Review PiXAPRO CITI600 flash

With 600ws of flash on tap and a massive 8700mAh built in battery to power it, the PiXAPRO CITI600 sounds like a very capable flash head on paper. Throw in the potential for HSS and TTL if you’re a Canon or Nikon user and that unit is starting to sound very promising.

For full review please see the following link;
http://www.gavtrain.com/?os_reviews=review-pixapro-citi600-flash

PIXAPRO CITI600 TTL Battery Powered Three Head Flash Kit

So far the product has been easy to use and I am getting good results already but need some time and practice to get the balance just right. The build quality is very good and the accessories have been matched perfectly for the kit. I read many reviews and read the advice and watched the Youtube videos on this particular product as I have a limited budget these seem to give me best value for money. I would recommend them to fellow photographers as a good option as using EssentialPhoto to purchase them for thier excellent service.

PIXAPRO CITI600 TTL Battery Powered

Great bits of kit for event photographers.

Welcome addition to my portable lighting gear

The first time I took my Pixapro CITI600 TTL portable battery flash on location, in typical English fashion the sun disappeared behind cloud and rain so I didn't bother testing the high-speed sync facility as planned.

This Ed Nugent; Ed is one of life's nice guys, a nurseryman, grower & plantsman who's worked with plants since leaving school, including exhibiting at the internationally renowned Chelsea Flower Show in London. He and his wife Josie have just established a new plant nursery Garden Sage not too far from the studio I work from in Burgess Hill. I popped in to a) see what was in offer & b) buy some herbs plants - as you do, we got talking as Ed was on hand to welcome the customers, a great touch and testament to his desire for the nursery to succeed. He even agreed to be photographed for my Sussex Photographer blog!

As I said at the beginning, they day became very grey thick cloud & rain making for a a very cool look to the images which didn't really give the look I wanted. To compensate for this I added ½ CTB (Colour Temperature Blue) gel - LEE Filters 202 ½ CT Blue, took a grey balance reference close to Ed's face to correct in post-processing. This gave me the warmer background area not lit by the flash.


The Pixapro CITI600 TTL battery mono bloc flash head was mounted to a 20" sliding leg Kupo Grip C-stand with a 40" boom - I find this a very stable & versatile configuration for most lights from Speedlites through to bulky mains powered studio heads. It's essential to remember that when rigging any light stand that one of the legs MUST bender the load of the light & boom for optimum stability.

The soft box is the Pixapro 60cm portable beauty dish (silver inside) with the front diffuser in place, but not the inner deflector. This modifier has a recessed diffuser panel allowing a egg crate grid (supplied) to add more direction & less spill to the light.

As this is a TTL unit I used the TTL facility in conjunction with the Pixapro ST-III T (Canon) trigger. My camera was set to Av with -⅔ stop exposure compensation dialled in. The flash was set to TTL via the trigger & an initial exposure compensation of -1 dialled in (this was established with a number of controlled Fred Tests prior to use). When using the CITI600 you'll notice that any exposure compensation does not appear on the head display; this doesn't mean the flash doesn't recognise the trigger commands, it's just the head is designed to work with both Canon & Nikon camera systems. This may or may not change with future firmware upgrades.

The first frame was a bit hot (over-exposed) so I dialled in -2 stops exposure compensation on the ST-IIIT trigger and was ready to go. The light was not that challenging so for the short duration of the shoot I didn't need to change this.

Given the ambient light conditions, camera Av TTL exposure was ISO 160, ƒ/4, 1/160th sec.

The Pixapro CITI600 TTL is a welcome addition to my portable lighting gear as it fits nicely when I need a wide aperture ƒ/stop for shallow depth of field (DoF) effects which with conventional portable battery flash are not possible without the use of a camera lens 0.9 solid ND filter which darkens the view finder & reduces the exposure overall requiring more flash power. I will have Speedlites in my kit, which on average are 80w/s compared to the mighty 600w/s of the CITI600 at full power:)

During a controlled location Fred Test I've achieved with a 45º deep long focus reflector in place (honeycomb grid not fitted), ƒ/22 at 4m (13ft) in bright sunlight, Manual 1/1, camera ISO 100, 1/50th sec.

The Pixapro CITI600 TTL is also available in a non-TTL version.

Pixapro CITI600 TTL Key Features:

TTL auto exposure Canon & Nikon with appropriate trigger, variable over a ±3 stop range in ⅓ stop increments.
Manual from 1/1 to 1/256th power - a firmware upgrade is required for the ST-III T rigger at the time of writing as the trigger only goes to 1/128th power. Be aware that the firmware upgrade is only PC, not Mac for now and the download page is in Chinese.
Multi stroboscopic flash with variable frequency.
32 channels and 5 groups.
10w CoB LED modelling light with three power levels.


Of special interest to some will be the flash tube which is user replaceable and has a protective glass cover - reducing the risk of damage or electric shock from an exposed flash tube.

The design of the flash tube projects as well as radiating light improving efficiency with most Pixapro reflectors and modifiers - Speedlites and the Profoto B1 & B2 have concealed flash tubes very much like a Speedlite so only project light! The LED modelling light is positioned to project light through the flash tube and gives a surprisingly accurate preview.

Very soon a remote lead will be available for the head which means the power supply & flash head will be separate, very much like the Elinchrom Quadra system - one of the reasons which attracted me to the system originally was low mass on the top of a light stand when on location outside.

Also, not the construction of the 60cm portable beauty dish, very durable and not dissimilar to the Elinchrom Rotalite range of flash modifiers.

The instruction manual is clear & concise. These days a paper manual is a bonus as much of the time manuals and user guides are PDF download for DIY printing.

I highly recommend the Pixapro brand products available from https://www.essentialphoto.co.uk - Yang Wu and the team offer a superb level of customer service (yes, I have experienced it) both on the telephone and by the website Live Chat!

a big thumbs up for the CITI600

“A couple of weeks ago a bought a CITI600 TTL from Pixapro to supplement the studio flash equipment I already have. I had a particular project in mind when I bought it due to the technical challenges presented by the project. I am currently shooting a calendar for a charity called Fireside K9. It’s fairly well known that when a Police dog retires from service, it usually stays with the handler for the rest of its life. What isn’t so widely known is that once a dog retires, the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner ceases to have any financial responsibility for the dog and the financial burden falls to the handler. Often, due to the nature of the work the dog has done, the handler inherits large vet bills to maintain the dogs health. This is where Fireside K9 comes in and helps to support the retired West Yorkshire Police dog with funds raised by various activities.

The theme of the calendar is to have pictures of various dogs either in, on, or in front of, various landmarks throughout Yorkshire. Standing at 330m tall is the Arqiva Emley Moor Tower, the largest freestanding structure in the UK. Known locally simply as “Emley Moor”, it can be seen from almost all points in West Yorkshire, and beyond. At approximately 900 ft from the ground is the Turret Room, which is an equipment area and observation platform. Arqiva, the operator of the tower kindly allowed us access to the turret room, with two dogs, to get some images for the calendar. The turret room is essentially wrapped around the tower, the core is not interrupted by the room. The external walls of the room are predominantly glazed and so it is very bright, however because of the central tower, there is a significant loss of light as you move into the room. I knew this was going to present a challenge as I wanted a shot of the dog looking out across the surrounding countryside. Speedlight’s were simply not going to have enough power to overcome the ambient, the small lift and 7 minute journey for the lift each way meant I was limited to the amount of equipment I could take to the viewing platform and the sensitive equipment up there meant I couldn’t be plugging mains powered kit in willy nilly. Just to complicate things was the added bonus of being wrapped around by glazing, meaning reflections could be a big issue.

Enter the CITI600. Battery powered and powerful enough to balance the internal with the external. The added bonus being the Bowens fit which meant I had a choice of light modifiers and so I could properly control the light. I opted for a standard reflector with a 20 degree grid, which meant I could throw light onto the dog but control spill onto the glass, this avoiding reflections. Although I bought the TTL version, on this occasion I opted to use it in manual as I find it gives me greater control and I could put just the right amount of fill on the dog.

It was a challenging shoot, changing light, reflections and dogs that won’t look out of the window on command. But the equipment performed faultlessly and gave me the results I was looking for so a big thumbs up for the CITI600 from me based on this shoot. I’ve a few more shoots planned for the calendar where the CITI600 will be making an appearance due to the remote locations involved and I look forward to testing it’s obvious capabilities further!”