Yongnuo YN460-II (Updated)

Updated 5/29/10: This review was published on 3/18 originally, but I’ve re-written it after I’ve had the strobe for a little while now and also conducted some measurements, e.g. standby time, recycle time, and trigger voltage. It’s basically a complete re-write with all new photos.

Yongnuo’s 460-II model is an upgraded version of the ‘classic’ 460 flash, and it is an even better speedlight for strobist shooters. The three main differences are that it’s more powerful – specified guide number is 38 instead of 33 as for YN460, and that you can adjust the power level in 1/7 step increments.

Plus, recycling time has been improved despite being twice as powerful (1 stop stronger). Other smaller improvements include e.g. a more silent operation: the high-pitch charging sound that some people noted at the old model is gone. Still, there is no zoom head or PC port or TTL.

Strobist Must-Haves

• manual mode
• has manual mode: yes
• minimum manual power: 1/64
• all full stops from 1/1 to 1/64: yes
• X contact firing: yes
• flash standby mode: fixed, but unproblematic

Verdict: AA+

Triggering

Triggering is still the same as for the 460: via any trigger, e.g. radio or PC adapter on the flash foot, or through one of the two optical slave modes. One improvement here is that the optical sensor has been moved away from the flash head (pretty much the worst location you can imagine) to the (fake) infrared window at the front. With this you now can finally twist the flash body at the triggering light source while the flash head points at the subject. I’ve tested the mk2 with both Cactus V4 and Yongnuo’s own 602 triggers and it works just fine.

Manual Mode

Manual mode works like on the precursor: Press the ‘Mode’ button until the ‘M’ LED lights up and dial up or down from 1/64 to full power with the controller button. Again, this is super fast and easy, I find it easier and faster than on my SB-600 or the Canon 580 mk2 despite the ‘mushy’ buttons.

New is the option to fine tune the output in 1/7 steps. This seems a bit weird given other brands use 1/3 or 1/2 steps, but it can be explained by the fact that there are the 7 power level indicator lights that need to be used for the partial increments too.

Setting the partial output level is quite complicated; it is actually the one of the 2 features I was not able to figure out myself on Yongnuo speedlites ever. To activate you have to press “MODE” and “PILOT” together until the middle one of the power output LEDs start to flash. Then use the +/- button to dial it up or down, and press “MODE” or “PILOT” again to lock it in. This is not an elegant implementation, but the feature is there at least if you should ever need it.

Standby

The standby mode has been improved over the YN460 too: it is still there and it can’t be altered or switched off, and it is even entered after 4 minutes only. The instruction leaflet says it’s 3 minutes, but during my 3 tests with and without triggers attached it was 4 minutes every time.

But it is a ‘quasi’ standby that sends the flash to sleep but the unit still fires immediately with the first trigger signal unlike other strobes that make you miss a shot during wake-up.

To test this behavior I put the flash next to me with RF-602 receiver attached. When I looked at it after 3:54 minutes I saw the mode light and the power level lights started to flash – standby was entered. So I pressed the shutter release on the RF-602 once, and the mk2 fired immediately. Repetition with a Cactus V4: firing with the radio transmitter and starting the stopwatch, and waiting: again after 4 minutes the standby flashing. Now pressing the test flash button on the V4 transmitter, and it fires as well at the 1st release. So this is indeed an intelligent standby mode, and it does not work with 602 only!

Flash Head

The flash head is still the same as that of the YN460. Still no zoom, coverage for 35mm plus 18mm with the wide angle diffuser plus the bounce card. Again, there is a total of 270 swivel plus tilt from -7 to +90 degrees like on newer 460 models (it’s actually -10 rather than -7 degrees but who cares). The fact that the flash head has remained the same means that its shape still permits to use light modifiers designed for the Nikon SB-800 e.g.

Output specifications

Compared to the precursor, the guide number is specified as 38 at ISO 100 meaning it has twice as much power now at the default 35mm setting. Flash duration at 1/1 is still specified as 1/800 sec. Peoples’ test of recycle time show a significant improvement again, and on my own unit I got 3.8 seconds with Duracell alkaline batteries, and even 2.0 seconds with eneloop AA’s. That is really fast – faster than the 4 seconds that you find in the instruction leaflet.

flickr user and photographer Kurbster has measured power output first and made the discovery that 1/2 and 1/1 power are equal in output (see here for the test results).

YN-460 II full vs half power output

It might be that the engineers in China did some homework as my recent test (conducted without light meter, but from tripod and under constant ambient light conditions) shows: I got the best exposure for a given subject at f10 if using 1/1 on the YN460-2 (bought in May 2010), but I needed f9 at the 1/2 power level. This might not contradict Kurbster’s tests though as he also saw some level of difference on the flash meter, just not a full stop.

I also saw that the Yongnuo 460-II speedlite must be between the Nikon SB-24 and the SB-600 in terms of maximum guide number: SB-24 needed f11 only for the best exposure, whereas SB-600 was between f10 and f9 (closer to f10 though). Last but not least I had to go to f9 with the original YN-460. I need to repeat my test with other subjects and especially outside to eliminate the effects from reflection, but I make a preliminary conclusion here that the guide number is between 30 (SB-600) and 36 (SB-24) assuming the Nikon guide numbers are not “sugarcoated”.

I’ll write a follow-up post later with the test frames and more data so that you can question my methodology and draw your own conclusions, as I know there has been much debate about this specific topic. Please let me know what your benchmarking results have been!

Power Supply

No changes here: The flash still takes 4 AA batteries or rechargeables, and also the somewhat poorly designed battery cover has not been changed from the original YN460. But it should be said that the door shuts very well and tight with batteries installed, the rattling only happens when the compartment is empty. There is no socket for an external power source, so Yongnuo’s own SF-17 or SF-18 cannot be used.

On-camera use & TTL

I used a multimeter to measure trigger voltage and got 3.26V which means it really should be safe to use on Canon as well as Nikon DSLR (Nikon is less critical anyways when it comes to max voltage on the hot shoe). It fires on my D90 in modes P, A, S (the immediate wake-up and fire from standby works here as well). In the green auto mode however the camera tries to pop out its own mini flash which then hits against the strobe in the hot shoe.

Certainly there is no i-TTL or E-TTL, you get only the trigger signal – that is all the 1 single pin on the flash foot can ‘hear’. But it does 2nd curtain synch on the Nikon D90, I’m quite sure this would not work on a Canon DSLR though (please let me know if you have an opportunity to test it out). And that’s about it what it does, there is no auto mode like on an old Nikon e.g. As an on-camera flash unit I’d prefer the YN-465 over the 460, as it is just a couple of bucks more and TTL enabled for Canon and Nikon.

History

Only a couple of months after the original YN460, Yongnuo has improved their bestseller in a number of ways making it a worthy upgrade and a no-brainer for people looking for a new low-budget strobist flash now, especially given the moderate price increase. Especially the added power is very welcome, but also the faster recycle: 2.0 seconds with eneloops is really not bad!

Full Tech Specs

Where to buy Yongnuo’s

Yongnuo’s official eBay store

Yongnuo strobist flash units on eBay

Tags: YN460-II, Yongnuo