Home · Register · Search · Software · Hosting · Software · Join Upload & Sell

	Moderated by: Fred Miranda
	Username   Password FM Forum Rules FM Forums | Lighting & Studio Techniques | Join Upload & Sell    end    Archive 2011 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison wi...

Akoloskov Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #1 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights I had an opportunity to test the Elinchrom RX series strobe lighting in a studio environment. For me I’ve got one of the most interesting Elinchrom’s to work with, the top of the line : Style RX 600 Pro monolight and Digital RX 1200 Pro Power Pack with A3000N speed flash head. Liked them overall, but found unusable (unfortunately) for freezing action shots. if you are interesting, full review is here: http://www.akelstudio.com/blog/elinchrom-rx-series-strobe-review-pros-cons-and-comparison-with-pcb-einsteins-lights/ As usually, comments and thought are appreciated! Alex Dec 01, 2011 at 04:27 PM

Sheldon N Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #2 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights Very nice review, lots of good comments about both options as a "system" rather than just a single piece of equipment. Your duration tests with the high RPM spinning disc clearly show that the Einstein has a faster duration than the Elinchroms, as you would expect from the specifications. No surprises there, and it's definitely a torture test that will illustrate the effect of flash duration. Did you also do any shooting of your normal splash/water droplet photography to compare the two systems? If so, how visible were the effects of motion blur? I'm curious where the threshold is to actually see motion blur depending on what you are shooting. While the flash duration difference may be visible when shooting a spinning disk, the difference between "Fast" and "Really Fast" may not be visible in a lot of real world shooting scenarios. Dec 01, 2011 at 07:48 PM

Akoloskov Offline • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #3 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights Sheldon N wrote: Very nice review, lots of good comments about both options as a "system" rather than just a single piece of equipment. Your duration tests with the high RPM spinning disc clearly show that the Einstein has a faster duration than the Elinchroms, as you would expect from the specifications. No surprises there, and it's definitely a torture test that will illustrate the effect of flash duration. Did you also do any shooting of your normal splash/water droplet photography to compare the two systems? If so, how visible were the effects of motion blur? I'm curious where the threshold is to actually see motion blur depending on what you are shooting. While the flash duration difference may be visible when shooting a spinning disk, the difference between "Fast" and "Really Fast" may not be visible in a lot of real world shooting scenarios. Sheldon, Nope, I did not do the test with real splashes. but I know for sure it won;'t be good: 1/2000 t.5 of shortest flash duration won;t work for fast little drops. it might be able to stop larger and slow pieces of water, but it will be surrounded by little blurred drops anyway. I've played a lot with Einsteins, and I know 1/2000 at t.1 is not enough.. what to expect from t.5. Dec 01, 2011 at 08:26 PM

kenyee Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #4 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights 1/2000 t.5 is roughly 1/700 t.1 (3x IIRC)...no surprise...did you use the Ranger speed head? You probably would have had a better shot at it w/ that than their monolights...sports shooters seem to be happy w/ the Ranger speed head, but they're still a lot further away (not like you up close w/ water splashes where you see more details)... Dec 01, 2011 at 09:08 PM

Csae Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #5 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights I've been meaning to ask for a while, but how fast is the Flash duration at the higher power settings, my understanding was that the E640s work like speedlites in that the lower you set them the faster the flash.... Which is great, but totally useless on things like fashion where 640ws might be just enough in terms of power, how fast is it at the higher settings? I'm having a tough time finding numbers outside of the PCB HQ. Dec 02, 2011 at 05:14 AM

Gregg Heckler Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #6 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights "Which is great, but totally useless on things like fashion where 640ws might be just enough in terms of power, how fast is it at the higher settings? I'm having a tough time finding numbers outside of the PCB HQ." Exactly. Horses for courses. Dec 02, 2011 at 05:31 AM

photosymbol Offline • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #7 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights Yep, Elinchrom as we all know is faster on the high end of power and Profoto/AB mostly go faster on the lower end. Nothing new here. I'm personally a fan of having it at higher power. I can always knock down light via other means, but it's hard to add it. .02 Dec 02, 2011 at 05:37 AM

eSchwab Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #8 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights I picked elinchrom's based on several things that were important to me. Mostly the available modifiers. I hated alienbees, and I wish when the einsteins came out that they had bit the bullet and changed the way the modifiers mount. That is the one glaring problem on an otherwise great light. I'm extremely happy with my elinchrom's and I've shot 600S, 1200S, 300RX, and 600RX's over the years. I'm left wondering something about flash duration. Is anyone here taking pictures of people in non-sports environments seeing any problems with flash duration? I've taken thousands of pictures with my strobes where people are moving or dancing and it's never been an issue. Are you guys seeing problems in these situations? Dec 02, 2011 at 03:00 PM

kenyee Offline • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #9 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights Csae wrote: Which is great, but totally useless on things like fashion where 640ws might be just enough in terms of power, how fast is it at the higher settings? I'm having a tough time finding numbers outside of the PCB HQ. PCB has always said it's the equivalent speed of a B1600 at full power...1/600 t.1 or 1/1800 t.5. It'll work fine for the PW TT Hypersync at full power, but won't at lower power levels as you cut power and chop the tail off the pulse... Dynalites are also faster at higher power too IIRC. Speedotron is faster at lower power (but IIRC their quad bulb head only gets down to 1/1800 t.5 and people used those for sports arenas). Depends on the design of the pack or strobe... eSchwab wrote: I've taken thousands of pictures with my strobes where people are moving or dancing and it's never been an issue. Ever get your models to whip their hair or dress around? That's probably the only time you'd see motion blur with people. Water drops are an entirely different thing. Turn your sink faucet on so it drips...take photos of it w/ your strobe as the drop hits. You'll see a lot of blur unless you use speedlights or something that also does IGBT like the Einstein. Dec 02, 2011 at 03:05 PM

Sheldon N Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #10 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights I guess motion blur and flash duration boils down to angle of view. It's not how fast the object is moving, it's how fast the object is moving relative to the image frame you are capturing. If you are shooting a pool splash where someone is jumping into the water and you have whole person in the picture, it's not hard to freeze the water because the splash is not very large in the frame and individual water droplets aren't moving a long distance within the frame. However, if you are shooting a macro shot of a water droplet, that splash may be the same speed but the droplet is moving across the entire image frame rapidly because of how close you are. So freezing action on a full length person shot (jumping, hair whip, dress twirl) is a lot less demanding than freezing action in macro photography. Dec 02, 2011 at 07:07 PM

eSchwab Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #11 · Elinchrom RX series strobes: pros, cons and comparison with PCB Einsteins lights I guess when I've seen it it's been while shooting outdoors with strobes, and it was probably a combination of ambient light and the strobe. I guess I'm also not very picky regarding slight blur from movement. Dec 02, 2011 at 09:04 PM

	end FM Forums | Lighting & Studio Techniques | Join Upload & Sell end

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username   Password    Lost your password?