The A1 was created for the professional photographer looking for portability and performance features or the ambitious non-professional who recognizes quality lighting but wants it comfortably and easily without the hassle of an overly technical interface. The A1 is easy to use. You can literally take it out of the box and start shooting. Your first shot is nearly always a keeper. The old adage about not judging a book by its cover simply doesn't apply here. The A1 is a good-looking flash, in fact, even its packaging could compete with Apple for design. Weighing 1.2 lb including its battery, the A1's sleek matte black finish not only appeals to the eye but to the tactile sense as well.

The first thing you'll notice about the A1 is its 2.75" round, tilting, rotating head which is the physical feature most responsible for the A1's natural-looking light with its soft gradual fall-off. While we rarely use superlatives, we've heard the light quality described as "beautiful" and I'd have to agree. The auto-zoom built into the head handles focal lengths from 32 to 105mm and the included Wide Lens gives you wide-angle coverage from 14 - 24mm. You can override the auto-zoom function at any time and make your adjustments manually. A filter kit with graduated CTO conversion filters and a fluorescent filter is also available to modify the unit's daylight color temperature.