The Meike MK320F for the Fujifilm cameras arrived yesterday. The Chinese company has an online store, and the MK320 Speedlite is also available through places like Lazada. You’d likely going to get it cheaper off eBay though. There are numerous resellers of this particular flashgun and for different mounts, though the usual caveats and cautions apply when buying anything off eBay. Hmm. I reckon I should do a post soon on the hits/misses I’ve had buying items off eBay over these several years now!
The ordering and delivery from my eBay reseller went without a hitch though, and it took just over a week for it to arrive via registered post, and substantially cheaper than what I’d paid through Lazada resellers or in-store in Singapore. Some early impressions:
The unit comes packed in a tightly-fitted box, with the flash gun protected snugly with molded dense foam. Not quite the norm, and it affords a high degree of protection for the flashgun while in shipping.
Flash gun seems well-constructed with no loose parts. The buttons provide reassuring clicks when pressed. Oddly though, it’s possible to mount the flash gun the wrong way onto the camera’s hotshoe without one realizing it quickly, so some caution is necessary.
The battery compartment snaps open with a light press of the latch. Pretty convenient compared to the usual battery sliding hatch common in other flash guns. My Metz flash gun’s battery slider broke after two years of fairly light use. The MK320 seems better engineered to withstand similar abuse.
Flash recycling time feels somewhat quicker than the Nissin i40 though I suspect it also has to do with the unit permitting shots to be fired even when the flash has not been fully recharged.
The unit permits swiveling 60 degrees left and 90 degrees right. Not as generous as the Nissin i40 which permits 180 degree swiveling – very useful for bounced flash shots where you have to point the camera/flash gun downwards.
No zoom head, so the light angle is fixed. I’m fine with it though since it’s married to the X70 and the latter’s fixed lens anyway.
Like the i40, the MK320’s Sto-fen-styled omnibounce diffuser comes supplied with the flash gun, and while it snaps onto the flash head, isn’t especially tightly fitted. It won’t take much for the diffuser to be knocked off.
The flash output seems a little off when set to TTL, and specifically less than expected. Might be something to do with that the flash control is different from Olympus, which I’m very used to. The i40 also throws out more light at its maximum setting than the MK320 – it’s GN 40 vs GN 32.
Micro-USB charging port is a terrific inclusion, though that it’s intended for a 1A charging. I tried several chargers which exceed that suggested charging current and the batteries felt super-heated after a while.
The instructional manual is in English and riddled with language errors. Not bad enough for you to not understand how to use the unit, but language QC is clearly not on par.
All in, it’s a pretty decent flash gun but I don’t think it surpasses the Nissin i40 in its versatility. That said, the LCD screen and USB charging are very nice touches. One has to keep in mind that the MK320 costs about a third of the i40’s price, and for what I paid, I reckon I can’t complain too much!
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