I'm not a big raveboy when it comes to photography equipment. There's always drawbacks and negative points about everything.
But I must say I was NEVER happier with anything I've ever purchased for photography (beside the Mamiya RZ67 back then maybe) than the Elinchrom equipment. It's just been flawless all around (I'm not counting the one modeling light I needed to change haha).
I'd say Elinchrom is one of the most underestimated lighting brands out there. They have excellent engineering, great equipment and best-in-class pricing (at least here where I am in Switzerland).
I have mainly the Digital 1200 RX powerpacks and the portable Ranger RX Speed (1100Ws).
You can get about 4 of these packs for the price of one profoto. I don't know about you guys but I prefer to have only one light per pack (faster recycle, no asymetry needed, no thinking about which light you need to turn up or down, etc). For that setup the small power packs are great. Certainly they have multiple sockets and you could attach multiple light to them if you wanted to too.
Pros for elinchrom:
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- Cheap
- Easily adjustable as buttons are illuminated (unlike some Profoto stuff that is hard to adjust in a dark studio)
- Power (f-stop) is displayed in red bright type (with profoto you need to sometimes calculate how much power you have depending on switches, knobs and which socket the light is plugged in - a real pain if you're mixing lights from different brands)
- Great light
- Solid built - doesn't feel cheap or delicate
- Superb light modifiers with simple yet intelligent design (softboxes open like an umbrella -> no shitty rods and adapter rings)
- Generally intelligent design: For example you just press two buttons on the side of the Ranger RX and the battery stays on the floor while you just put the Ranger over a second battery. No dirty hands, battery change takes 5 seconds! (With profoto you need to put the B2R on the side, then grab the dirty clumsy battery handles that have been standing in the mud all day long. Profoto batteries can only go in one way and you never know what is the right way - with Elinchrom you can put them in 180 degrees
- You can put up an Elinchrom Okta 190cm within 1 minute (try that with a profoto 7foot reflector)
- Equipment is usually quite compact and doesn't need a lot of space
- Equipment is light. The Profoto B2R 1200Ws (12 kg) is about 50% heavier than the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed 1100 (8 kg)
- A new even lighter portable Elinchrom pack with very compact heads will be available next year
- batteries on the Ranger RX Speed usually hold for an entire day (with the Profoto B2R I'm charging them all the time and yet they only last for a few hours)
- Elinchrom feels like a system. Everything works together. (Have you ever tried connecting a head from a B2R to a D4? Doesn't work. An acute ringflash to a B2R? Doesn't work. Just two examples. It seems like profoto just buys stuff from different OEM's and rebrands it)
- Elinchrom service is fantastic and they did even some modifications I asked them to do on my power packs when I was there. Right away. A profoto B2R and the Ringflash that didn't constantly fire (or only half the bulb) is still in service after more than 2 weeks. If it was that bullet proof I'd expect that the lightbulb can be replaced in 10 minutes... or that it wouldn't break in the first place because I'm hardly ever using it
- The Ranger RX Speed is almost waterproof. It has caps for all sockets (unlike the Profoto B2R with it's open sockets). I was shooting in snow, heavyheavy rain -> never even the slightest problem with the Elinchrom Rangers
- I really like that the light modifiers can only be mounted and not zoomed. That way you always have the optimum light that the engineers calculated. You know the properties of every lightmodifier and it doesn't change to something strange just because you mounted it too far to the front or the back.
Cons Elinchrom:
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- Design is not necesarrily their strong point. I'd prefer black powerpacks and a more technical type. But honestly... does it matter?
- No integrated wireless flash triggering -> oh wait... they have Skyport now. Otherwise I'm using the same PocketWizard PlusII Transceivers that I'm using for Profoto packs anyway
I guess I have a hard time coming up with any other cons as it's just been working flawlessly for years. I'm very interested in the new smaller portable packs and will buy them as soon as they are available too.
Profoto Pros
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- You can rent it anywhere (so if you're used to it you won't need to adapt/learn other equipment)
- Professional image and cool design
- Pocketwizards can be built-in usually which I really like
Profoto Cons
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- Oh yeah, if you have a B2R with the Proring ringflash you can't use it for your powerpacks. You need to buy an acute ringflash for that.
- With Profoto you usually have a donut with a darker center or hotspot in the middle if you're shooting on location and the modeling light is not bright enough to check). Some will say this is an advantage and they may be right if you're just traveling with a standard reflector. But if you rent anyway you just take the appropriate light modifier and you don't need to "zoom" around
- I hate adapter rings and the rods. It's a pain to put together a fresh Profoto striplight or softbox and take it apart. I'd say women could have a hard time as I was fighting with Profoto softboxes already and I'm working out. On the other hand side any women can put up an Elinchrom Octa 190cm because it's just like an umbrella.
- Damn overpriced -> the light is not better at all than even brands cheaper than Elinchrom
- I hate it that some of the packs have no illumination of the controls
- Some packs are not displaying the power or f-stop
- Battery in the B2R is cumersome, heavy and quickly empty
- etc etc etc I'm tired. Basicly the only reason to get Profoto is if you have cash you want to burn but you're too concerned about CO2 and climate warming to actually do it. Profoto lighting equipment is not giving you better pictures than elinchrom, bron, or whatever else there is. You'd be better of saving that money and investing it on other gear, backgrounds, stylists, etc. IMHO
