It’s great that you have collected all this information for the rest of us! However, I would like to comment on some things;

I have heard about D-Lite and White lightning, but know absolutely nothing about them, however you might want to investigate and add those to your listings?

However; I have owned a couple of Interfit flash units, and I loved them. Just sold them because I went abroad for a while. There are two main issues with the Interfit units; they are only 300 watts and when connected to DC, they have no model light.

What I love on these units, is that they are inexpensive and the fact that when you use them on AC, they will perform just as good as a Hensel AC fixed unit. Also there is a wide range of softboxes, beauty dishes etc for them – cheap too!

I have access to Hensel, Broncolor and Interfit AC flashes – and in my every day photography, the cheap interfit will perform as good as the broncolor. However you can expect some more repairs to the interfit units, but they still are excellent value!

And I must comment on the Quadra sets from Elinchrom. I almost bought them – in fact they were in backorder for a long time – but I cancelled them in the end. And for that, I am VERY happy.

I have been renting this set a lot lately, and I each time I just want to throw them out the window. They are good for some things; skateboard photography and snowboard photography in example. But all good and professional photographers needs to have absolute control over their light most of the time.

It is easy to be blinded by the quality of the Quadra kit. All the numbers are good, and it is very nimble to move around. But there are very few good lazy photographers! You need to consider what needs to be done, and them do it! With the accessories you get for the Quadra system you can just start with giving up. And of course, you can buy expensive and meaningless adapters for it, but then again you should just make the correct investment the first time.

The 2:1 power output is hopeless – sure – this works on a lot of set ups, but most of the time you will be thinking that you would a bit more, or less power. Sure, you could move the source further away, but then it will not be the same light quality. And what’s with the cable length? If you are to get a decant portrait light, you must consider hanging the battery pack in mid air. But of course, that is where you want the camera.

Also the standard reflector is hopeless. And the umbrellas with 7mm stem also. And put together they are idiotic. You have to zoom them umbrella so close to the reflector that it will be rather hard light anyway. If not, it will stray light all around since the angle of the reflector is broader than what hits the umbrella.

Hope all people know that the Quadra kit is like a spare tire – it will get you there, but it is a solution only to be used in emergency.

With that being said Tim, I also have a question; which of the other systems will most behave like a studio flash, rather than a 580EX?

Cheers
Ray

Thanks for the site. I have found it very interesting.

I have just bought an Acute B 600R. I did look at the Hensel but the local sales guy was such a pain I spent my money elesewhere.

Just having the one head is a limitation – so I am looking at a second unit – do the larger Profoto units allow for faster sync speeds than the 1/250 of a sec for Acute B?

I have used a cable syn which gives me results to 1/320 but as soon as I go radio I am back to 1/250. In Australia I find it hard to get great blue skies with the fill in flash at 1/250 without using an ND filter.

Cheers

Mal

In the end I went for the Lencarta Safari, which is cheap and cheerful but which does everything I need it to do, and which gives well over a thousand flashes to a charge. The only alternative I considered seriously was the Profoto, but I couldn’t justify the cost difference.

The Quadra looks to be a great little system, and I love the fact that it’s compatible with the Ranger heads. 400Ws may be just a tad underpowered, but for many this may not be an issue. I haven’t checked to see if there’s a compatible bi-tube head, but this may be worth researching because it’ll give you 800Ws if you need it.

The Acute’s 600Ws has an advantage there, offering 1200Ws when twinned up.

For me personally the Elinchrom mount is a big problem. The Bowens mount drives me crazy, and I’ve never heard any one else complain about that, so with the number of people who complain about the Elinchrom mount I imagine that it would probably ruin the experience totally for me. I need to be able to change modifiers quickly and easily without adding to the stress of the shoot.

Tim

Thanks

Ian

Thanks for the information, I’m sure that they’ll be many people interested to know this.

Personally I was comparing higher end stuff than the Alien Bees, but they certainly represent excellent value for money.

Tim

However I think you should look again at the Alien Bees. They will shortly be available in Europe. With an exciting new range Alien Bees MAX. The specification looks impressive. Although Monobloc heads they can be powered from a cheap battery setup.

http://www.paulcbuff.com/pcb2009/ab_max.html

http://www.pcb.gotham.ch/en/index.php?page=549

Martin

Great comparison, I’m looking for a location flash unit myself and difficult to find good information on this type of gear, possibly because it is a niche market within a niche. I am looking at the Hensel Lithium system, partly because I use Hensel studio flash, and also because I fly a fair bit.

Just one thing I would say is an important consideration is sync speed for flash units. I believe that the older units (a couple of versions back) did not correctly synch at speeds higher than 1/125th. I do know that the Porty Premium and Lithium (and perhaps others) sync at 1/250th. Effectively this is (kind of) like having double the power and also would help freeze action in mixed lighting situations.

I’m not sure how other manufacturers compare, while I haven’t given it a huge effort, it is not always easy to find this out.

Hope this helps. Thanks for the great work!

Josh.

Yes, that could be a very important feature. None of the manufacturers mention weather resistance so it’s hard to compare to the other makes.

Yes, this is Elinchrom’s key advantage – a tightly intregrated system. It’s great that you can have a super portable system that’ll accept your existing modifiers and Ranger heads. It gives you lots of options.

Profoto’s Acute heads will of course accept the full range of modifiers too, but not being able to use Pro Heads on an Acute means spending more cash than necessary….

Tim

There’s not a whole lot of point in buying into another system and end up buying more modifiers.