Arka
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RustyBug wrote:
Pretty strong words from a Prophoto user ... strikes me as a fair assessment, regarding a realistic expectation.
The one thing I did notice (or think I noticed) in viewing some vid's is a "slower" t 0.5 in the AD200 vs. the AD360 ... i.e. the flash just looked like it took longer. No real surprise there. But, my point is that part of the $$$$ of different lights (Profoto being one of them), is to get better t times for a crisper light, i.e. less chance of ghosting, etc.
I think this is where the "you get what you pay for" aspect comes in to play a bit. That's neither a complaint, nor a promotion ... just an (realistic) understanding. We talk about build (and most folks think) being how durable it is (i.e. reliability), but part of the build is also those silly little things like capacitors, etc. that drive recycle times, t times, etc.as part of the "build".
Again, I'm a realist about $$$ vs. what you get, so I'm not in the camp of OMG I can get Profoto lights for 1/3 the price.  , but it is good to know that a Profoto user has some reference to usability / durability diff's.
Thanks for the input.
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You need to decide how much short flash duration matters to what you're shooting. It certainly can matter, but for most of my location stuff, it doesn't, so I don't have to sink stupid amounts of money into top-end lights that can get me those fast and powerful pulses. On the few occasions I need that kind of capability, I can rent.
And availability of rental units and accessories (as some have mentioned) is probably one of the biggest advantages that the lighting majors like Profoto and Broncolor have over Godox (or stuff like PCB) - if you don't have all of your own lights but need some for a job, or need a specific light shaper that you don't want to spend $2000 on, you'll always find rental shops that stock Profoto.
But build quality? That only matters up to a point. Drops are drops and I would argue that Profotos don't handle those much better than anything else. And they certainly aren't immune to operational deterioration that can get very expensive to fix.
Look at it this way - if you shatter the glass flash tube, lens, or frosted dome on a Profoto, you're looking at the same or greater repair cost as for an entire AD200. I've dropped a B600 head (uninsured) from a light boom 6 feet above the ground, and had shattered glass to clean up everywhere. Getting it back in functional order cost me over $600 at the time, and a new head would've cost me $800 (almost 3 AD200s, or 1 AD600!). I've had the control panel on my B600 and Acute packs go bad (sticky dials and such), and replacing those cost me $400 apiece (more than and AD200). Profoto stuff is nice to use, but unless you really know why you need certain features or rental flexibility, I don't think it's worth it for most people. It made sense to me 14 years ago, but now there are great products like the AD200 on the market - very compelling alternatives. I still keep my B600s for their power, but I rarely use them because they are so much more cumbersome to carry and set up than my little AD200s.
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