and really dedicated to the users.

However, we quickly found out that the GT400 was great for the studio and worked seamlessly with the GT200 and GT250 in the studio.
There are a lot of advantages to switching to hybrid strobes, let’s quickly take a look at those:

Price
The hybrid strobes are priced a lot lower than a standard studio strobe, this means you can start with a complete studio setup for under $1000.00.
Compatibility
Geekoto is 100% compatible with the Bowens accessory mount. This means you can use a lot of different light shapers from many manufacturers.
The GT200 and GT250 are also compatible with the Godox radio system on most cameras with ETTL and HSS support.
Battery and power
The GT200 and GT250 run on batteries and can shoot app 450 photos at full power.
The GT400 I run with the modeling light on 100% and have to replace the battery once a day during a workshop (which is pretty impressive), the GT400 can also run on normal power.
HSS
All Geekoto strobes support HSS, which makes it possible to shoot at very high shutter speeds while using strobes.
ETTL
All Geekoto strobes support ETTL, which means you can use the strobes in fully automatic mode. You point and click and the camera and strobe will figure out the correct lighting balance. Which you can easily correct via the Exposure and Flash exposure compensation where you can balance the ambient and strobe light from your remote.
Remote control
Geekoto delivers a commander for Sony, Canon, and Nikon. On the remote, you can adjust the settings on the strobes and use 4 separate groups which can be set as manual ETTL or a mix. (They are working on a Fuji commander)
The pistol grip and accessories
One of the things I love about the Geekoto strobes is the Pistol grip. The grip makes it super easy to place your strobe under the perfect angle on a standard studio stand, so you don’t need to bring a boom stand just to change the angle.

Geekoto Flash GT400

Not just strobes

Besides strobes, Geekoto also has a very nice range of softboxes. Easy to transport and really easy to setup. Because the speed ring comes loose from the softbox. The softboxes set up in seconds. You can leave the grid attached and fold it in when transported for super fast setup in vital situations.