Is it just me? what is the actual difference between these flashes?
My EL-1 [version-1] (when I had it) and my EL-5 were absolutely abysmal where I needed them most: off camera shooting, and in my environments required a power down/power on once every 2 shots or so to get them connected again.
I see the guide number comparisons between them look like the version 2 might actually be less powerful (or am I reading it wrong? I'm using the tool @ bhphoto to compare).
Since I can't see anything spec wise that looks different I'm going to somewhat assume that they addressed wireless reliability, but short of these getting into people's hands, is there anything that leads to show why someone should even look at picking these up?
I thought for sure they would have changed it to the multi function shoe, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. Also, it doesn't seem to address the wireless connectivity issue. I'm not sure who this flash is for.
Pete73 wrote:
I thought for sure they would have changed it to the multi function shoe, but that doesn't seem to be the case either. Also, it doesn't seem to address the wireless connectivity issue. I'm not sure who this flash is for.
Maybe Canon had a backlog of old flash parts they needed to use up...
The EL-1 is a workhorse flash for those who need fast recycling without frequent overheating. It is certainly a very niche application range. I don't think this can be said of any Godox or other third party, other than maybe the Profoto A1/A10, which is similarly priced. That said, for the price you could have 3-4 Godox, shoot one until it overheats, use the next one, then the next one, then the last one and by then the first one should be cooled down enough to use again for a short while.
The EL-5 is about 85-90% as good for all but the most demanding applications and at one point recently was as low as $200 on sale, so not that far off third party options.
That said, Canon's RT radio trigger system is another matter, that apparently the company is not admitting has gone to sh**. It fell off a cliff in respect to reliability around 4-5 years ago, perhaps due to much greater competition among devices on the 2.4GHz spectrum. Or something else introduced recently that created such interference. But I also think it's something about how Canon uses 2.4GHz. I have an off brand RT compatible set of receivers purchased in the 2010s that are rock-solid even now and will trigger virtually 100% from either a Canon RT flash used as a master, or from a Canon ST-E3-RT sender. I can only conclude it's something about Canon's slave/receiver implementation that is faulty. FWIW, I used Canon's RT network very reliably for flash-heavy event coverage until around 2020. Then the pandemic killed most event work. Once things resumed, the RT system was 'suddenly' unusable. I still occasionally use Canon speedlites as receivers, but have to use the third party RT-compatible receivers to reliably trigger them. But I can't use the EL-5 this way because of the new multifunction shoe that is incompatible with the off-brand receivers. Interestingly though, this new EL-1 would be fine because of the old shoe style. However, as much as I'm a fan of the EL-1's capability (ignoring the RT network's reliability crash), I'm not going to spend that much on 3-4 for use as off-camera units. There's a whole raft of battery powered monolights at and below that price point that I'd rather use instead. But as an on-camera flash, if I still shot a lot of flash-heavy events, the EL-1 is worth the expense, IMO.
It's only 76Ws. 