Mark Bennett’s Camera Crisis has a useful little argument for carrying light again.
In “Why Everyone Is Buying These”, Bennett walks through the small manual flashes that have been moving through camera bags lately: the Zeniko ZF-04, Zeniko ZF-08, Godox iM20, Godox iM22, and Godox iA32.
The appeal is not complicated. They are cheap. They are pocketable. Some charge by USB-C; the larger iA32 takes AA batteries. They give a casual camera one more possible weather system: fill for harsh sun, separation indoors, that direct-flash retro bite, and enough burst to freeze motion when the room is dim.
The useful lesson is practical, not romantic. Small flat flashes belong with small lenses. Pair them with pancake glass and the light stays clean. Put them behind a longer zoom and the lens begins to write its own shadow into the frame.
That is where the taller designs matter. Raised flashes like the Godox iM22 and iA32 lift the source high enough to clear longer lenses, making them safer everyday tools for interchangeable-lens cameras.
A small flash is not a replacement for a full lighting kit. It is a doorway. One more ember in the bag. Sometimes that is enough to turn a record of a scene into a photograph.
