When I started to build my second setup for photographing birds in flight I discovered this Godox V850 flash. It's main atraction is the fact it's powered by lithium-ion battery. Although the cheaper Yongnuo 650 III that I was using previously performs well, the reality of managing multiple sets of four AA batteries is a bit too much to cope with. In my experience The Yongnuo is also less reliable and I’ve had to send several back because of a faulty IGBT door. I will not go into explaining every button on the V850, as there are other sites to do this. Let me just say, that construction of the flash looks very sturdy with no cheap looking parts ... but well the time will tell! My Canon 550EX is more than fifteen years old and still works flawlessly, so the V850 has a lot to live up to.

-POWER

I tested both the Yongnuo and the Godox flashes against my standard Canon 550EX. While the Godox put out more or less the same power as the Canon (I tested at full power and 1/8th power), the Yongnuos is almost half of an F stop more powerful.

-USER INTERFACE 

It's obvious that the Canon 550EX was made for TTL operation as it’s Manual settings are very slow to adjust compared to the other two. On the whole the experience working with both Chinese flashes is more pleasant than it is with Canon 550EX. I think I prefer the Godox’s thumb wheel design to the Yongnuo's fiddly buttons (especially since the Yongnuo's buttons are soft and I managed to destroy one of the on/off buttons already!).

-WIRELESS TRIGGERING

Here the Yongnuo is the clear winner: one needs to buy a separate receiver for the Godox which costs an additional 35€, while Yongnuo has a build in receiver. Luckily the Godox's receiver gets it's power from the same lithium­ion battery as the flash, so one doesn't need to deal with more AA’s! The Godox's transmitter is very simple and it's only possible to change the power settings. The Yongnuo, on the other hand, has much more control over multiple flash settings such as; flash zoom setting, frequency and the amount of flashes in stroboscopic mode. On the other hand one can trigger the Godox with an external receiver like the PocketWisard which is not possible with the Yongnuo. I am able to trigger all flashes with a set of PocketWizard Plus X’s and operate a Einstain flash unit with it's standard PocketWizard MC2 receiver. In the future I might invest in a Godox receiver for the studio flashes to lessen the AA battery load even more, since each Plus X still needs a set of two AA batteries.

-BATTERY

For me this is the decicive difference: there is only one battery per flash and it lasts much, much longer! While the four AA batteries in Yongnuo will be exhausted in four hour session, I can continue to use the Godox for a whole day in temperatures around freezing or slightly above (around six hours of use) and battery indicators still show three­quarters of the battery life remaining! In practice that means that I would need two sets of four AA batteries per flash and enough chargers to deal with them all, while in the Godox the single battery is sufficient for a two­day shoot!

-CONCLUSION

Godox V850 is a clean, well designed unit. It's power is sufficient and controls simple to operate. But there are other units with the same characteristics and with perhaps even better remote control. But for me the lithium battery is what makes all the difference: no more changing of AA bateries in the cold with gloved hands and with fear that they'll sink into snow. And assurance, that the battery will last through the day no matter how active birds will be at the feeding station.

BDW if someone is looking for almost new Youngnuo 650 III, I have a couple for sale....