Flashing, not always a bad thing

I opened it

with all the finesse and delicacy

of a teenage virgin about to get some...

 to reveal her undergarment

and as I peeked under the hood,

my excitement rose to new heights...

as I ripped through the last line of defense

just as quickly and clumsily...

 to reveal her naked body laying before my very eyes...

A bit over dramatic opening I must admit.. 

but it was a sad sad day....

when my camera's speedlight

decided to take a nose dive off a metre high table

and landing with a 10.0 from the judges on to the floor

And being made in the classic Canon manner

there was nothing superficially wrong with it...

but the same could not be said about the flash bulb inside

and since this is the second time it has broken on me

where the first time it was graciously saved 

by the genius Eric Chow

who did go into detail about the difficulty

at which the repair required...

which I found out when I considered doing it myself
instead of troubling him again

 But after reading the first two sentences online, 

my brain was bewildered beyond hope

So my short term solution was to get 

a cheap but usable flash to stand in 

until I get a permanent replacement...

and in the end I got two...

the biggest drawback is that 

both of them are manual flashes..

meaning no TTL... :S

I was still overjoyed when I found a package

with my name on it..

and I knew it was here...

 not a very impressive box

and not a great impression of the build when first handling

but then again what was I expecting for USD36.33

opening up the box reveals that it comes with a flash foot

and a velvet casing... nice touch

but a quick glance at the instructions were very comforting

I need to read it to ensure my safety?...

ignoring the multilingual instructions

I fiddled with the flash on my own...

after all, I'm a grown man who still lives with his parents..

what can possibly go wrong...

First thing you'd notice about the flash is the power levels

and the buttons on the back

I understood that since it has no TTL

it means I'd have to put in the power levels on my own when I shoot...

right.., means one less excuse when the subject is not properly lit... :s

 take notice there's a few modes.. M, S1 and S2,

which just refers to the mode to either use as main light

or optically triggered either by the pre-flash or actual flash...

 and the thing that I looked at most b4 buying the flash

was whether it could attach to my battery pack...

yes I understand that it will probably kill it faster...

but the brightest lights burns half as long :)

and since I intended to use it as an off camera flash,

the fact that it only has one pin 

(which is why it can work on any camera and no TTL)

didn't really bother me... 

 So without actually having tested the flash...

what can I say?...

first of all you'd notice that there is no name of the maker of the flash...

but from linkdelight.com (where I purchased the flash)

It says GODOX...never heard of?...

welcome to the club...

but I did find some fragment of information 

that strongly suggest that this is Sunpack flashes renamed...

so does that make it any good?..

I don't know...

I'll keep you guys updated after I'd put it through the ringer

of my normal routines...