Profoto continues to push its support for smartphones with the launch of AirX Smart-TTL support in the Profoto Camera Android app. Available now in beta, the app allows you to use select Profoto lights in combination with your Android smartphone.
Profoto has just announced (in their words) "an innovation that rewrites the rules of photography." Thanks to a technology called Profoto AirX, the company has made their B10 flash series compatible with the iPhone, allowing mobile photographers to use a Xenon flash to its full potential "for the first time in history."
Less than a week after reports indicated that "Made for iPhone" certified strobes were on the way, we have our first official product. Made by Anker—better known for their battery packs—the cube-shaped LED flash is compatible with the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro models, and will be available to purchase next month for a reported $50.
Apple's Made-for-iPhone (MFi) licensing program may soon allow third parties to create dedicated strobes for current and future iPhones. According to sources who spoke with 9to5Mac, MFi partners were briefed on "new specs" that will allow them to manufacture strobes that connect and sync over the Lightning port instead of Bluetooth.
If you want to piss off a majority of professional photographers, show them a smartphone camera rig setup and explain how great it is. Better yet, show them an article about an iPhone-only wedding photographer. I've seen this reaction countless times, and it's especially prevalent when you look at smartphone photography accessories.
Can something be a clone if it's announced first? Only hours before Profoto officially unveiled its brand new C1 and C1 Plus smartphone lights, Godox had already announced their own round smartphone lights. Meet the Godox R1 and R1X—the round, magnetic LED light and LED flash for smartphones that beat Profoto to the punch.
Earlier this week, high-end lighting brand Profoto released a teaser for a new light that it claimed would "forever change the world of photography." Don't get too excited though: according to the most recent rumors, this "game-changing" product is an expensive LED flash for smartphones.
General consensus seems to be that your smartphone's flash is mostly useless, but the "Flens" wants to change all that. The tiny magnetic "flash lens" supposedly boosts the power of your smartphone's flashlight by a full order of magnitude: 10x.
An external iPhone flash actually made our recent list of 13 photo gadgets we didn't need, but that doesn't mean we don't see the potential of a flash accessory for smartphones. That particular retro-tastic flash didn't suit our fancy; the new Nova wireless flash, however, has a lot more going for it.