Elinchrom updating their monolight line

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jzucker
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p.1 #1 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

www.elinchrom.com

Looks like they've added remote power adjustment to all products, not just the BXRI line which is a welcome change. No longer will you need to buy a remote for the RX line. Additionally, the Lite line or products adds remote power capability. They've also introduced a DLite One (100ws) product.

And now the quadra line is compatible with the new Li battery which is 1lb less weight and good for 2x the amount of full power pops (320 now)

The only disappointment from my perspective is the lack of lower power settings for the BXRI 500 Pro (the replacement for the BXRI 500) I had always hoped they would release a version that could go down to the low power settings of the Einstein (2.5ws) but they have not changed this specification.

If the price is close to the current price set, I will probably buy a ranger quadra setup. The thing keeping me from doing it in the past was the low mAh rating of the battery pack.

Sep 25, 2012 at 12:04 PM

Sheldon N
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p.1 #2 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

jzucker wrote:No longer will you need to buy a remote for the RX line.

I don't see that they've changed that, according to their website.

Sep 25, 2012 at 05:45 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #3 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

Try it again. I think you missed it.

http://elinchrom.com/product/Style-RX-300.html

[edit] hmmm - the specs are misleading. It fails to say you need the skyport receiver but since there's a jack on the back of the unit for the receiver I think you're right.

#FAIL for elinchrom. WTF is the point of adding remote power capability to the lite line but not the RX Pro line?!?

Sep 25, 2012 at 05:59 PM

BrianO
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p.1 #4 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

jzucker wrote: ...[What] is the point of adding remote power capability to the lite line but not the RX Pro line?!?

It may be because pros already have large investments in Pocket Wizards, and Elinchrom feels they wouldn't want to pay for a feature they wouldn't use.

Since the D-Lite line is "entry level," Eli probably figures buyers are more likely to be starting from scratch.

Sep 26, 2012 at 04:25 AM

phuang3
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p.1 #5 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

jzucker wrote:
Try it again. I think you missed it.

http://elinchrom.com/product/Style-RX-300.html

[edit] hmmm - the specs are misleading. It fails to say you need the skyport receiver but since there's a jack on the back of the unit for the receiver I think you're right.

#FAIL for elinchrom. WTF is the point of adding remote power capability to the lite line but not the RX Pro line?!?

I think the new model to replace RX is coming. Elinchrom may stop RX line and introduce a whole new pro series with built-in remote capability. I've to say there are too many similar monolights among Elinchrom. They are very close in power output, now even remote capability. With the new BRX series, I see no reason to consider RX anymore unless you need additional 100w/s (can be ignored), 1 stop of control (not much help on tabletop) and faster flash duration (still slow for liquid).

Sep 26, 2012 at 05:01 AM

jzucker
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p.1 #6 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

Thanks for the comment Phuang,

after looking at their site again, I realize I had made a mistake and the 600 RX Pro was not a new item.

I hope they address the power issue and the remote capability. If they can make it go down to 8ws and build in the remote I will buy a couple of them.

Sep 26, 2012 at 02:10 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #7 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

Update - the "lite one" model seems like something light weight, portable and suitable for large aperture shooting for the time being. The only issue I have is that the lite series models have a cheaper mounting ring assembly...

Sep 26, 2012 at 02:12 PM

visualist
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p.1 #8 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

BrianO wrote:
jzucker wrote: ...[What] is the point of adding remote power capability to the lite line but not the RX Pro line?!?

It may be because pros already have large investments in Pocket Wizards, and Elinchrom feels they wouldn't want to pay for a feature they wouldn't use.

Since the D-Lite line is "entry level," Eli probably figures buyers are more likely to be starting from scratch.

Actually it used to be the other way around. D-Lights with only trigger, BXri with trigger + powersetting internal, RX with trigger + powersetting + computer external. The idea was to better diffenretiate the value of the products, to make the RX appear as the most valuable.
Remember those iBooks with the faulty Motherboards? Apple used the same graffics card in both the iBook and MacBook with dual-head technology. But since this was a keyfeature of the MacBook, they deactivated the second out on the graffics board wich, imo caused the motherboard to fail.
Since the difference in cost meassures in cents, this is PR-rubbish newspeak that nobody gets except marketing geeks. And i'm sure it looks impressive during those power-point presentations ...

In real life there are good reasons to buy any of the Elinchrom products, but nobody gets why a D-Light should not have the same remote capabilities like the RX.
To cut a lond story short, i'm pretty certain that the next generation RX will also have built-in skyports ...

What i don't rally get ist the RX ONE. Sure, a lighter and smaller model than the D-Light makes sense, but since they market it specifically as "speedlight friendly" why not make it 12V, or better, compatible with the Quadra-battery packs? It surely would've been cheaper then the Quadra, but at the price of much less power, longer recyling and much longer flash duration.

Sep 26, 2012 at 05:05 PM

phuang3
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p.1 #9 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

I prefer the idea of external remote receiver for monolight just like RX series & PCB Einstein. In this way, the receiver can be upgraded with the transmitter if more feature is needed. How about control your monolights with bluetooth from your hand phone? Or, NFC (near field communication) controlled copy and paste settings.

Sep 27, 2012 at 02:45 AM

jzucker
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p.1 #10 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

phuang3 wrote:
I prefer the idea of external remote receiver for monolight just like RX series & PCB Einstein. In this way, the receiver can be upgraded with the transmitter if more feature is needed. How about control your monolights with bluetooth from your hand phone? Or, NFC (near field communication) controlled copy and paste settings.

Disagree.

Nothing's worse than having to worry about batteries and dangling devices hanging off your monolights. With the elinchrom, I plug in the light, put the remote in my hotshoe and go. No worries about having to carry backup receivers, backup batteries, etc.

The PCB einstein receivers and transmitters are a disaster IMO.

Sep 27, 2012 at 02:56 AM

phuang3
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p.1 #11 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

Well, I don't know about Einstein, but you don't need the battery for Elinchrom receiver. It consumes the power within the monolight. Once the receiver is plugged in, you can forget about it.

Sep 27, 2012 at 03:02 AM

visualist
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p.1 #12 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

phuang3 wrote:
How about control your monolights with bluetooth from your hand phone?

Yes, what about it? And why would you want to upgrade the receiver when you can upgrade the Software/App? Programming presets is possible.

Sep 27, 2012 at 03:52 AM

phuang3
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p.1 #13 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

There are hardware limitations. You can't just upgrade the software to support other protocols, like the Bluetooth. So far, Elinchrom monologhts can only be controlled through a central device (like the USB transceiver or Wifi transceiver which also need battery). If the receiver is up-gradable, we may directly control them through our phone or other devices in the future.

Sep 27, 2012 at 04:53 AM

jzucker
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p.1 #14 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

phuang3 wrote:
There are hardware limitations. You can't just upgrade the software to support other protocols, like the Bluetooth. So far, Elinchrom monologhts can only be controlled through a central device (like the USB transceiver or Wifi transceiver which also need battery). If the receiver is up-gradable, we may directly control them through our phone or other devices in the future.

i'd rather have it built it. Less hassle to worry about. I don't care about updating for bluetooth,

If it's designed right, there's no reason it can't be software upgradeable. I don't consider adding bluetooth or some other physical medium an upgrade. Upgrade would be a feature upgrade. You can accomplish a physical medium upgrade with an external unit plugged into the accessory input.

Sep 27, 2012 at 10:32 AM

visualist
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p.1 #15 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

whatever ...

Sep 27, 2012 at 12:22 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #16 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

not sure what I said to elicit a whatever?

Sep 27, 2012 at 04:16 PM

visualist
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p.1 #17 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

Sorry, that was @phuang3, because you can control the flashes from the phone and, give it a cpl of years, cameras will be running one or the other mobile OS, too.
Whatever ... because, if he'd bothered to click through two or three pages about the skyport system, he'd know all that. Or at least except cameras runing mobile-OS, which takes little imagination to conclude.

Sep 27, 2012 at 04:56 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #18 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

visualist wrote:
Sorry, that was @phuang3, because you can control the flashes from the phone and, give it a cpl of years, cameras will be running one or the other mobile OS, too.
Whatever ... because, if he'd bothered to click through two or three pages about the skyport system, he'd know all that. Or at least except cameras runing mobile-OS, which takes little imagination to conclude.

One thing elinchrom needs to do before getting too much further into computer/external device control is come up with an interface (both hardware and software) that supports more than 4 groups. It's a huge limitation IMO. This is an area where buff has the right idea (16 groups) but unfortunately his UI is poor.

Sep 27, 2012 at 05:03 PM

visualist
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p.1 #19 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

Actually, in germany and switzerland all non RX flashes are on sale and the prices of the new RX's are lower then the old prices for non-RX. So much for paying extra. And it looks like they will discontinue the older models (BXri and D-Lit it).

Also here in switzerland the AS 1500/3000 are not listed at Profot anymore, and all heads except the zoomheads are gone. Though this may be temporary, and there's a Digital RX 600 generator i haven't seen before ... at the same price as the RX 1200 , wich makes no sense to me.

The limitation on 4 groups could be due to frequencies. At least i know for a fact that this is a serious problem for professional wireless microphoning. This is also true for range. The more channels you offer and the bigger the distance is, the more complicated it gets to market the product internationaly.

Sep 29, 2012 at 12:18 PM

jzucker
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p.1 #20 · Elinchrom updating their monolight line

that makes sense and may be why buff can more easily offer 16 channels since they are primarily USA only. However, there's no reason the channel couldn't be communicated via the wireless protocol data packet. One byte worth of data could communicate 256 channels or groups so it shouldn't be that big a deal.

Sep 29, 2012 at 12:34 PM

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