The Ultimate Neewer NW 561 Review!

After seeing people reach out for a Neewer NW 561 review for a few months now, we finally had some spare time available and decided to type up our review of this popular flash unit and get it online. We hope that our article will help any of our readers who are considering adding the nw561 to their collection as well as anyone else who randomly stumbles across it.

Being a very cheap entry level flash unit that offers excellent performance for its price tag, it is no surprise that the flash is very popular within the community and has one of the best reputations around at the entry level price point. It is so popular in fact that the community has posted hundreds of independent reviews (click here to read some of them) online for the flash offering some excellent external insights into its performance.

Before getting into the article, we just want to point out that even though the Neewer NW 561 is a very cheap flash, you can sometimes get it cheaper by picking up a second hand or refurbished model instead (Click here to check for product prices and availability). If you are on a very tight budget then this could be the option to take to help reduce the cost further.

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Table of Contents

User Interface And Control System

The image above shows the control system for the Neewer NW 561 and although it looks very basic, it does actually do a solid job allowing you to control the camera flash as required. As an entry-level flash unit, it offers a fair amount of customization for the flash via navigating through its menu system. The flash mode button on the flash is easy to reach even when capturing photographs with your camera rig allowing you to easily switch between the various flash modes as needed.

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With the control system being based around Eight buttons, the flow of navigating through the menu on the flash is simple and easy to do even if you are new to using a flash unit. Being very cheap flash unit, the buttons do feel cheap and can be a bit of a pain to press down and get the button to register if you are out and about in the rain and the flash gets wet. The backlit LED screen is also clear and easy to read in low light conditions with the data being display being sharp rather than fuzzing up like some competing budget flashes so.

Performance And Functionality

As we touched on earlier at the start of the article, for a cheap Speedlite flash the Neewer NW 561 performs very well and easily beats the majority of other flash units trying to claw out a position at this price point. In our opinion, the Neewer NW 561 even beats the entry-level flash units from more established brands such as Nikon and Canon too.

The flash supports manual mode, multimode, S1, and S2 flash modes but it does not provide any TTL functionality but that is to be expected for its price tag in all fairness. In our opinion, the biggest drawback of the Neewer NW 561 is its set recycle time of 2.9 seconds. This is very slow for a flash recycle time these days so if you are planning on trying to do something like a wedding photography gig where you may have to be activating your flash unit multiple times per second this is not the flash for you.

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On the flip side of this though, if you are a photography student or in a photography niche where you can take your time between each photograph then this should not be an issue anyway. Additionally, the slower recycle times tend to help extend the battery life as well as prevent common overheating issues.

Speaking of battery life, we have seen reports ranging from around one hundred activations per set of fully charged batteries all the way up to four hundred activations with the average being around two hundred. Just keep in mind that this is going to depend on the type of batteries and the flash settings that you use.

The flash head on the unit provides a minus-seven to plug ninety-degree tilt functionality as well as full one hundred and eighty-degree side to side rotation too. This makes it an ideal entry-level flash for any kind of photography gig where you may want to be bouncing your flash off walls and such.

Build Quality

When it comes to the build quality of the Neewer NW 561 nothing really stands out as a positive or negative against the competing units at this price point. Overall, the build quality is solid and for an entry-level flash unit, it is quite robust but does have that cheap feel to it.

One thing that we have seen some reports comment on is that the standard hot shoe mount on the flash as shown in the image to the left can warp over time but this was a very small number of reports. We feel this may just be down to one batch of the flash unit as the overall popularity and reputation of the Neewer NW 561 wouldn’t have been able to grow in the way it has if this was a common fault.

As we touched on earlier, the flash unit does a decent job of staying cool while in use and not overheating. As you would expect, the body of the flash is made from plastics offering a nice and lightweight unit that

Our Verdict

The concludes our Neewer NW 561 review and we feel it is a solid little external flash that will make a nice addition to your camera accessories without breaking the bank. Although it is not ideal for all flash photography niches as we mentioned due to the slow recycle time, it is a solid option for any entry level photographer and should be able to meet your needs without issue.

Click Here To Read Independent Third Party Reviews Of This Product!

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The video below offers an additional third-party, independent review for the Neewer NW 561 to offer our readers an independent opinion of the product.