Lost in all the hustle over Olympus‘ latest camera body offering (the intriguing yet rather pricey E-M1X), some less-glamorous items were far more interesting to me. Namely, Olympus’ new line of weather-resistant flash gear. The hub of this lineup is the FL-700WR, so I thought it’d be a good thing for me to quickly review (I’ll circle back to the subject in a few months after I’ve had time to put some serious miles on it).
For starters, let’s look at broadly how the new flash fits in the current Olympus line-up:
FL-600R | FL-700WR | FL-900R | |
Dimensions (W x H x D), cm | 6.2 x 10.4 x 9.8 | 7 x 10.6 x 10 | 8.1 x 12.1 x 12.5 |
Weight (gm) | 255 | 303 | 382 |
Zoom range (mm) | 12 – 42 | 12 – 75 | 12 – 100 |
Guide # (meters) @ 100 ISO | 36 @ 42 mm | 42 @ 75 mm | 58 @ 100 mm |
Recycle time (sec) | 2 – 2.5 | 1.5 – 2.5 | 2.5 – 4.5 |
Current retail price in US | $299 | $399 | $579 |