p.1 #1 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
I'm having hard time deciding which strobes to get. The most important aspect for me is very good High speed sync function with Sony a7III. But also will need it for normal portraits in studio and weddings. I'm torn between:
Elinchrom elb400 with HS head
Elinchrom elb500
Godox AD600pro
p.1 #2 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
You really can't go wrong with both brands. There is no reason why Godox would not be good with HSS. Not because I own 4 of them 600Ws battery powered strobes (including 2x AD600 Pro) as I have no affiliation with them nor trying to defend my decision but they simply work.
Pretty sure the same holds true for Elinchrom.
p.1 #4 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
If your shooting a lot of mid day harsh sunlight portraits with wide open apertures (overpowering sun), then Elinchrom ELB 400 HS and ELB 1200 HS is the best way to go IMHO.
Realize there is a big difference in High Speed Sync that most manufactures use and High Sync that Elinchrom uses.
If you don't find yourself shooting 1/1 power a lot in really harsh sunlight, the Godox should work fine. I previously had one AD600 and a couple AD200s. During summer months, they would overheat easily shooting at 1/1 during the summer. Just a slower shoot is all.
I now shoot with two Elinchrom ELB 400 HS and love it. Lots more power with High Sync compared to Godox and High Speed Sync.
p.1 #7 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
The Elinchrom units are not cheap. I was able to get both of my ELB 400s for a good deal on ebay. Think I paid about $750-800 each and they were the newest versions with the nice bag and larger reflector.
Godox stuff is still a great deal and can do it all very well, but in my opinion struggle keeping up if shooing full power in summer temps. They are also not built as rugged at the Elinchrom units if your using in harsh conditions.
p.1 #8 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
lukx wrote:
Yeah I like that with godox it's more compact but that comes with more weight on top of the stand...
Godox extension head. That makes them more like a pack+head system. Personally AD600 is still not enough power when shooting out in the afternoon sun. But you can easily gang two AD600 with the 1200 ws extension head. BTW - Godox can also do some HS in addition to HSS. I haven't played with it but there is option to adjust flash timing in their Tx. Nothing beats shooting at max sync speed and using ND filters for situations where you need the power but still need to use wider apertures.
p.1 #9 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
bobby350z wrote:
Godox extension head. That makes them more like a pack+head system. Personally AD600 is still not enough power when shooting out in the afternoon sun. But you can easily gang two AD600 with the 1200 ws extension head. BTW - Godox can also do some HS in addition to HSS. I haven't played with it but there is option to adjust flash timing in their Tx. Nothing beats shooting at max sync speed and using ND filters for situations where you need the power but still need to use wider apertures.
I didn't know the Godox was capable of HS. Good advice on the extension heads. I never got one for mine when I owned it, but would highly recommend it. It was a lot of weight and scary, even sandbagged with a modifier.
I did use NDs a few times, but when your darker than 3-stops, it got a little difficult to see what you were shooting.
p.1 #10 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
lukx wrote:
So what I understand elb 500 is hss and elb400 is hs. So it's still better to get 400 over 500 in that regard?
That has been my experience. HS is always going to be stronger than HSS just because of the way they function. IIRC their stance is that their HSS implementation is pretty good, but it will always be less than HS. The advantage of the elb500 over the 400 is the addition of TTL.
I strongly suspect the elb1200 successor will be similar in that it will provide HSS and TTL, but the elb1200 with HS will be more light.
p.1 #13 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
EAvila wrote:
That has been my experience. HS is always going to be stronger than HSS just because of the way they function. IIRC their stance is that their HSS implementation is pretty good, but it will always be less than HS. The advantage of the elb500 over the 400 is the addition of TTL.
I strongly suspect the elb1200 successor will be similar in that it will provide HSS and TTL, but the elb1200 with HS will be more light.
IIRC the slighty higher power output of the ELB500 makes it close to the ELB400 HS.
ELB500 battery is better. It can also (officially) be used while plugged in AC and charging at the same time. A/B power output can be set independant of each other.
ELB400 can take three different heads: HS, pro and action. The heads have a cable that you have to screw on, the ELB head's use fixed cables.
p.1 #14 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
I own 2 Elinchrom Quadra's with HS heads. These are the previous version of the ELB400, but they are basically the same as the ELB400's, but without the nice display.
In my experience, Hi-Sync worked better on Canon DSLR's then on Sony mirrorless cameras. With the Canon cameras I did not need to fiddle much with the ODS settings. With the Sony mirrorless however, the gradient is worse overall, and setting the optimal ODS at different shutter speeds is way more important. I talked about this with a tech guy from the Dutch Elinchrom distributor (Fotoflits) recently and he told me this was due to different techniques used in DSLR's vs mirrorless cameras. So not just Canon vs Sony, but in DSLR's vs mirrorless in general... For the record, I previously used a Canon 5D mk II and a 5D mk III and now use a Sony A7RII and an A7RIII.
Now, whether or not you will notice the gradient with HS really depends on your working situation. If you only use it outside as a fill flash, changes are you will never notice it. However, if you want to use HS indoors (like in a studio environment or living room for example), you will most definitely see the gradient. In some occasions you can simply fix it in post with the gradient tool in Lightroom for example. But I have been in situations too where I wanted to shoot with Hi-Sync in a living room with sun coming through the window, and use it as a fill flash, which was basically impossible because it gave a gradient on a part of the wall where the flash was bouncing off...
So, based on my experience I would most definitely recommend you getting the ELB500 over the ELB400....
p.1 #15 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
Furthermore I would personally never buy a Godox AD600pro, or any other battery powered monolight. I love the pack and head systems, especially outside where you have the wind potentially blowing over your strobe. I rather have the electronics sit on (or close to) the ground, if that happens....
p.1 #16 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
Mark_EL wrote:
In my experience, Hi-Sync worked better on Canon DSLR's then on Sony mirrorless cameras. With the Canon cameras I did not need to fiddle much with the ODS settings.
I have no experience with Sony mirrorless, but with Canon DSLR I just used one ODS setting that worked. With my Nikon DSLR I didn't even have to use an ODS adjustment (I just leave it at zero).
p.1 #17 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
Daan B wrote:
I have no experience with Sony mirrorless, but with Canon DSLR I just used one ODS setting that worked. With my Nikon DSLR I didn't even have to use an ODS adjustment (I just leave it at zero).
p.1 #18 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
Mark_EL wrote:
Furthermore I would personally never buy a Godox AD600pro, or any other battery powered monolight. I love the pack and head systems, especially outside where you have the wind potentially blowing over your strobe. I rather have the electronics sit on (or close to) the ground, if that happens....
p.1 #19 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
Let me quote myself from that other topic:
Mark_EL wrote:
Oke, I did a test in my studio space. I am not going to post all the test shots since I took about 80 images....
But I examined my results and came to the following conclusions....
At a shutter speed of 1/250, ODS settings have no influence. Hence, its not needed to change the ODS.
At a shutter speed of 1/500, the best result is at an ODS of 1.5 or 1.6ms.
At a shutter speed of 1/1000, the best result is at an ODS of 0.8 or 0.9ms.
At a shutter speed of 1/2000, the best result is at an ODS of 0.5 or 0.6ms
At a shutter speed of 1/4000, the best result is at an ODS of 0.3 or 0.4ms
At a shutter speed of 1/8000, the best result is at an ODS of 0.2 or 0.3ms.
I tested these shutter speeds @ 3 different power settings on the Quadra, first on maximum (which is 6.0), then one stop less (5.0) and after that another stop less (4.0). the optimal ODS settings as described above remained roughly the same regardless the power output.
I also tested with the A7II, although only at the maximum power setting on the Quadra. The results were almost the same. On average i'd say one tenth millisecond less on every different shutter speed result of the A7RII.
Now... once again. I came up with these results, shooting a light grey wall. In real life circumstances though I am absolutely certain you will not really notice a lot of difference (if any) if you don't dial in the optimal ODS settings. My bet is that nine times out of ten, you will use Hi-Sync outdoors as a fill flash, to light a subject while shooting with a wide aperture and therefor fast shutter speed, and stuff like that. For those purposes the Hi-Sync will do just fine, even without the optimal ODS. For the stuff that I do in the studio, the optimal ODS setting is way more important because in those cases it's the only light source that's used. ...Show more →
Now, when I wrote that last paragraph back in 2017 I had not encountered the issues with the gradient yet, when using HS for fill flash indoors, with light bouncing of a wall. This encounter did change my opinion on HS a bit. I still like it, but I would rather get the HSS option nowadays, hence my advice to buy the ELB500..
p.1 #20 · so who is making the best high speed sync strobes?
Mark_EL wrote:
Now, when I wrote that last paragraph back in 2017 I had not encountered the issues with the gradient yet, when using HS for fill flash indoors, with light bouncing of a wall. This encounter did change my opinion on HS a bit. I still like it, but I would rather get the HSS option nowadays, hence my advice to buy the ELB500..
I agree... the main reason to use/buy the ELB400 over the ELB500 is shorter flash duration at or under sync speeds (with action/pro heads).
