Godox AD300 Pro II Review: The Best New Light for Photography?

Most upgrades to strobes and flashes these days tend to be incremental, but Godox seems to have missed that memo. Bringing another update to their popular AD line of strobes is the new Godox AD300 Pro II, a device that can be stowed away inside your backpack when you need to. With some really interesting upgrades over its predecessor, Godox has become a 3rd party lighting company that the major brands have to start worrying about.

Not very long ago, when it came to the world of off-camera lighting, names like Broncolor, Elinchrom and Profoto were on everyone’s lips. Those of us who were counting pennies had to either save up for years to afford one of their products, or would have to settle for some unheard of Chinese brands that wouldn’t last very long, or would have the most inconsistent color outputs. Then about a decade ago, one of those companies decided to target customers like us directly. Godox engineering their 2.4 GHz X wireless system of remotes and flashes, and an affordable revolution was born. Major brands claimed their products were being reverse engineered, but that hasn’t stopped this behemoth from making its way across the globe, setting a very visible name for themselves in the process. In the last few months or so, we’ve seen Godox release v2 of many of their AD series of strobes, a product line that became the saviors for many a photographer who wanted to get into off-camera strobe lighting without having to spend too much. These upgrades, as we detailed in our 400 Pro II review, aren’t just cosmetic in nature. Rather, they help make your strobe photography quicker and easier, showcasing the nature of a company that really values feedback from its users.

The Big Picture: Godox AD300 Pro II Strobe Review Conclusions

It looks not much bigger than a soda can or an 85mm f1.4 lens, but the Godox AD300 Pro II can clearly punch above its weight. When I first set this strobe up at a studio, it was dwarfed by every other strobe on set there. Yet it continued to prove its mettle by giving me one stunning portrait after another. If you’re someone who has understood the limitations of a speedlight and wants to up their game by purchasing a strobe, look for further than the Godox AD300 Pro II. At this price point, it offers an excellent start into this fascinating world of off-camera lighting, and does so by setting a clear benchmark that’s hard to beat. Size, power, price and color consistency wise it’s hard to find another strobe today to pick over this. And when paired with the multitude of adapters and accessories from Godox you find yourself well supported when it comes to bringing your imagination to life.

For a lot of us out there, 300Ws is more than enough to create exceptionally good portraits and headshots, when paired with the right softbox. Given that the Godox AD300 Pro II has high-speed sync, one-touch pairing with compatible remotes, 1o stops of precise light output adjustment, a full color LCD, fast recycles times, weighs just over 2.5lb and is small enough to fit inside your backpack, makes it a clear choice for our Editor’s Choice Award.

• Small in size but not in impact or performance
• Comes only with the Godox mount as standard
• Easily supports other mount softboxes that you may have, as long as you purchase the right Godox adapter
• Supports a long line of older Godox wireless triggers too
• Quick charge battery provides up to 350 full-power flashes
• Does not have a carry handle so you’ll need to hold it carefully

Experience

Two things astound you about the Godox AD300 Pro II, if you haven’t seen the previous model. One is its size, and it wowed all of us in the studio that day, when I took it out of the protective case. To be fair, it was met with a mixture of awe and skepticism upon first viewing, the latter mostly due to the doubt over whether something so small could actually make much of an impact at our portrait session. That quickly turned to astonishment when everyone saw this in action.

My friend Don, seen in the image below, decided to order one of these when I had done a few quick shots with it, seeing how evenly it illuminated our model, and how effective it was with just a small octabox supporting it.

It paired right away with my Godox X3 remote, so I didn’t waste any time at all in putting it to good use. To be very transparent, I didn’t even push it past 1/16 power, and it still gave me excellent results. I had to purchase a Godox ML-GB adapter.

The upgraded full-color LCD is a delight to use when needed, but the X3 remote is so capable by itself that I hardly ever needed to head to the strobe to make adjustments. And it’s such a treat to see the power output adjustments made on the remote reflect in real time on the strobe, even before the image is clicked.

Image Quality

Photos seen here have been mildly touched up for highlights and skin softening. I honestly could have gotten away without retouching, had I used a glow filter during the shoot. The Godox AD300 Pro II is going to be at every single portrait shoot of mine in the future. It will easily fit in my smallest backpack or roller bag even, and takes up not much more space than any of my pro grade lenses. And the fact that it has high-speed sync means I really can use it outdoors as well when I need to, and probably can leave the 400 Pro II behind in situations where I need just one strobe. I would however, probably pair the two for best results. For the images seen below shoot, it was used as the only light.

Tech Specs

Taken from the Godox AD 300 Pro II product page:

Declaration of Journalistic Intent

The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:

• At the time of publishing this review, Godox is not running direct-sold advertising with the Phoblographer. This doesn’t affect our reviews anyway and it never has in our 15 years of publishing our articles. This article is in no way sponsored.
• Note that this isn’t necessarily our final review of the unit. It will be updated, and it’s more of an in-progress review than anything. In fact, almost all our reviews are like this.
• None of the reviews on the Phoblographer are sponsored. That’s against FTC laws and we adhere to them just the same way that newspapers, magazines, and corporate publications do.
• Godox provided the AD300 Pro II and an X3 Pro remote to the Phoblographer for review. The ML-GB adapter was purchased by. is. There was no money exchange between us or their 3rd party partners and the Phoblographer for this to happen. Manufacturers trust the Phoblographer’s reviews, as they are incredibly blunt. We get to keep the strobe.
• Godox knows that it cannot influence the site’s reviews. If we don’t like something or if we have issues with it, we’ll let our readers know.
• Godox paid for shipping of the strobe to us. This is a standard practice in the world of journalism.
• The Phoblographer’s standards for reviewing products have become much stricter. After having the world’s largest database of real-world lens reviews, we choose not to review anything we don’t find innovative or unique, and in many cases, products that lack weather resistance. Unless something is very unique, we probably won’t touch it.
• In recent years, brands have withheld NDA information from us or stopped working with us because they feel they cannot control our coverage. These days, many brands will not give products to the press unless they get favorable coverage. In other situations, we’ve stopped working with several brands for ethical issues. Either way, we report as honestly and rawly as humanity allows.
• At the time of publishing, the Phoblographer is the only photography publication that is a member of Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative. We champion human-made art and are frank with our audience. We are also the only photography publication that labels when an image is edited or not.

More can be found on our Disclaimers page.