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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Elinchrom ONE 131Ws compact battery operated TTL HSS strobe | |
So looks like Elinchrom finally decided to get into the compact battery operated TTL HSS strobe market, like the AD200, AD300, B10, etc.
I KNOW the immediate reaction will be too little, too late. Godox beat them by years. Overpriced. Etc., etc...
But ONE actually intrigues me, as someone who already has Elinchrom gear (various Ranger Quadra models) and has also been interested in Canon's pricy EL-1 Speedlite (because I use Canon)... A peeve of mine with speedlites, and to a lesser degree my experience with the AD200, is overheating in intensive use situations.
ONE could fill a niche for me at wedding receptions with a lot of dancing, action, etc. This is where putting Canon EX600RTs on stands with external HV power packs has worked (price ends up not much cheaper than ONE), but as mentioned, they often eventually overheat. For somewhat larger venues I'll set up Quadras or Buff Einsteins at relatively low output for the fast recycling and no overheating. I thought the Canon EL-1 could possibly address this, but the price is steep - it may actually be a better on-camera option to get rid of the annoying cable to the HV pack clipped to my belt. I work with another photographer who got AD200s and they're generally good. But they can still overheat in some situations (the problem is not knowing when that might happen) and sometimes the radio system is flaky. He eventually got AD600 Pros as a do-everything solution, but yes, they're much bigger and heavier. This was also before the AD300 & AD400 were available.
Because I'm a Canon user, and have a bunch of EX600RTs, I generally like Canon's radio system and have been able to integrate non-TTL strobes, such as the Quadras, Buff Einstein, etc. through use of Phottix Laso radio receivers. Those relatively obscure receivers integrate with the Canon RT system, allowing me to trigger everything from an on-camera EX600RT. I simply plug Laso receivers into pre-set non-TTL lights with a sync cable.
This is also how I would like to integrate ONE units at weddings or other events for off-camera lighting (without use of TTL, which also reduces trigger lag time), because I still need on-camera flash, whether direct or bounced. Plus points for ONE include size/weight, active fan cooling resulting in better endurance than a speedlite, quick recycling time, easy charging during use, if necessary, via a USB PD capable power bank, use of my existing Elinchrom reflectors and other modifiers (via the included adapter)...
But to my dismay, Elinchrom apparently dropped one very small detail from the feature set: the sync cable port. From what I can tell, it can only be triggered by radio (specs at B&H state cable, optical and radio trigger, but I think they made a mistake). There is no reference to cable triggering in the manual. If so, it wouldn't be possible to directly plug in a Laso receiver to each unit in order to continue to use a Canon on-camera EX600RT as trigger. A workaround would be attaching a Skyport trigger to a Laso receiver, which would then trigger the ONE units. It should work (I've done this kind of relay with Laso to PW when I needed to trigger more lights than I had Laso receivers), but adds complexity and additional lag/delay to the setup (but should be OK at 1/125 and slower, which is OK in dark venues).
The ideal solution would be for ONE to directly function on Canon's RT network...
I can live with the built-in battery because it can be charged with a PD power bank during use, though don't like that if there is a battery problem, the entire unit will be unusable until serviced. I can often also live with 131Ws because in these situations with the Quadras or Einsteins, they're usually in the 50-100Ws range, or less (considering that often EX600RTs are good enough output). I don't think I'd use ONE as a key light in a studio set up, but even there, often for headshots the Quadra is between 1/8-1/4 power (50-100Ws) in a double-diffused 100cm Deep Octa to get ISO 200 f/8... That said, in normal (color) mode, ONE's t.1 duration is reeaaallllly long: 1/155 (speedlites aren't much better at full power). Using it in Action mode gets a respectable 1/625 duration, but cooler color balance, which could be problematic if combined with other types of lights...
I suspect 131Ws will scare off a lot of people (the price too). But I've been surprised how little output is required when used with efficient light modifiers (i.e. Buff PLM). It's probably a niche, but as a 'super-sized' speedlite alternative with active cooling and promising endurance, ONE could be useful. IMO the biggest potential use-case hurdle is integration with an on-camera TTL flash in event type scenarios.
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