B2 twin or ELB500 ttl kit

gremlin16

gremlin16

Messages
2,650
Edit My Images
Yes
I’ve been looking into a portable lightweight kit and these two seem to be pretty good in terms of what I need.

I already use elinchrom studio lights so all my modifiers would fit straight on.

However, has anyone used both? Any downsides?

Any comments welcomed.
 
gremlin16 said:
I’ve been looking into a portable lightweight kit and these two seem to be pretty good in terms of what I need.

I already use elinchrom studio lights so all my modifiers would fit straight on.

However, has anyone used both? Any downsides?

Any comments welcomed.
Click to expand...

Elinchrom wins easily in your situation IMHO. I've not used the Elinchrom ELB500, other than to fiddle with it at TPS, though I'm sure it's pretty good and on par with the Profoto B2. Quite similar units in many ways, but the B2 has half the power of course which would rule it straight out for me. For maximum versatility with location work, power is everything as daylight is very bright and that sets the baseline for exposure. 500Ws is suffiicient for most things (though you can't have too much in full sun) while 250Ws is more limiting. The ELB500 is designed to dovetail with the Elinchrom system and they've played an ace card by also making it compatible with Phottix speedlights to create a total system.

If you're thinking of jumping ship to Profoto, which is what it would be in effect, then that brings other options into play, particularly Godox. They have all the performace and more, a very extensive model range, and Godox simply hammers both Profoto and Elinchrom on price. If you search around the various photo forums, you'll see a lot of people simply swapping over completely to Godox; I would have done the same if this bluddy house move hadn't dragged on so long :( Against that, Godox has a different business model that doesn't include local distributor and service support, at least not to the same level as Elinchrom and Profoto. That's left to the dealer, but it doesn't seem to have slowed them down one bit and both Lencarta and Essential Photo/Pixapro have good reputations in the UK, Adorama/FlashPoint in the US.
 
gremlin16 said:
Cheers @HoppyUK a very informative answer. I’ll look into godox too.

As I understand it, from what I can see, both b2 and ELB500 are 500w/s total, shared between both heads, 250x2 or 500x1 head.
Click to expand...

No, B2 is 250Ws max. ELB500 is 500Ws total, as is the Profoto B1 but a monolight and a rather different animal. BTW, for reference a typical top-end speedlight around 100Ws equivalent, rather than the 50-60Ws that some manufacturers like to claim ;)

If it's the dual-unit head/pack style you're after, there are a few ways of doing that with Godox's modular designs. A lot has changed with flash in the last couple of years, particularly with location/battery flash. Godox is now the market leader and has caught the established brands napping.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top