AD200/Pro as main wedding / event light - workable?

[LongLensPhotography]

Events are not my main work but that doesn't mean I don't get asked to do any by current clients... Main work involves larger and larger godox lights with enough time to set everything up the way I want.

I am going through a bit of gear changes and potential mixed Sony + Canon setup (currently 2 Canon bodies). I got rid of my last Canon speedlite as I last used it properly in 2022 and that was only for a few snaps during the ceremony. So I decided it was to time clear the drawers and let it go. It wouldn't be exactly useful on A7RV either... And I don't particularly enjoy 2 dangling bodies with large speedlites on dual harness..

So as of now I have 1x AD200Pro, 2x AD400 Pro and larger ones where absolutely and totally required such as lighting big halls or overpowering midday sun.

My main question is whether AD200 pro would be a reasonably practical main working light an event and I am specifically leaning on those who have experience with this.

I would be likely looking to keep it on a lightweight small footprint stand with AD-S2 or mini softbox AD-S7. I hate fesnel heads, just no place for it in my workflow. It is slighty cumbersome but still very portable and much more flexible than speedlite that relies on close proximity white surfaces that usually don't even exist. If needed the thing could be shoved into backpack even if sticking out a little....

I could handhold the thing but what is that going to do to signle handed camera operation? Probably nothing good, other than forcing me into permanent 1/250s or even hss.

So - any real objective reasons why this is a no go - or why I should get something like NEEWER Z2 PRO (aparently godox compatible) in either Canon or Sony mount (or both)?

 

[sk66]

What style of lighting are you wanting to create? Lighting the subject and dropping the BG, or bringing everything up? For the first I would use the AD200 w/ the fresnel head (less bg contamination, less power/battery, quicker recycle, etc). For the latter you are probably asking too much from an AD200.

 

[f/1.2]

AD200 will be fine for weddings you won’t get much chance to use it other than for some night time portraits and occasionally during the speeches and for the first dance.

On camera flash is a big trend at the moment so you will likely need something for that. Although what you are looking for there is different as the more it looks like an old school pop up flash the better for that. Something like the IT32 or V480 will be grand.