Compact is the word!
Zeniko kindly sent me 2 ultra small flashes for review, and its the ZF04 and the ZF08. They are very similar in appearance, although the ZF08 is slightly larger and 3 USD more expensive than the 30 USD ZF04.
I honestly thought my trusty old Nikon SB-400 at 127 grams was super light and compact, but relative to the Zeniko flashes at 20 and 36 grams respectively, the Nikon flash suddenly seemed big and heavy!
Pocketable
The small size of the flashes in combination with built in Lithium batteries chargeable via a USB-C port, makes these super easy to fit in your pocket or camera bag! They hold sufficient capacity to shoot 3-400 shots when fully charged and for my use that is more than enough! I seldom do more than 1-200 shots during a shooting session, but it should be noted that this is at the lowest output level. They both recycle at around 3 seconds, and I would think that could easily fit you, no matter if you are into portrait or flower photography.
The ZF08 offers 5 output levels whereas the ZF04 “only” offers 2, and the guide number is 6-8 meters for the ZF04 and 16 meters for the ZF08. So flower photography, product photography and portrait photography should work just fine, but don’t expect these flashes to light up a large room if you want to do group photos!
Form factor
The small flashes works well with compact cameras. I have tried the flashes on my Ricoh GR3x, and here I found the smaller ZF04 to fit the size of the camera really well. Many pocketable cameras do not have a built in flash, and here the Zeniko flashes comes to the rescue!
For a larger camera the ZF08 could be a great solution. I have tested it on my trusty Lumix S5 and found it to fit into the size and weight of the camera very well. However, the ZF08 on my compact Ricoh camera felt a little too large relative to the ZF04.
Keep it simple…
The two flashes will work with a lot of different cameras, and I have successfully tried them on both Nikon, Lumix and Ricoh! How come these flashes are not camera specific? Well, they don’t have all the camera specific contacts! They only have the center contact that is used to fire the flash. So you will have to adjust the flash level yourself, and the more advanced features you may be used to (like TTL) are not available.
My trusty old Nikon SB-400 can tilt the flash head to enable it to light the subject with indirect light. No such option with the Zeniko flashes as they will always send the light directly at the subject. Also, the small size of the flash head will give hard light, and you may want to soften the flash output with a light modifier. There are some options on the Zeniko home page.
What to choose?
First, I assume that if you are in the market for flashes like these, it is because size and weight is vital for you. The flashes will work really well for cases where you have a compact camera without a built flash and want to add a flash without compromising weight and size. They will of course not be able to fill a large room or give the same output as larger and more expensive flashes. So they are designed for a very specific case: keep it compact at the expense of output and advanced features.
I think both flashes deliver well to this specific niche, and do so without breaking the bank. The ZF08 gives more output and if you can stomach the slightly bigger size than the ZF04, then the additional 3 USD are very well spent. In both cases, these flashes will lift your photography in cases where the available ambient light leaves a bit to be desired.
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