Yongnuo YN-460 Power Comparison

Photo accessories

18 January 2010 11:04

We’ve made a quick power output comparison between the new Yongnuo YN460 II flashgun and the more established Nikon SB600 and Canon 430 EXII. What we wanted to see was whether the YN460II would match up to more expensive manufacturers flashguns. A good power output is important because it allows you to choose between shooting at more aperture settings for creative control of lighting and depth-of-field.

The Yongnuo YN460 II is a manual flashgun costing as little as £35 on eBay. It’s designed with the strobist community in mind and offers full manual control with power ratios of full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, and 1/7. It offers no zoom control of the flash head but for the price this comes as little surprise and isn’t a major issue. In fact, the Yongnuo is ideal as a second or third flash for off-camera techniques.

We haven’t compared all the features of the three flashguns simply because the Canon and Nikon offerings would win hands down. Instead we’ve just compared power output of each of the flashes, taking a light reading at distances of one, two and three metres.

To ensure some control over our basic test we set our flash meter to ISO 100 at 1/125 sec. The Canon and Nikon flashes’ manual zooms were set to 35mm – the spread we thought closest to that of the Yongnuo. The results were very surprising to say the least. In a nushell the £35 Yongnuo could match the power output of the more expensive competitors. See below for our detailed findings.

Yongnuo YN460 II specs

Flash Power Comparison Chart

 *Please note, aperture values have not been rounded to the nearest in-camera setting and should be used as a guide.