Last week, I talked about how important lighting is to good real estate photography. The photographer's primary tool for creating this light is the external flash. I personally use the Godox TT600 and I wanted to take a second to share some pros and cons to that flash.
The biggest advantage the TT600 has over competing flash units is the price. It retails for $65 USD, where a competing name-brand flash would cost over $300. Despite its low cost, the Godox TT600 is well made and reliable. Compared with other low-cost flashes I've used, the difference in construction is night and day. The TT600 feels like it can stand up to the rigors of professional use.
One of the TT600's key features is the ability to sync with a radio trigger. If you connect a Godox-brand radio transmitter to your camera, it can remotely trigger any number of flashes within a range of over 300 feet. Using the radio trigger, you can even remotely dial in the power settings for the flash. This convenient feature is a huge time-saver in a real estate photography setting, where your flashes are often hidden in difficult-to-access places.
The TT600 is equipped with power zoom and has a zoom range of 20-200mm. It can also fully rotate and swivel. One of the key differences between the TT600 and a name-brand flash is the lack of TTL metering. On most name-brand flashes, TTL metering allows the camera to automatically measure the amount of flash lighting needed in a scene and then transmit that information to the flash unit. With the TT600, however, you need to manually dial in the amount of flash power you want. While this can slow down the process, it allows you to achieve full creative control over the scene. In reality, a skilled photographer will always choose to manually control their flash, whether or not it has TTL capability.
Overall, the Godox TT600 is a full-featured and very well-made flash unit available for an excellent price. I own two and plan on buying more in the future. If you're looking for an inexpensive unit to get started with flash photography, I would highly recommend the TT600.