Godox has announced the A2, a flash that’s designed to attach to the back of your phone. While almost every smartphone has a flash built-in, they’re almost always LEDs, which aren’t particularly powerful, and don’t really produce the look most people associate with flash photography. The A2, meanwhile, has a xenon flash tube, like you’d find on a traditional compact or flash gun.

It magnetically connects to the back of your phone, providing the classic front-on flash look that is nostalgically associated with photos from compact cameras. However, since it’s wireless, you’re also free to detach it from your phone and use it as a bounce or fill light. The company says its bluetooth connection should work at up to 15m (49′) away.

Godox

Unlike most cameras, phones don’t really expect you to be using them with an external flash, which means you can’t use the A2 with your phone’s built-in camera app. Instead, Godox is providing its own app, which lets you either shoot in auto mode, which decides how bright the flash should be and your exposure settings for you, or in a fully manual mode that gives you control over all those settings.

Godox

Godox says that, at launch, the app will work with the iPhone 15 or newer running at least iOS 18. The company promises that versions for Android and Huawei’s HarmonyOS are in the works.

The flash is small enough to fit in most pockets once detached from your phone, so it’s not surprising that it’s not the most powerful light out there, with a guide number of 15. The company says that, for best results, you should have the flash within 2m (6’6″) of your subject. But while it’s not particularly powerful in the world of standalone flashes, it’s still much brighter than the flash included on your phone.

The A2 also has a 3W bi-color modeling light built-in, which you can use to make focusing and composing easier in dark environments, or as a video light with adjustable color temperature. The company says you should be able to leave it running at full power for up to an hour off of the 500mAh internal battery, which is also good for up to 400 full-power flashes.

Alongside it, Godox is releasing several optional accessories that you can use to shape the light and change its look, and that give you more options for positioning it. The magnetic ring that lets you attach the flash to your phone also means you can theoretically mount it to any magnetic surface.

The A2 seems like a very interesting product for anyone who’s serious about phone photography, and we’ve enjoyed Godox’s flashes in the past. It will, however, be interesting to see how well its camera app works, and whether it comes with a hit to image quality. So much of mobile photography comes down to multi-shot exposures and computation, and it’s unclear whether Godox’s app will have any of that (and, if it does, how well it’ll play with flash).

Godox

Thankfully, Godox isn’t demanding too high a price for the A2: it retails for $85, and comes with a diffuser dome and carrying case. It’s also available in four colors which, perhaps unsurprisingly, match this year’s crop of pro iPhones: silver, black, light blue and dark red.

Meet Jim Kasson

Home base: United States

Jim Kasson, a long-time member of DPReview’s moderator team, has been taking and processing photographs since he was given a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye in the early 1950s. His work has since ranged from documentary and photojournalism to fine-art series, and his current kit includes the Nikon Z8, Hasselblad X2D II and Fujifilm GFX 100 II.

In this spotlight, Jim shares the practically boundless diversity of cameras and lenses he uses today, the lessons learned through years of darkroom and digital work and why he believes a photographer’s own images will show them how to improve.

“In 1951 or 1952, when I was eight or nine, my parents bought me a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. It took a dozen 2 1/4-square pictures on a roll of 620 film, was made of Bakelite, and had a not-very-precise waist-level finder and a shutter release you pressed with your thumb. I loaded it with Super-XX film and started making a pest of myself behind the camera ever since.”

Our ‘What’s in your bag?’ community spotlight series features readers sharing their favorite gear and photography, including from past DPReview collaborators. See below for what today’s guest has to share.

What’s in Jim’s bag

Jim Kasson

Favorite cameras(s):

• Nikon Z8 with the 105mm macro or Plena lens
• Hasselblad H2D II with a 35-100mm lens
• GFX 100 II with a 110mm F2 or Rodenstock 105mm F5.6 HR Digaron macro lens

Favorite lens(s):

• Nikkor AF-S 105mm F1.4 ED
• Zeiss Otus 55mm and 85mm
• Leica 280mm F4 Apo-Telyt-R
• Cosina-Voigtländer 125mm F2.5
• Jenoptik 60mm F4 IR-VIS-UV

“In the past, I’ve used a Graflex Speed Graphic 4×5, Minolta Autocord, Mamiya 330, Hasselblad 501 and 503, Linhof Technika, Plaubel Makina, Nikon F, F3, F4, F5, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, Leica M8, M9, M10, Sony Alpha 7 and 9. As you can see, I’ve used a lot of cameras.”

Favorite gear: “My favorite piece of gear is the one that best enables me to realize my current vision for a series. So that changes from series to series. Currently, I’m using the Fujifilm GFX 100 II and the Rodenstock 105mm F5.6 HR Digaron Macro, and liking the results.”

How did you get started in photography?

Jim Kasson

“Early on, I did what a lot of photographers did: I worked for the school newspaper and yearbook, entered student contests, etc. Then I was photo editor of the Stanford Chaparral. After that, I took photos of auto racing for Competition Press and AutoWeek.

After getting the Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera, it soon became obvious that drugstore processing was too expensive. So, my father purchased a rudimentary darkroom kit: a plastic Kodak developing tank with an apron that took a day to dry, a Kodak Tri-Chem pack (developer, stop, and fixer in tiny foil packets), a 15 W light bulb that’d been dipped in red dye, three plastic five-by-seven trays, and a small contact printing frame. I’d load the film into the developing tank in a closet and develop and print in the bathroom, washing the film and prints in the sink. This didn’t exactly endear me to my mother, but I loved it.

In the spring of 1957, I was a freshman at Choate. During spring break, I got the idea of taking pictures for the school newspaper. I talked my father into loaning me a Weston Master II light meter and his folding Zeiss Ikon camera: 16 pictures on a roll of 120mm film, in a format we’d today call 6×4.5. It had no rangefinder, and the film traveled from side to side so that the normal orientation of the picture was portrait.

What was developing film at the school like?

Jim Kasson

“Back in school, I presented myself to the newspaper staff, and they decided to give me a trial assignment.

“Do you know how to develop film?” they asked. “Sure,” I answered, thinking of all the rolls that I’d put through the Kodak tank. I went off to make the picture. It was a boring shot: all the seniors elected to cum laude that year lined up in two rows. It was 7:30 am when I was done, and paste-up was supposed to start at 10:30 am.

I headed for the school darkroom. I found the chemicals, but the developing tank was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It said “Nikor” on it. Totally unrelated to Nikkor lenses. The tank itself, the lid, and the cap seemed to be easy enough to figure out, but the stainless-steel spiral befuddled me. If I’d had any sense, I would’ve used an unexposed roll of film to teach myself how to load the reel, but I just turned out the lights and struggled for 10 minutes.

After the film was fixed, I opened the tank to see how bad off I was. It was bad; the film was stuck to itself in lots of places, and those places weren’t fixed. I finally found an intact frame. While the film was drying (I turned the drier thermostat up so high I’m lucky the film didn’t reticulate), I turned to the enlarger. I’d never seen one before. After the prints were washed, I even figured out the print drier.

I got the prints in on time, and my career as a photojournalist had truly begun.”

How has your photography changed since you started?

Jim Kasson

“In my high school and college years, my photography was mostly documentary. I was a photographer for my high school newspaper and yearbook. Most of that was headshots, candids, sports and event coverage. I was photo editor for the Stanford Chaparral, and that was mixed editorial work and ads. The Chappie told the advertisers that if they didn’t have photos, they’d provide them, and that task fell to me, including recruiting models.

For many years, I just did family photos, but in 1980 I built myself a proper darkroom, bought a Hasselblad, then a Linhof Master Technika, and tried to make art in earnest.

Doing the work was the biggest factor in my improvement, but I took a lot of workshops, which helped immensely, by the way. I’ve had the pleasure of taking workshops with Ansel Adams, George Tice, Eugene Richards, Chris Newbert and many others. All of them have helped me be a better photographer.”

Tell us a little bit about the places you like to shoot

Jim Kasson

“For five years I made images of people working in the fields in the Salinas Valley and around Yuma, Arizona. I produced a body of work of which I am proud. Much of this work was exhibited in 2003 at the Hartnell College Gallery, which Eric Bosler curated. It was titled Pastures of Plenty. Keeping to the Woody Guthrie theme, I call the whole series This Green Growing Land. The series was also exhibited at Hartnell about 15 years later.

I get bored easily, and I work in series. I go where the series I create takes me. For Alone in a Crowd, that was train stations in New York, Zurich, London and other cities around Europe. For Nighthawks and Staccato, it was Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas. For underwater work, I mostly worked in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea and various other locations.

What suggestions do you have for others on improving their photography?

Jim Kasson

“Usually, it takes me two to five years to work through a set of ideas, and then I move on. I don’t really have a default style, though I naturally develop one for a series that is strong by the end. I believe that if you pay attention, your work will tell you what you need to do to improve it.

Strategies and techniques evolve over time in response to results. When I start out on a series, I don’t know what will work and what won’t, so there’s quite a bit of flailing and missteps. After I get on top of things, I know what I need to do.

A big factor in my improvement as a photographer was letting go of trying to copy other people’s styles and, even worse, their subject matter. I learned to follow my work where it takes me, try to ignore what others are doing in the moment while learning from them about broad approaches that resonate with me. My mantra is, “Your work will tell you what you need to do to make it better, if you are willing to listen to it.”

Jim really enjoyed participating in this spotlight article and would love to hear what you think of his photography and to answer any of your questions in the comments below.

You can check out Jim’s other work and photography discussions right here on DPReview in the community forums, or visit his blog.

Editor’s note: This article continues a series, ‘What’s in your bag?’, highlighting DPReview community members, their photography and the gear they depend on. Would you like your photography to be featured in a future installment? Tell us a bit about yourself by filling out this form.

Launched in February 2009, the Fujifilm F200 EXR was an update to Fujifilm’s popular “F” series of large(r than typical) sensor compacts. It had a 28-140mm equivalent zoom lens in front of a Type 1/1.6 (8x6mm) that was around 65% larger than most compacts of the day.

But it’s the specifics of that sensor that make it interesting. The F200 EXR was the first instance of what proved to be the final iteration of Fujifilm’s Super CCD concept.

Richard Butler

Richard Butler

Previous versions of the Super CCD concept had essentially rotated the standard Bayer filter pattern by 45 degrees: exploiting the fact that the standard Bayer layout has better resolution capture along diagonal axes than along its vertical or horizontals. Later versions partially masked some pixels to mean that they captured less light during a given exposure and hence didn’t clip when the larger pixels did, allowing better highlight capture.

SuperCCD EXR expanded on both of these concepts. It continued to use the rotated Bayer pattern idea but this time re-arranged to put pairs of same-colored filters next to one another. This means you have pairs of adjacent pixels whose information can be easily combined. This, in turn, let Fujifilm offer three distinct modes:

• High Resolution (HR) mode – This would render a 12MP image using all the pixels
• High Sensitivity (SN) mode – This combined the output of pairs adjacent pixels in low light, to give 6MP images with improved signal-to-noise ratio
• Dynamic Range (DR) mode – This stopped the exposure early for alternate lines of pixels, meaning they were less prone to clipping. Adjacent pairs of bright and darker exposures were combined to give a 6MP image with better highlight retention.

Sound familiar? Because those three modes are essentially the three ways in which Quad Bayer and TetraCell sensors are used in modern smartphones. These have an oversized Bayer pattern (the same R,G,B,G pattern but expanded so that each color covers four photosites), rather than a rotated version. But they end up with sets of adjacent pixels that sample the same color. This means they’re able to pixel-bin for improved performance in low light or expose alternate lines of their sensors for different periods of time, then combine the result.

So, even though the SuperCCD concept was eventually abandoned, some of the ideas in introduced are at the heart of many of the images from today’s most popular smartphones. Even if the user isn’t necessarily aware of that.

Getty Images has said it plans to go through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process as a step to being taken private by members of the Getty family and Koch Inc’s investment arm, who will together invest up to $533M in the business.

“Under the Plan, vendors will be unaffected and paid in full in the ordinary course of business,” the company said: “There is no anticipated impact on content contributors, partners, customers, or employees across the Company’s worldwide network.”

The stock image library had given up on its attempts to buy rival ShutterStock after the UK competition body forced revisions to the deal. The heavily indebted company has now been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and its two largest shareholders say they’ve developed a plan to take the company private.

Although the company said it expects a reduction in revenue from its iStock division, “due to reduced eCommerce
demand,” it said it still expects to see growth in its editorial business that provides images to news outlets.

This plan, if approved by the remaining creditors, will be implemented via a “prepackaged” Chapter 11 bankruptcy: a mechanism by which a company can be significantly reorganized, overseen by a bankruptcy court but under the control of the existing owners, in order to remain as a going concern. Some existing lenders have agreed to write-down and restructure some of the company’s debts as part of the process, and the company confirmed “the requisite majority of creditors have committed to vote in favor of the plan.”

It says the restructuring process should be complete by the end of the year.

News agency (and competitor) Reuters reports that competition from AI-generated imagery and heavy debt have played a role in the move. It highlighted that the company’s total debt was around $2.1B at the end of June, whereas its market valuation had slipped to just under $21M when markets closed last Friday. The company’s revenue estimate for 2026 is $920M.

In an accompanying financial update, Getty Images said it had spent around $105M on the failed ShutterStock acquisition, along with $17M in ongoing costs relating to its copyright infringement cases against Stability AI, which it accuses of using its images to train an image generation model.