Kenro Compact 300 home studio flash kit

Photo answers review

Photo answers rating

The flash heads in this Kenro Compact 300 flash kit are tall and thin in shape, resembling paddles once mounted on the stands. This means they slot very efficiently into an extremely small carry bag.
The kit comes supplied with two brollies, which you have to poke through the centre of the flash heads with a fair amount of force – a little worrying the first time you attempt it! There are other optional accessories available, or you can invest in adaptors so the kit accepts Kenro’s other standard attachments.
Sadly this streamlined little kit doesn’t share the robust build quality of most of its competition. The stands in particular feel plasticky, fastenings are hard to operate and in some cases, hard to access.
Then there’s the fact that the modelling lamps just don’t kick out enough light to enable most D-SLRs to autofocus. This is a fairly serious problem, so you can’t really use the lights in dark conditions (such as a room with no other lights to focus by) or to get a preview of the flash effect – the two main reasons why flashes have modelling lamps!
While the compact size and powerful flash output are great, the price of this kit just doesn’t compare with the value and build quality of rival kits.

Kit includes
2 flash heads (300W each; 5550k)
1.2sec recycling time
2 stands
2 umbrellas
1 stand bag, 1 flash head bag