Profoto D1 Compacts are here

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Profoto D1 Compacts are here

c.d.embrey
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p.1 #1 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Info on the new Profoto Compact D1 and D1 Air http://www.profoto-usa.com/products/d1/overview.asp is available at the Profoto USA web site.

Be sure to check-out the six videos at http://www.profoto-usa.com/products/d1/videos.asp
Videos on one light, two light, three light and four light portraiture, plus two others.

Feb 16, 2009 at 05:27 PM

Carmen Miranda
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p.1 #2 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Nice simple demonstrable lighting videos from Tony.

Feb 16, 2009 at 06:01 PM

c.d.embrey
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p.1 #3 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Carmen Miranda wrote:
Nice simple demonstrable lighting videos from Tony.

Yeah, they really are good. Some of the best I've seen ... and they are free!

Here's the D1 brochure in English. http://www.profoto.com/content/6/8/1/2/7b8bc370/Profoto_D1_EN.pdf

Feb 16, 2009 at 06:06 PM

PeterBerressem
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p.1 #4 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Does anyone here appreciate that they are designed with built-in reflector? Just 77 degree angle, not bare-bulb as the predeccessors? Softboxes are not reasonably lit this way, and what about beauty dishes? I am puzzled of Profoto's decison.
At least this foreshadows why they show them from the back in almost all PR publications..

Feb 16, 2009 at 06:09 PM

Carmen Miranda
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p.1 #5 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

PeterBerressem wrote:
Does anyone here appreciate that they are designed with built-in reflector? Just 77 degree angle, not bare-bulb as the predeccessors?

Wow. You're not kidding. I see it now in the kit shot buried in the pdf.

It also looks like they are going to use a "optional glass cover" to "give you more light spread" (pg 3).
The dome appears to be frosted, which must reduce efficiency substantially.

Very odd.

Edited on Feb 16, 2009 at 06:34 PM · View previous versions

Feb 16, 2009 at 06:21 PM

c.d.embrey
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p.1 #6 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Carmen Miranda wrote:
PeterBerressem wrote:
Does anyone here appreciate that they are designed with built-in reflector? Just 77 degree angle, not bare-bulb as the predeccessors?

You're kidding? Do you have a link or shot of this?

Look at the brochure http://www.profoto.com/content/6/8/1/2/7b8bc370/Profoto_D1_EN.pdf The light spread angle of 77 degrees is shown on page 14. They also show kits with umbrellas, softboxes and beauty dish (softlight) on page 10. One thing for sure, it won't work with my Profoto Hardbox

I'm not interested in monoblocks, but I'll see about borrowing a D1 Air to test.

Feb 16, 2009 at 06:28 PM

Jammy Straub
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p.1 #7 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

I honestly am not bothered by the glass dome and integrated reflector, it seems most Profoto shooters use the frosted glass for the regular heads most of the time anyways. This is just another version of that with a slightly different more 'travel friendly' approach.

Assuming the glass sticks out from the front of the head a bit it should work well in BD's and softboxes. At least it's an option, unlike the Dynalite heads with a built in reflector. Those are dumb

Feb 16, 2009 at 10:15 PM

Deezie
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p.1 #8 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

I don't suspect that they'll pull much market share away from Elinchrom, which offers a less expensive quality monolight and is already battle-tested. Most Profoto users are already sold on pack-use and in this economy $1200/head for what has been a questionable line of monolights in the past is a little crazy.

Feb 17, 2009 at 12:05 AM

Jammy Straub
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p.1 #9 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Deezie wrote:
I don't suspect that they'll pull much market share away from Elinchrom, which offers a less expensive quality monolight and is already battle-tested. Most Profoto users are already sold on pack-use and in this economy $1200/head for what has been a questionable line of monolights in the past is a little crazy.

Where did you did you see that pricing? I didn't see a MSRP. The 500ws couldn't be that expensive could it? I suppose it could the 600ws RX is ~$950...

Feb 17, 2009 at 12:13 AM

Deezie
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p.1 #10 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

I was curious about the price. A Google turned up this on Photo.net

MSRP pricing:

D1 250 $969.

D1 250 AIR $1,069.

D1 500 $1,069.

D1 500 AIR $1,179.

D1 1000(AIR only) $1,669.

Feb 17, 2009 at 12:57 AM

sboerup
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p.1 #11 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Ya, those prices are just way out there, don't know many who'd buy them. The 600R was already expensive for what you got.

Feb 17, 2009 at 01:11 AM

Deezie
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p.1 #12 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Bump. For an interesting new product.

Feb 17, 2009 at 08:03 PM

Jammy Straub
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p.1 #13 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

I'm looking forward to seeing some hands on video other than what Profoto has already posted. I'm amazed no one has posted any from WPPI yet. I'm curious to see the glass dome on the front and how the whole thing looks with a standard reflector in place.

Here's to hopping actual prices are slightly below those MSRP prices.

Feb 17, 2009 at 08:14 PM

FashionBoy
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p.1 #14 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Decision to have the "built-in" reflector is weird and curious and doesn't fit in with Profoto's philosophy of having the light exposed... however I did read that there is a "zoom" feature which allows you to move the light forward... wonder what the light quality is like?'

The other big plus for these is that you can optionally run them off a battery - mind you the battery is probably going to be $1000.00+ too... at which point you could simply run a 600R off a Vagabond instead.

Feb 18, 2009 at 12:42 AM

sboerup
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p.1 #15 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

sboerup wrote:
Ya, those prices are just way out there, don't know many who'd buy them. The 600R was already expensive for what you got.

Hehe, quoting myself. I think I recind my statement. I still think the prices are a little high, they should be in the $900 range for the 500ws IMO, but after watching the Profoto videos and doing a mental comparison to the 600RX, I'd rather have the D1s. Awesome lights!

Feb 19, 2009 at 04:15 AM

Beni
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p.1 #16 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

I watched all of those video's, didn't see anything in them that said 'you can only do this with profoto'. Wondering what it was you saw that makes you say that.

Feb 19, 2009 at 08:56 AM

Jammy Straub
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p.1 #17 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Beni wrote:
I watched all of those video's, didn't see anything in them that said 'you can only do this with profoto'. Wondering what it was you saw that makes you say that.

+1

Those videos didn't tell me much more than how cool the push in multifunction knob was. I for one felt they were totally inadequate as a product tour. Obviously that wasn't their real focus.

Feb 20, 2009 at 05:29 AM

cineski
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p.1 #18 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

I got to play with a D1 500 at Samy's in Hollywood this weekend. These lights are fantastic minus 2 serious design flaws which I'll talk about later. The Air system works great, controls the new lights, but what will they do to tie these in to the recently added strobes like the 7B2 if you need to rent one? Or are all Profoto strobes getting the air system added with an update? Or at least a trigger module that you plug into the sync input? The lights were very well built, smooth and I was overly impressed......except for:

The bulb unit on this thing, as some people pointed out, was quite puzzling. The salesmen, while he admittedly didn't know much, was puzzled by it, too. He made some comment that Profoto passes on instructions that modification is required only when using beauty dishes. I was like, what? You're kidding. He just threw his arms up and shook his head. Apparently you have to remove the center disk on BD's for this to work. This built in reflector design negates the use of many modifiers from beauty dishes to soft boxes. It baffles my mind how Profoto could have designed this. I asked if there was an add-on that allowed you to get the bulb exposed and he had no idea. Oh, no PW backup with this system. There's no input. It's Air or nothing. However, the air seemed to work very well. I'd prefer a backup option, though.

Feb 23, 2009 at 03:20 PM

Deezie
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p.1 #19 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

Oh, no PW backup with this system. There's no input. It's Air or nothing. However, the air seemed to work very well. I'd prefer a backup option, though.

Those of us used to wireless metering with a Sekonic aren't too happy about that. Maybe version 2 will address some of these concerns.

Edited on Feb 23, 2009 at 08:03 PM · View previous versions

Feb 23, 2009 at 04:09 PM

Carmen Miranda
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p.1 #20 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

cineski wrote:
This built in reflector design negates the use of many modifiers from beauty dishes to soft boxes. It baffles my mind how Profoto could have designed this. I asked if there was an add-on that allowed you to get the bulb exposed and he had no idea. Oh, no PW backup with this system. There's no input. It's Air or nothing.

Both issues are beyond odd. Even Profoto's pack pedigree cannot explain these moves away. They both sound like very serious design flaws to me.
Are you saying you can't even use a PC cable?

Feb 23, 2009 at 04:50 PM

bka20d
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p.1 #21 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

cineski wrote:
I got to play with a D1 500 at Samy's in Hollywood this weekend. These lights are fantastic minus 2 serious design flaws which I'll talk about later. The Air system works great, controls the new lights, but what will they do to tie these in to the recently added strobes like the 7B2 if you need to rent one? Or are all Profoto strobes getting the air system added with an update? Or at least a trigger module that you plug into the sync input? The lights were very well built, smooth and I was overly impressed......except for:

The bulb unit on this thing, as some people pointed out, was quite puzzling. The salesmen, while he admittedly didn't know much, was puzzled by it, too. He made some comment that Profoto passes on instructions that modification is required only when using beauty dishes. I was like, what? You're kidding. He just threw his arms up and shook his head. Apparently you have to remove the center disk on BD's for this to work. This built in reflector design negates the use of many modifiers from beauty dishes to soft boxes. It baffles my mind how Profoto could have designed this. I asked if there was an add-on that allowed you to get the bulb exposed and he had no idea. Oh, no PW backup with this system. There's no input. It's Air or nothing. However, the air seemed to work very well. I'd prefer a backup option, though.

are you sure about there being no input? there are two d1 series monolights: the d1 and the d1air....(one without the air system built in and one with air) ...if you are correct how does one sync the non-air model?...
the sync specs for the d1's read read "cable/ir/air" which one might assume would mean that a pw will work with the d1's as long as you use a sync cord....if this is not the case, then i agree there is a huge problem....

Feb 23, 2009 at 05:27 PM

cineski
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p.1 #22 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

No PC cable. There's simply no plug. There is an Air Transeiver unit, but I don't know how it would hook up to the new lights, or if those are meant to make the old strobes compatible with the new system? I honestly don't know why Profoto did this. I will say, pro photographers know what works and what doesn't. With these lights, at these price points, these strobes are almost exclusively for pro photographers. I just can't see this design flying with 99% of lighting photographers. Unless they've tested and tested and when you slap a D1 w/ softbox next to a traditional Profoto head and there's absolutely no difference in light quality? In it's current form, the D1 will not work with a beauty dish.

I'm kinda in a quandry here. I'm looking to buy a whole new lighting system as I've outgrown my WL system (which I put up for sale locally). If the D1's had a normal bulb design, it would almost be a no brainer for me as the D1's are outstanding lights in all but those 2 aspects. Even the air system is amazing and simple to use (albeit NO backup). I'm still waiting for final specs for the Einsteins, but I'm so flipping sick of the WL light modifier attachment. It's worth it (from a Pro POV) paying double for a strobe that has a safe and easy to use modifier attachment. The WL modifier is just rickety crap IMO and for as long as I've owned the lights I've had to tip toe around set when using heavy modifiers. That takes away from creativity. However, I've read they made it stronger and the ability to hook a bare SLA battery up to it to run the strobes more than makes up for the flaws of the system.

Feb 23, 2009 at 05:34 PM

cineski
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p.1 #23 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

More thoughts: Even if you could put a different glass diffuser on the end of the built in reflector, wouldn't it deaden the power of the strobe? 1000 w/s is not that powerful, and losing power wouldn't be good. Unless that reflector had some sort of magnifying ability? You can still put a traditional Profoto reflector on the unit if this was the case, so the use of grids wouldn't disappear. Oh, the guy at Samy's did say they'll be coming out with a mini grid system for the built in reflector, which makes me think this design is simply the way it is.

Now I'm looking at the original Compact Profoto units as possibilities to replace my WL system. If only I could take snippets of all strobes available and make the perfect strobe.

Feb 23, 2009 at 05:39 PM

cineski
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p.1 #24 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

BKA, I'm only talking of the D1 air, as that's what they had in the store. Sorry for that confusion. I thought there was a mini input on the base of the light (there is a hole there) but the sales guy said there was no cable input on this unit (the 500 air). I'll assume that hole was for an allen screw for the mount. I asked about using a backup, and for the 2nd or 3rd time, he gave me a goofy "I don't know what they're thinking" look and threw his arms up in the air. Oh, edit, there's an Air Transiever unit available that I'm assuming will hook the non-air units up to your system. I can't say for sure, though. You won't be able to adjust the heat like the air system, but you'll be able to trigger.

Feb 23, 2009 at 05:41 PM

Jammy Straub
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p.1 #25 · Profoto D1 Compacts are here

That's so weird, page 3 of the brochure item #19 says "Synch socket, antenna and IR Lens"

I wonder if their floor models were missing the jack or something?

A frosted glass dome in front of the reflector shouldn't loose much more light than the normal frosted dome most people use on their heads to protect the tube, would it? It might be a hair less efficient because you've got more light bouncing around from the integrated reflector, versus the tube being right up against the glass.

Feb 23, 2009 at 06:19 PM


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