This thread is not going to be good for my wallet...Will take a closer look a Hensel, but with the ease of availability of stock of Eli or Profoto in US and Canada, I am biased towards one of those two.
On the Quadra vs Profoto (excluding Ranger for moment), the more I look at the AcuteB 600R, the more I like it. The Quadra looks like NICE kit and while not ruled out, couple \'little things\' keep annoying me when I look at it. Things that could have been overcome in 10 secs by Elinchrom in the design/marketing of the Quadra.
Hell, it\'s not like they didn\'t put enough into the product - it\'s NICE full featured kit. It just has a couple of silly \"ah, crap...\" issues that really don\'t need to be there:
1. While some are rumored in the works last time I heard, no protective caps for tubes. So, it\'s a DIY solution - at least for now.
2. The Quadra-Eli adapter is harder than an honest politician to find anywhere. Seems perpetually backordered.
2A. The adapter\'s swivel mount, much like on a DLite, is not strong enough to take a heavier modifier - so would need to do the usual swap out of the lower 1/2 of the swivel with a modified Manfrotto umbrella mount as I did with a D-Lite. Not a big deal, but shouldn\'t be necessary. Another $50 and DIY project. Tired of DIY with lighting kit. Have enough DIY home renos to worry about ;> While the Quadra vs Ranger is a product positioning thing with Eli, I\'m sorry but ANY light you make should securely mount, out of the box, to ANY modifier you make. Position the product with other specs.
3. The Quadra mount looks to be a simple push and twist bayonet - no locking collar as with the normal Eli mount. Have never tried one so may be secure as hell, and while obviously designed to keep unit small, etc, a locking mech would have been nice - especially if boom-mounting the sucker.
One \'little thing\' about Profoto I like are the protective glass domes. One of my \"it\'s great kit, but WTF..?\" pet peeves with Eli monos are that the tubes are so exposed when swapping modifiers. Every time I mount/remove my Demi I keep thinking one little slip (tapping exposed tube with speed ring) and that tube is toast. Same when reaching into Eli SB to lock/unlock rotation nut - one slip and I\'m wiping my fingerprints off the tube with acetone.
Now Profoto users undoubtedly have \'little thing\' gripes (lets hear some?), but just goes to show, spec sheets are nice, but until you actually shoot with something for X months, you never really know how well YOU\'RE going to take to it and what \'little things\' will start to annoy you.
This thread is not going to be good for my wallet...Will take a closer look a Hensel, but with the ease of availability of stock of Eli or Profoto in US and Canada, I am biased towards one of those two.
On the Quadra vs Profoto (excluding Ranger for moment), the more I look at the AcuteB 600R, the more I like it. The Quadra looks like NICE kit and while not ruled out, couple \'little things\' keep annoying me when I look at it. Things that could have been overcome in 10 secs by Elinchrom in the design/marketing of the Quadra.
Hell, it\'s not like they didn\'t put enough into the product - it\'s NICE full featured kit. It just has a couple of silly \"ah, crap...\" issues that really don\'t need to be there:
1. While some are rumored in the works last time I heard, no protective caps for tubes. So, it\'s a DIY solution - at least for now.
2. The Quadra-Eli adapter is harder than an honest politician to find anywhere. Seems perpetually backordered.
2A. The adapter\'s swivel mount, much like on a DLite, is not strong enough to take a heavier modifier - so would need to do the usual swap out of the lower 1/2 of the swivel with a modified Manfrotto umbrella mount as I did with a D-Lite. Not a big deal, but shouldn\'t be necessary. Another $50 and DIY project. Tired of DIY with lighting kit. Have enough DIY home renos to worry about ;> While the Quadra vs Ranger is a product positioning thing with Eli, I\'m sorry but ANY light you make should securely mount, out of the box, to ANY modifier you make. Position the product with other specs.
3. The Quadra mount looks to be a simple push and twist bayonet - no locking collar as with the normal Eli mount. Have never tried one so may be secure as hell, and while obviously designed to keep unit small, etc, a locking mech would have been nice - especially if boom-mounting the sucker.
One \'little thing\' about Profoto I like are the protective glass domes. One of my \"it\'s great kit, but WTF..?\" pet peeves with Eli monos are that the tubes are so exposed when swapping modifiers. Every time I mount/remove my Demi I keep thinking one little slip and that tube is toast. Same when reaching into Eli SB to lock/unlock rotation nut - one slip and I\'m wiping my fingerprints off the tube with acetone.
Now Profoto users undoubtedly have \'little thing\' gripes (lets hear some?), but just goes to show, spec sheets are nice, but until you actually shoot with something for X months, you never really know how well YOU\'RE going to take to it and what \'little things\' will start to annoy you.
Nov 03, 2009 at 06:50 AM
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