clonardo
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 p.1 #1 · Orlit Rovelight RT 610 Mini-Review | |
So I recently picked up one of these babies: ORLIT RoveLight RT 610 HSS TTL Monolight, which is a budget Profoto B1 competitor, and Godox AD600 alternative with some interesting options. I've submitted a review to Adorama, and I think it's awaiting approval, so I'll paraphrase myself and add some additional color here-
I've been using rented B1's recently, because as much as they're obviously fantastic lights, I'm not spending $2k/each on something like that (as a semi-serious hobbyist/former part-time pro who is now exclusively in this for fun). The color consistency of the B1 is well-known by this point, as is the lack of color consistency on the Godox. While that may seem like an easy thing to deal with in post, when you have a few of these lights in use and each shot from each light can be off by a few hundred Kelvin, you can quickly find yourself in an inadvertent "mixed lighting" scenario, thereby complicating your workflow. So, no Godox for me.
I've been checking Adorama's pre-order page almost daily for the Orlit RT 610 since it was announced about a month ago, which was annoying since their reps had no idea when it would actually be in stock as of last week. On Tuesday it finally came into stock, and I ordered mine and picked it up from the store the next day. Thursday, I had a shoot scheduled, and figured I'd give it a try.
The Orlit (which is a rebadged Jinbei, with the addition of a US warranty serviced by Adorama as well as Canon RT radio system compatibility) comes in what can best be described as an "early '90's laptop case". Not as stylish as the admittedly-pretty retail box, but well-enough made, with room for some basic accessories. For $700, you get the light, the case, 1 battery (which, by the way, lasts twice as long as the one in the B1 and costs half as much), the charger, a standard reflector, and a Canon or Nikon TTL transmitter. I'm on Canon these days, so that's where I ended up.
Using the bundled transmitter (which seemed counterintuitive to me, after being perhaps too used to the ST-E3-style UI), I was able to get the Orlit working fine with TTL and HSS on my 5D Mk II. I did not get a chance to check how this works in practice with my Canon Speedlights, but it's theoretically supported (though anything Yongnuo may be a little flaky at this stage, I've read). In my 600 shot outdoor session (using HSS for a very small part of it, and the flash running at about 4/10 power), the battery (which shipped fully-charged, in my case) still had about 3/4 power to go by the end. While tough to gauge with an outdoor shoot, color looks very consistent- the Orlit is rated pretty well in this area per the official specs, and I have no reason to doubt that at this point. I used manual mode, with the exception of a very quick TTL test, but that seemed to work just fine.
I'm sure that the Profoto fan club (of which I still count myself a member, despite being a cheapskate) will question the build quality of the Orlit. In the long term, that's still unproven, of course. It's nice that the flash tube is user-replaceable on the Orlit, and I'd rate a Bowens mount pretty even with a Profoto mount in terms of available accessories (with various adapters in play) at this point. Being able to use my Canon Speedlights with the same radio system as my monolights will definitely be a game-changer for the way I do location work. Meanwhile, back to build quality- because I am an idiot, I didn't weight my light stand down sufficiently (turns out that putting a 5+ pound monolight in the air at the top of a stand makes it a bit more, um, tippy than most lights, even with a couple of sandbags), and a rogue gust of seaside wind took down my hour-old light from about 5' up, crashing it into the concrete. Once my immediate panic subsided, I took stock of the situation- the umbrella that I was using was fairly mangled, the battery had popped off the Orlit, and the standard reflector was bent into a bit of a crescent. I straightened the supports for the umbrella, bent the reflector back into shape, put the battery back on the Orlit, and apart from a little road rash on the robust plastic side of the monolight, it's fine.
Barring anything going wrong in the immediate future, I'm planning to get another Orlit RT 610. It was worth the wait, and I'm excited to see how the system evolves (with a better radio trigger, and a compatible phone app for, say, saving lighting presets coming this summer, I expect my chief complaint to be solved). Yongnuo are allegedly working on firmware fixes to improve their compatibility (per the comments on the Orlit thread on FlashHavoc), so that's one other thing to watch. Meanwhile, unless you're heavily invested in the Profoto system already, I'd say that the Orlit is worth a look. 5/5 stars in my book.
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