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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Ranger Quadra vs Einstein vs Hot Shoe Flash Power Comparison! | |
I'll chime in on my experience with lighting kits. I've owned (maybe in this order) the following:
-Alien Bees
-Quantum kits
-Elinchrom Ranger RX (multiple)
-Profoto D4, Acute2, AcuteB (one of my favs)
-Elinchrom RX600
-Elinchrom Quadra (I was one of the first to actually import Skyports into the country)
-Einsteins
I've also had extensive use and practice with Dynalite and Lumedyne lights as well.
The Alien Bees are the cheapo's and lowest quality I would recommend. They work, are tough and reliable, and work with batteries very well.
Quantum was too small, didn't have enough features for my needs (adaptability to softboxes, replacement batteries).
I finally decided to get a big boy setup and splurged on a Ranger RX system. 1200ws was a lot of power, but it was a reliable kit. Heavy, but had a lot of pops in the batteries. Not a huge fan of the Elinchrom mount either.
Profoto. Ahhhh, the cream of the crop. I had a D4 (4 independent digitally controlled heads) for architecture work. I then moved to an AcuteB setup (as soon as they came out) and travelled a lot with this sucker. It was small enough, portable enough, and tough enough to rely on. Good amount of pops too, but EXPENSIVE. I then had an Acute2 setup for studio. Probably my favorite lights for simplicity and light quality, they have a certain color temperature that is just beautiful.
I then switched to the RX600s for wireless control when the Skyports came out. Great light, good power, but lacking on build quality. Digital control was nice compared to Profoto, but quality just wasn't the same. Using these with the Vagabond2 was a PAIN, super heavy kit. But their modifiers were a great deal and easy to setup.
When the Quadra was announced, I was giddy. Finally a decent quality light that weight very little. Well, it worked and gave me good power, but, it's a fragile system. I had 2 flash tubes fry on me, as well as 2 packs. They replaced/repaired them when I sent them in, but, because I only had one at the time, it wasn't very reliable at all. And because of the smaller size, the heads are WEAK. You have to use an expensive adapter to hook up any of their bigger lights, and the head attachment and adapter are weak IMO. I was glad to see it go.
The Einsteins offer the best bang for the buck, hands down, no question. 9 stops of range, 600ws down to like 5ws (the low end is more important to me than the top). Combined with the VML there is really no appeal in any other system, except for Profoto's build and light quality. The Einsteins are tough, accept great modifiers (MUCH better mounting system than Elinchrom IMO), have full digital control in a wireless setup (and it works well too, although the cybercommander is a cheap ugly piece), the best flash durations and the best support. I'm very happy with my switch and see no reason to go to another system, it's that good. For the price of (1) AcuteB setup, I can get (3) Einsteins, (3) VMLs, plus a set of triggers...I like having multiple backups rather than rely on one.
Einstein > Profoto > Ranger RX > RX600 > Quadra > all others
The new Cheetah flash looks to be cool if it can get up to the 400ws range, but then its about modifier access too.
Hope this helps someone!
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