The Ultimate Yongnuo YN685 Review!

In this article, we are going to be covering our Yongnuo yn685 review that we hope will help as many of our readers as possible who are considering picking this flash unit up. We have chosen to cover the yn685 after seeing a number of photographers reaching out looking for advice on it each month and its been on our list to cover for a few weeks now.

Before getting into our review, we would just like to quickly say that we know our readers have a wide range of budgets and the Yongnuo yn685 may be on the upper limit our out of some of our reader’s budgets. If this is the case then it is definitely worth picking up a second hand or refurbished Yongnuo yn685 (Click here to check for product prices and availability) as it can reduce costs by a fair amount while still providing you with a solid camera flash unit.

Additionally, the Yongnuo yn685 is a fairly popular camera flash that’s customer base is increasing as time goes on. As with any popular camera accessory, there are a number of independent reviews (click here to read some of them) online that have been posted by third-party owners of the yn685.

Click Here To Check For Current Prices On The Yongnuo YN685!

Table of Contents

Starting With The User Interface

As always when reviewing a camera flash, we like to start with the menu navigation and user control systems of the flash unit. Thankfully, the menu on the Yongnuo yn685 is very easy to navigate and allows you to quickly and easily tweak the various settings available in the camera flash to optimize its performance for your current photography session.

That said, the navigation menu is a little different to the majority of other popular camera flashed that we have seen so we would recommend you dedicate an hour or so to sitting down with the flash to play with its menu when you get it.

The mode button is easy to reach and operate when supporting the weight of your camera and it allows you to quickly and easily switch between the various flash modes available such as manual flash, TTL, and guide number (GN60@ISO100, 200m). The backlit screen of the Yongnuo yn685 makes it easy to navigate in low light conditions and the responsive control system allows you to easily tweak settings even if it is cold or wet.

Core Feature List

Unlike many competing camera flashes at this price point on the market, the Yongnuo yn685 actually comes with dual built-in wireless trigger systems as standard. The first is the YN-622C system and the second is the RF-603 system. This allows you to set the flash up in a large number of master and slave configurations quickly as it can interact with the following units:-

Now, one of the only drawbacks of the camera is its relatively slow and unadjustable recycle time with it coming in at around three seconds when using a fresh set of fully charged AA batteries. Although we would imagine that this would be fine for many of our readers, we just want to may you aware of it.

We have seen multiple reports suggesting the recycle time of the flash unit slightly increases as your batteries become low on power too. On the flip side though, you can use an external power source with the Yongnuo yn685 to keep it powered indefinitely while also ensuring that its recycle time remains around the three-second mark. On top of this, you can just carry a set of high-quality recyclable batteries (Click here to check for product prices and availability) with you to allow you to swap out your spent batteries for fresh ones as required.

Build Quality

As you would expect from a camera flash at this price point in the market, the build quality of the Yongnuo yn685 is excellent. The majority of the camera flash is made from high-quality plastic materials that are both lightweight and robust. This helps you by allowing you to add the Yongnuo yn685 to your photography kit bag without having to add much weight while also ensuring that it is very robust and can take some punishment without breaking.

The hot shoe on the yn685 is made from solid metal to ensure that it maintains its shape over time and will be able to seemlesley be mounted to your camera of choice without issue. The electronics in the flash unit are also solid and when researching our article, we were unable to find any independent reports of the electronics in the yn685 giving out. The flash head is also solid and can be smoothly rotated with ease allowing you to bounce your flash activations as needed.

Our Verdict

That concludes our Yongnuo yn685 review, if you are wanting to pick an excellent little flash system for your camera rig then adding the Yongnuo yn685 to your camera accessories is sure to improve your flash photography potential.

As we mentioned back at the start of the article, if you are on a tight budget but want to pick up the Yongnuo yn685 then it is well worth considering getting a refurbished version (Click here to check for product prices and availability) as the cost can be reduced considerably.

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

Click Here To Check For Prices On This Product!

The video below offers an additional third-party, independent review for the Yongnuo YN685 to offer our readers an independent opinion of the product.