Meking Corona 250T strobe flash light test & review

I was looking for a couple of inexpensive monolight for my niece. She sells vintage clothing on the net and needed a lighting setup to photograph her items. The Corona 250T sold by Meking Equipment (also listed as Meking Studio) looked like the ideal solution. Unfortunately it does not come close to meet Meking's advertised specifications. Both the wattsecond and guide number listed is more than double what the unit actually puts out.

The 250T is the lowest power monolight in the Corona series. In addition to the 250T there also is the Corona 350T and the Corona 450T. One initial note on this monolight. While the specifications lists that a 120 volt version Meking only sells the 220 volt versions individually. But they do have an Ebay listing for a kit that includes two 450Ts and a 250T for 120 volts. Odd.

Jan 2012 Edit: - The following is the specifications claimed by Meking. From my examination and test on the 250T the power and guide number stated is completely fiction. It is not even remotely close to what the the unit produces. I have repeatedly asked Meking for clarification and they keep stalling.

Corona	250T	350T	450T
Power Range	250ws	350ws	450ws
Power Control	Variable	Variable	Variable
Guide No.	50GN	58GN	66GN
Recycle Time	0.8-1.5s	0.8-1.5s	1-2s
Continues Lamp	100ws	100ws	100ws

The primary thing that attracted me to this flash unit is that the reflector can be removed and it can be operated in bare bulb mode. This is desirable when using a flash/strobe in a softbox. With the bare bulb a lot of the light is reflected off the sides before being reflected into the diffusion layers. So one big plus for the Corona 250T.