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Anyone have one of these. Looks an ideal background light but wonder about the longevity? Are they solid enough?
Anyone have one of these. Looks an ideal background light but wonder about the longevity? Are they solid enough?
A modern cheaper monolight might turn down lower, but again it depends on the rest of your system.I do find that even a d-lite 200 with a reflector can be a bit too much at times to balance without diffusing a bit more. I don't like the spread of a speedlight particularly and so it would fit into my system.
Anyone have one of these. Looks an ideal background light but wonder about the longevity? Are they solid enough?
They seem fine the little I've used them, should fit neatly into an existing Elinchrom set up much the same way as another D-lite head.
Another option might be to look for Style BX/FX 100 and RX 300 heads, as they're not 400-600 Ws heads most casual users avoid them and they tend to go for bargain prices.
The Elinchrom RX heads are absolutely fantastic, but the 100 is really small, low powered. Honestly I've never understood why they even make them.
I've got several and they are mostly the 400 or 500 versions, and every now and again I find I'm underpowered.
They're fine for home-studio solo portraits and couples, with around f/8-11 in an average softbox at 1m distance. But for groups say, at two or three times the distance with higher f/numbers for depth-of-field, you need to push the ISO.
The small size and very light weight make them easier to hide as background lights, or on a boom.
I wouldn't want that inflexibility, and I generally wouldn't want the lights that close, too contrasty, and I'd much rather have a heavier light and buy a better boom or stand. I have some of the 1200 units as well and they are fine on the right stand with a 1.5m octobox.
I've always assumed there's two main groups getting these, either beginners as their first head/kit or someone looking to add flexibility to their current setup, in either case the small size, weight, price and low power range are all selling points for them.
Totally Simon. I'm a full time professional photographer, so that flexibility is totally needed. This is why I have so many lights, its not just for power, far from it, its all about control and doing what you need to. I've also learnt to my cost many, many times early on that you can agree everything with a client beforehand about how you are going to shoot, but then when on set the client suddenly has new ideas, 'can we do this?' 'can we do that?' The professional attitude is to say 'of course' and simply get another light or modifier out the bag or make changes or whatever. The 1200 gets used a lot. I've worked in too many warehouses with huge double storey high ceilings and I need to bounce light off that ceiling. The 1200 is the way to go.
Without a doubt though a big mistake early on my career was buying cheap lighting. I read way too many internet post from people claiming they could do exactly the same with speedlights or cheap lights. You can't, not at the level I was aiming for anyway.
Hobbyists don't need this, but you'd still struggle to achieve certain scenarios with the lower end setups. Elinchrom however are fantastic quality and way, way above speedlights and cheap Chinese imports. Put it this way, if I hired and studio and was planning to use their lights and turned up on site only to find they had RX100s, I'd be pretty annoyed, but I'd make compromises and get on with it.
But if I turned up and they had some cheap lights, like Lencartas (a senerio which once happened to me, despite the studio saying they had Broncolor) I wouldn't use them, too inconsistent. I'd walk out, or get my own lights or rent them and have them couriered over or whatever.
That's a heavily loaded comment Paul, re Lencartas, and I'd say it was simply untrue at face value. But you haven't explained which Lencartas you're referring to or what the problem was.
I've always assumed there's two main groups getting these, either beginners as their first head/kit or someone looking to add flexibility to their current setup, in either case the small size, weight, price and low power range are all selling points for them.
TotallIfy Simon. I'm a full time professional photographer, so that flexibility is totally needed. This is why I have so many lights, its not just for power, far from it, its all about control and doing what you need to. I've also learnt to my cost many, many times early on that you can agree everything with a client beforehand about how you are going to shoot, but then when on set the client suddenly has new ideas, 'can we do this?' 'can we do that?' The professional attitude is to say 'of course' and simply get another light or modifier out the bag or make changes or whatever. The 1200 gets used a lot. I've worked in too many warehouses with huge double storey high ceilings and I need to bounce light off that ceiling. The 1200 is the way to go.
Without a doubt though a big mistake early on my career was buying cheap lighting. I read way too many internet post from people claiming they could do exactly the same with speedlights or cheap lights. You can't, not at the level I was aiming for anyway.
Hobbyists don't need this, but you'd still struggle to achieve certain scenarios with the lower end setups. Elinchrom however are fantastic quality and way, way above speedlights and cheap Chinese imports. Put it this way, if I hired and studio and was planning to use their lights and turned up on site only to find they had RX100s, I'd be pretty annoyed, but I'd make compromises and get on with it.
But if I turned up and they had some cheap lights, like Lencartas (a senerio which once happened to me, despite the studio saying they had Broncolor) I wouldn't use them, too inconsistent. I'd walk out, or get my own lights or rent them and have them couriered over or whatever.
No idea what model they were. The issue was they were inconsistent in both power output and colour.
It was only minor, but when you are trying to shoot a fashion collection and keep everything 100% consistent in terms of lighting and colour across the whole collection, whilst keeping the colour balance perfect, it was very, very frustrating, very stressful on the day and meant about a half day of extra post processing to balance everything afterwards.
To be honest, most people not involved in commercial photography wouldn't notice, but its for these reasons we use Broncolor, Profoto and so forth. In my opinion Elinchoms, despite the huge price difference from the likes of Profoto fall into second place. Bowens fall into a very close 3rd.
There is then a big gap to anything in 4th place. That's why in any commercial studio its largely those 4 brands which dominate.
I can only think you're going back a few years, but the latest gear coming out of China is excellent, and has been a for while, including Lencarta.
Power and colour consistency can both be an issue with any flash unit, especially at low power settings, and I can see why it was a problem shooting professional colour-critical work. But in fact, the worst I've tested for colour variation was a Profoto D1 1000 that gets very warm with fluctuation power at minimum output. But that's what happens when you have a 1000Ws monolight with seven stops power range, while lesser manufacturers fix the problem by only offering a five stops range
The other thing about colour consistency is different softboxes. I've got a Sekonic C-700 colour meter on loan at the moment and checked a dozen or so sotboxes and umbrellas the other day - a mixture of Elinchrom, Lencarta, Godox, Lastolite etc. Most were okay, all in the 5500-6000K range, but a few went over that and one hit an unacceptable 7212K (Lencarta 90cm ProFold octa).
Must admit that whilst most of my softboxes are elinchrom, I have found diferences in colour differences with other manufacturers that I have.
The thing about colour shifts with the head, is it changes with power setting - one minute it's fine, then turn things down and suddenly it's not. That can be difficult with some work, even though the shifts tend to be relatively small, like a few hundred K max. However, I knew some of my softboxes were different and I've found a difference of 500K to be common. That's mostly okay TBH, but 1000K shift is not at all unusual between brands and the one I have that's almost 2000K out is definitely very noticeable whenever I'm using more than one light. That's unacceptable, but manufacturers never mention it and everyone assumes they're neutral.
Edit: I have two Elinchrom softboxes, less than 100K between them.
With "Conventional technology" flash heads, every make will have some inconsistencies, regardless of how much they cost, it's a limitation of the technology that relies on a potentiometer to reduce the amount of delivered power.I can only think you're going back a few years, but the latest gear coming out of China is excellent, and has been a for while, including Lencarta.
Power and colour consistency can both be an issue with any flash unit, especially at low power settings, and I can see why it was a problem shooting professional colour-critical work. But in fact, the worst I've tested for colour variation was a Profoto D1 1000 that gets very warm with fluctuation power at minimum output. But that's what happens when you have a 1000Ws monolight with seven stops power range, while lesser manufacturers fix the problem by only offering a five stops range
The other thing about colour consistency is different softboxes. I've got a Sekonic C-700 colour meter on loan at the moment and checked a dozen or so sotboxes and umbrellas the other day - a mixture of Elinchrom, Lencarta, Godox, Lastolite etc. Most were okay, all in the 5500-6000K range, but a few went over that and one hit an unacceptable 7212K (Lencarta 90cm ProFold octa).