Lencarta Superfast 600, Elinchrom ELC Pro HD 500, Bowens Gemini 500Pro

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popaine

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Hi,

I am interested of buying couple of strobes and I am in a dilemma between the Lencarta SF600, Elinchrom ELC500 and the Bowens 500Pro. I mainly shoot portraits and fashion photography but want to try also shooting some fast flash photography where flash duration is a must. In your opinion, which strobe is ideal for my needs.

Thanks in advance!!
 
The Elinchrom and Lencarta heads have the fastest flash duration at lowest power and the Bowens at highest power which would make the Elinchrom and Lencarta easier to work with but in addition the Bowens has the worst flash duration outright so I'd probably rule out the Bowens (although Bowens are selling them direct on eBay for a decent price).

The Elinchrom head is nice but if you're not committed to either fitting I'd get the Lencarta as it's considerably cheaper and about the only downside I can see is (like the Bowens) you'd need to buy the receiver separately. All 3 seem viable though.
 
popaine said:
Hi,

I am interested of buying couple of strobes and I am in a dilemma between the Lencarta SF600, Elinchrom ELC500 and the Bowens 500Pro. I mainly shoot portraits and fashion photography but want to try also shooting some fast flash photography where flash duration is a must. In your opinion, which strobe is ideal for my needs.

Thanks in advance!!
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In terms of shortest flash durations, the Lencarta SF wins easily, but that might not be the answer. More info needed - what kind of subjects? Makes a very big difference to the flash durations and amount of power required.

The Lencarta is an IGBT-type flash, basically a massive hot-shoe gun with very fast flash durations but only at lower power settings. IGBT-type studio heads are rare and some have problems with colour accuracy but the Lencarta is actually very good as an all-round studio head.

Both the Elinchrom ELC and Bowens Pro are conventional studio heads. Fastest durations are usually at max power with this type, though the Elinchrom is slightly different in the way its capacitors are configured and so can run pretty fast at lower settings too.

Don't believe manufacturers quoted flash durations. T.5 times greatly exaggerate flash durations and in terms of shutter speed equivalents they're two or three times longer. The T.1 times are closer, if they're given. On the other hand, T.5 times for IGBT are mostly quite accurate... it's complicated!
 
I was thinking of water splash photography but to tell the truth it is just an idea or better to experiment in my free time. I prefer portraits, photograph children, fashion photography etc
 
popaine said:
I was thinking of water splash photography but to tell the truth it is just an idea or better to experiment in my free time. I prefer portraits, photograph children, fashion photography etc
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Pretty much any flash is fine for portraits, though you might need durations around 1/1000-1/2000sec (real shutter speed equivalents) for kids jumping about, or dancers etc. The light modifiers, softboxes etc, are more important considerations and they're widely available in both S-fit (Bowens, Lencarta) or EL for Elinchrom.

For water splash stuff, you're very close so don't need much power. A speedlite is ideal for that, turned down to say 1/4 or 1/8 power.
 
Leaving the water splash photography completely out of the equasion, any one of those heads will do the job for portraits and photographing children, but in fact will be overkill.

Fashion photography - true fashion photography with lots of movement that is - sets higher equipment standards and in my view leaves your choice between the Elinchrom and the Lencarta. Both have incredibly fast recycling, which is important, and both have extremely accurate and consistent colour temperature consistency, which is equally important.

When it comes to water splash, or anything even remotely similar, the Lencarta SuperFast is in a class of its own. The only other flash head that comes even close is the Alien Bees Einstein, which is much more expensive and which also isn't imported or serviced here in the UK. But, bear in mind that I'm not impartial, because of my association with Lencarta - but this association does mean that I have thoroughly tested every single flash head on the market, so know something about them - and the same goes for Richard, who posted earlier, because he is a technical writer for various photography magazines and he too gets his hands on a lot of different equipment.

It's difficult to say with any precision (because the speed needed is very much dependent on both magnification of subject and direction of travel) but I would say that the minimum shutter speed (continuous light) or flash duration (flash) needed to freeze movement is around 1/3000th sec, so that's a t.1 time of 1/3000th or a t.5 time of around 1/9000th, if that helps.

The advantage of getting a really fast flash, other than interest in photography, is that having one will allow you to get the sort of shots that other people simply can't get. Only you can decide whether that's the path you want to go down.
 
HoppyUK said:
Both the Elinchrom ELC and Bowens Pro are conventional studio heads. Fastest durations are usually at max power with this type, though the Elinchrom is slightly different in the way its capacitors are configured and so can run pretty fast at lower settings too.
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The ELC seems to have fastest flash duration at half power, I thought it was an IGBT head but going off the spec sheet at minimum power 2940, max 2330 and 5000 at roughly half all using t0.5.
 
simonbarker said:
The ELC seems to have fastest flash duration at half power, I thought it was an IGBT head but going off the spec sheet at minimum power 2940, max 2330 and 5000 at roughly half all using t0.5.
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No, it's not IGBT but has multiple capacitors of different sizes that are mixed and matched to give the optimum flash duration/colour/recycle etc at all power settings. A bit like those big studio flash generators that sit on the floor. I think it may be unique in that respect, for a head of its type.
 
Guys, I really appreciate your help. It seems that the Lencarta is more suitable for my needs than the Elinchrom ones.
 
popaine said:
Guys, I really appreciate your help. It seems that the Lencarta is more suitable for my needs than the Elinchrom ones.
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By 'water splash' I mean droplets. In which case, Lencarta SF is not needed and will probably just get in the way - use hot-shoe speedlite/s.

But if you mean chucking buckets of milk and flour over some scantily dressed girl, then SF is perfect. Maybe what Garry was thinking.
 
HoppyUK said:
By 'water splash' I mean droplets. In which case, Lencarta SF is not needed and will probably just get in the way - use hot-shoe speedlite/s.

But if you mean chucking buckets of milk and flour over some scantily dressed girl, then SF is perfect. Maybe what Garry was thinking.
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Yes, I frequently think about chucking buckets of milk and flour over some scantily dressed girl:)
In these shots, we shot at something around minimum power from memory, so about 1/20,000th second.
In this video, it was about 1/4 power, so around 1/3000th second - both t.1, so roughly equivalent of shutter speed.
But, as always, the need for short flash durations/shutter speed equivalents is all about magnification and direction of travel - an ant crawling at 20 times life size from one side of the frame to the other takes a lot to freeze it, a formula 1 car travelling towards the camera a long way away at 200 mph is easy to freeze.

Even the SuperFast can't quite match the flash durations of a hotshoe flashgun set to its lowest power, but it isn't always quite as simple as that because the hotshoe flashgun at minimum power is very dim, and doesn't have the benefits of studio light modifiers, so it's horses for courses.
 
if I manage to do a shoot like the ones mentioned above, I would be extremely satisfied. In my opinion they are awesome :)
 
just another question pls?

For a 4mx5m room using a 3 light setup, should I go for a 2 Lencarta 300SF + 1 Lencarta 600SF, 3 Lencarta 600 SF or 3 Lencarta 300SF?
 
I'd like as much of your money as possible but I don't see any need to spend the extra to get the 600 model - the power from the 300 heads will be more than ample for your needs.
Often, I advise people not to buy lights with too much power, because having too much power can cause its own problems if they want to do wide aperture shots, but this doesn't apply to the SF600, which can adjust right down to 1/128th of full power, so it's really just a question of what you will get for the extra money if you go for the 600 heads...

And my answer to that is that the 600 now has standard Halostar 250 watt modelling lamps, I think this is better than the quartz 150 watt modelling lamp of the 300, and the menu system has now been changed and displays power settings from 1 through to 7, which is a bit more intutitive than the 300, which displays them from 5 though to 10, but neither of these small improvements will in any way affect the quality of your results.

In terms of performance (power, recycling speed, flash duration) the 600 model effectively is the same as the 300 model once the power has been reduced to half.
 
Thanks for the advice Garry. In case I buy 2 SF300, can I use them with an SF600 in the future or I will have a problem?
 
popaine said:
Thanks for the advice Garry. In case I buy 2 SF300, can I use them with an SF600 in the future or I will have a problem?[/QUOTE
No problem, they can be used alongside our SmartFlash, ElitePro, SuperFast, Atom and Safari flashes, they all use the same remote/triggering system.
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I could have done with the Vela 18months ago! i had lined up all sorts for a big idea, and it was going to be backed by some very special people!! i might just have to resurrect it!! lol..
 
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