A super expensive, Veblen purchase. Way over-priced !!! You're paying the extra Godox logo tax for these !!! Elitist swine.

 There it is, sitting on top of a mirrorless camera. The thing I spent every last penny on. But at least all my clients will know I mean business when they see this bad boy. And every photographer who sees this, but doesn't have one, will be jealous and ashamed. 

Yep. It's the Godox iM22 flash. The flash everyone craves. Endlessly on back order? An article of extreme desire. Bust out the kids' college funds because this is a game-changer. In the future there will only be two kinds of photographers; those with an iM22 mounted on their cameras and those who don't have one. And you don't want to be in that second camp. What if you need that perfect burst of flash and all the Profoto or Broncolor stuff just ain't doing it? You'll cry in your beer when your competitors come busting in with the flash of the century. And it could have been yours....

Sure, it's a Veblen item. You can tell by the attention to design and detail. The minimal user interface!!!! Just three buttons. No weird function buttons. Nothing to confuse the hard working pros amongst us. And no accessories to fuss up your carefully packed Billingham Ferrari Junior camera carrying system (aka: camera bag). You'll have to scrimp and save to get one...if you can buy your way onto the waiting list. 

Well. Maybe I've overstated this just a bit. Only I've been reading another blog that convinces me that everything in the world right now is overpriced...

Let's back up. On Tuesday this week I was having coffee at Trianon Coffee (just around the corner from the office) with my very good friend, Frank. We solved most of the problems of the universe and were about to wrap up our visit when he pulled out a little leather pouch and asked me if I'd seen this little flash. It was a Godox iM20 flash unit. A compact and tiny, square flash unit. Sister to the iM22 you see above. The iM22 sits vertically in a hot shoe while the iM20 sits lower; almost like the one above if it was positioned horizontally instead of vertically. 

The iM20. A different but equally Veblen orientation...

These small flashes have no automatic functions. None. They have an on/off button which also doubles as a flash test trigger. The other two buttons let you toggle through five power settings. From "just a little bit" to "a tiny puff of light." The only other thing on the flash is a USB-C port for charging the built-in lithium battery. There is one center contact to the camera. Did I mention that there is nothing wireless or otherwise automation oriented on the flash? You either have to go by trial and error or do your own tests and figure out how big a pulse of light you'd like to add to the scene in front of your camera.

The internal battery charges in about an hour and ten minutes. At full power the flash recycles in about 3 seconds. If you use it at max power you'll get, maybe, 400 flashes (haven't tested that yet). 

The price for either the iM20 or iM22 models? Thirty bucks. $30. USD. About the cost of a good, sit down lunch. Or a reasonable bottle of wine. About half the price of a haircut in Austin. There is a bigger and pricier model called the iM30 and there are two big differences between that model and the 20 and 22. First, it has seven settable power levels and second, it has a "slave" setting that will allow you to trigger the iM30 from the pulse of another flash. Seems like nice stuff to have but there are also a few downsides to the iM30 model. Things that have to do with batteries. 

Unlike the 20 series flashes the 30 uses two replaceable triple "A" batteries. So you'll need to source some AAA Ni-Mh rechargeables or you'll need to buy a box of AAA alkalines. As a result of the difference in batteries the recycle time is a bit more than half a second slower at full power in the 30. And you get half as many flashes to a charge, or a battery change. No boost in power. No other pros or cons. 

I was so excited by the product (iM22) that I bought two of them. I'll use them constantly as fill flash units in outdoor shoots and in dark spaces that require higher ISOs from my cameras. Why 2? It was a suggestion from Frank, who is, I'm sure, trying to impoverish me.... Since the iM20 and 22 units can be recharged in a little over an hour it would make sense to have one in use while the other one recharges. Even I probably won't shoot 400+ frames in a little over an hour so ... with two in the bag I will always be prepared to flash. 

I use my "event camera" ( a Leica SL2-S) at 800 or 1600 ISO when I'm shooting most inside events. With those ISO settings even small flashes perform bigger than I expect them to and these are no exception. They're really cool. Grab an off camera cord (hot shoe to flash shoe connection) and you can certainly go off camera with these if you need to raise the flash enough to discourage red eye. 

I got mine from B&H today. I've already played with them. They are fun. They are not 5500° Kelvin. More like 6200° Kevin. But they are amazingly consistent. 

Get yours today. At the local Hermés shop or wherever Veblen goods are sold. Be prepared for a waiting list. These pups are going to be hotter sellers than a Fuji  X-100VI...