Review: YONGNUO YN560 IV speedlight flash unit

Amazon Affiliate Link: amzn.to/3tqKy7K
Price as reviewed: $86
YONGNUO YN560IV YN560 IV YN-560 IV Wireless Flash Speedlite, GN58 Manaul Multi Master + Slave Flash, Built-in Trigger System, Negative LCD Screen
This is a large flash unit (464 grams including 4xAA NiMh batteries) with articulated head (270 deg horizontal, 97 deg vertical) and optical zoom (24mm-105mm + wide angle diffuser). It can be triggered via hot-shoe, optical slave (S1 or S2 for TTL), external PC interface, and wirelessly with a compatible FR-2/FR-3 transmitter. [It can also act as a wireless master.]
It also has a Strobe/Multi mode, where you can select a specific number of flashes at a specific speed, useful for capturing a moving object at multiple locations along it's path with multiple exposure photography.
I was very impressed by the amount of light this flash put out, as well as the narrow field of "flash" it achieves in the 105mm zoom mode. I was constantly lowering my ISO, tightening up the aperture, or speeding up my shutter to keep from over-exposing images, even at the lower power (1/32, 1/64, or 1/128) settings.
With my Sony A6300 it was almost impossible to use the flash when in Auto mode, as it does not communicate back to the camera, so the camera was not expecting the amount of light it was putting out. Unless I bounded it off the ceiling, I had to switch to a manual mode to adjust things for the flash.
My A6300 has a quite small built in "pop-up" flash unit, but it was able to optically trigger the YN560 reliably when it was acting in S2 external flash mode.
My only complaint with this unit is that the built in bounce card and snap down wide angle diffuser are difficult to pull out (especially if you have short finger nails). It takes some real practice to know exactly how to grab onto them to get them out of their storage slot. I don't plan on using them much, but they are annoying to get to when you need them.
Otherwise, I'm very happy with the performance and functionality of this unit.
[Note, I only have one, so I have not tested any of the wireless group/master/slave flash configurations.]