Neewer Q120 Flash Review: A Great Flash for Aspiring Photographers

I remember when we reviewed one of Neewer’s first products: a set of ND filters that were really cheap. Photographers got really interested in those. And from there, the company has grown quite a bit. So when they contacted us to tell us about a slew of new stuff including the Neewer Q120 flash, I got really intrigued.

The Neewer Q120 is a 120 watt second strobe that’s very similar to all the stuff that you see from Godox, Flashpoint, and others. But the design seems pretty different. However, they operate with the same transmitters more less. Neewer included their own transmitter with our review unit; and I can confirm that it has a different touchscreen interface. Like others, it’s really wonderful that it has a locking function to prevent it from accidentally switching settings.

When you look at the strobe, you’ll really just how small, lightweight, and simple it is. You can attach modifiers to it via the magnetic mount on the front or you can fix an umbrella into the handle.

The interface is pretty simple and straightforward overall; especially if you’ve used a lot of Chinese flashes. You’ll need to press a button and then operate a dial or something to activate it. This is much unlike the lights that you see from brands like Profoto. After that, you can more or less set it and forget it. I, just for safety and peace of mind, set the channel to something stupid like 21. Then I choose group C to ensure that no one is using the same communication lines that I am.

The few times that I’m around photographers using a radio flash, they’re truly never on my channels. My Profoto lights are often set to 3C and other lights I use are set randomly too. Most photographers leave everything to 1A then just go shooting. It’s only when they run into others that things get annoying.

Still, that’s all simple and easy enough to fix after you’ve also ensured that the transmitter and the light that you’re using are synced together.

What’s most surprising about the Neewer Q120 is how good of a job it does at overpowering the sun. I compare nearly every light to the Profoto B10, which has been discontinued but is my personal industry standard. That light has around 280 watt seconds or so and has no problems overpowering the sun. Some Elinchrom lights that I’ve used have issues with it. But the Neewer Q120 didn’t run into any trouble at all.

Neewer’s website claims a 1/23020 watt second flash duration. That seemed a bit absurd to me; but I never really do the tests to see that all that well. However, I am able to tell that even with just 120 watt seconds, it doesn’t have much of a problem overpowering the sun’s light. I did this at the Mermaid Parade this year in Coney Island. The image above was shot at ISO 100, f5.6 and 1/1250th. And by all means, it’s doing a great job.

I think that photographers who know what they’re doing with a flash won’t have much of a problem here with the Neewer Q120. Obviously, you need to understand lighting and such. I used the unit given to us with my Nikon D850 and the 28mm f1.8. With my honest self being forward, I loved how the images came out. At the same time, it’s really easy to simply mount this light onto a camera and then just go shooting. But even then I’d use it only in manual mode.

I don’t have a single bad thing to say about the Neewer Q120 flash. It does the job affordably as long as you’re a strobist first. I didn’t even bother with using the modeling lamp, but it’s included. There’s something to be said for the fact that more advanced photographers will use more advanced lights. But if you want a single light that you can reliably grow with, it’s hard to beat the Neewer.