Topic: Profoto D1 Air - any experience (Read 8111 times)

Bernhard · « **on:** November 11, 2009, 08:19:08 am »

Hi

I've been thinking about the D1 one since I like the air remote, It will be used with lots of B2r. The PW FlexTT5 will be under the air to fire the B2's

but any experience from any of you, I did test with glass cover that extentes out of the head to get wider spread, didn't see any difference from pro heads

I did a test with the 1000 model of the flash duration and it's quite different from what I'm used to, the sync gets higher with higher wattage?

4.0 - 1/300 s t.01
5.0 - 1/325 s t.01
6.0 - 1/350 s t.01
7.0 - 1/375 s t.01
8.0 - 1/465 s t.01
9.0 - 1/535 s t.01
10.0 -1/700 s t.01

all measuring done with bron fcc meter, to get the t.05 you roughly triple those numbers

and i did some jumping in the studio on full power and there's blur, both with 5dMkII and H2/P45+, see link below:

http://bernhardphotographer.com/lowres/test/

other than that, it's a joy to work with:

CBarrett · « **Reply #1 on:** November 11, 2009, 09:16:02 am »

I got 5 of the 500's about 4months ago to use on interiors. Nothing moves (or at least not fast) in my shots, so flash duration/sync hasn't been an issue. Two of my units had to go in for repair, which was a drag, but under warranty.

I do love these, though. I've used monoblocks from Balcar, Elinchrome and Calumet and these are easily my favorites. Although the Air Remote seems to have 30% less range than PW, I totally dig the output control when I want to dial down that light 12 feet in the air by a third stop.

These throw such beautiful light that I often use them in all hotlight shots with just the modeling lights. The 1/10th stop output adjustment just rocks, for strobe and modeling light.

BTW, I found that if I do actually throw a standard reflector on I get a stop more light, who'd a thought?

-CB

UlfKrentz · « **Reply #2 on:** November 11, 2009, 12:58:27 pm »

Quote from: Bernhard

Hi

I've been thinking about the D1 one since I like the air remote, It will be used with lots of B2r. The PW FlexTT5 will be under the air to fire the B2's

but any experience from any of you, I did test with glass cover that extentes out of the head to get wider spread, didn't see any difference from pro heads

I did a test with the 1000 model of the flash duration and it's quite different from what I'm used to, the sync gets higher with higher wattage?

4.0 - 1/300 s t.01
5.0 - 1/325 s t.01
6.0 - 1/350 s t.01
7.0 - 1/375 s t.01
8.0 - 1/465 s t.01
9.0 - 1/535 s t.01
10.0 -1/700 s t.01

all measuring done with bron fcc meter, to get the t.05 you roughly triple those numbers

and i did some jumping in the studio on full power and there's blur, both with 5dMkII and H2/P45+, see link below:

http://bernhardphotographer.com/lowres/test/

other than that, it's a joy to work with:

Hi,

what are you expecting? These are very short flash durations - 1000J is still a lot of power and it will take time to discharge the capacitors. With the higher powersetting you have more tension at the caps, the shorter flash duration at higher voltage at the same capacitor block meets my experience with other brands.

If you need to freeze motion try the smaller ones (smaller caps->shorter time), hoping they give enough power. You can achieve much shorter flash duration, especially at small powersetting with specially designed packs like the Broncolor Scoro and Grafit packs. They have a nice remote control as well, but I assume you´re in the Pro system already and don´t want to look somewhere else?

Cheers

Ulf

Bernhard · « **Reply #3 on:** November 11, 2009, 06:05:16 pm »

True Ulf, the duration is pretty good but I guess to be able to freeze thinks I will need the Pro8. bron is nice but I don't want the double system problems, my car is toploaded even now with only the profoto when going on location

problem is I'm shooting at 50 iso f16-22 most of the time and therefore need the power

all the best,

Bernhard

UlfKrentz · « **Reply #4 on:** November 12, 2009, 03:37:38 am »

Quote from: Bernhard

True Ulf, the duration is pretty good but I guess to be able to freeze thinks I will need the Pro8. bron is nice but I don't want the double system problems, my car is toploaded even now with only the profoto when going on location

problem is I'm shooting at 50 iso f16-22 most of the time and therefore need the power

all the best,

Bernhard

Hi Bernhard,

I completely understand that, would be the same with us. I read something interesting in the press releases of bron ch. May be you take a look here: http://www.bron.ch/_data/bc_nw_pr_blitzdauer1_en.pdf and http://www.bron.ch/_data/bc_nw_pr_blitzdauer2_en.pdf.
So far as I understand you should try if the Pro8 meets your requirements before you buy it (Might save a lot of money). Do you own Pro7 packs, did you try them? I thought these were the fastest Profoto packs on high power setting. Don´t forget there is also the Profoto twin head which will definitly help reducing flash duration when it´s used with one pack. (We use Twinheads to have shorter flash duration) Please post your experience, I would be interested to get some "real world information".

Cheers

Ulf

ihv · « **Reply #5 on:** November 12, 2009, 07:43:22 am »

Quote from: Bernhard

I did test with glass cover that extentes out of the head to get wider spread, didn't see any difference from pro heads

I was wondering how it works without glass cover with 3' x 4' SF where according to rough calculations only the front diffuser is lit.
Any experiences?

mcfoto · « **Reply #6 on:** November 12, 2009, 08:14:42 am »

Quote from: UlfKrentz

Hi Bernhard,

I completely understand that, would be the same with us. I read something interesting in the press releases of bron ch. May be you take a look here: http://www.bron.ch/_data/bc_nw_pr_blitzdauer1_en.pdf and http://www.bron.ch/_data/bc_nw_pr_blitzdauer2_en.pdf.
So far as I understand you should try if the Pro8 meets your requirements before you buy it (Might save a lot of money). Do you own Pro7 packs, did you try them? I thought these were the fastest Profoto packs on high power setting. Don´t forget there is also the Profoto twin head which will definitly help reducing flash duration when it´s used with one pack. (We use Twinheads to have shorter flash duration) Please post your experience, I would be interested to get some "real world information".

Cheers

Ulf

Hi
We did a flash test which is in the current issue of Better Digital Photography here in Australia. We used a P65+ with a DF body & a 75-150 lens back in June. We put the Bron Scoro up against the Profoto 8 Air with both coming up the same in our books. We always wanted to see this test as I rented the Bron for the flash duration prior to this test. Just did a shoot a few weeks ago with the model running towards the camera, we rented the Profoto 8 Air this time with fantastic results. We kept the ws @ 50-100 to freeze the action. Using the Scoro @ T 1/4000 you are about 125 ws. We have used both systems & in future will rent the Profoto as we own Profoto & have speed rings & a few light shapers. We also prefer the light quality from the Profoto over the Bron but that is just our taste. The D1 does interest me as I am thinking of replacing our compacts with them.
Cheers Denis

UlfKrentz · « **Reply #7 on:** November 14, 2009, 09:34:44 am »

Quote from: mcfoto

Hi
We did a flash test which is in the current issue of Better Digital Photography here in Australia. We used a P65+ with a DF body & a 75-150 lens back in June. We put the Bron Scoro up against the Profoto 8 Air with both coming up the same in our books. We always wanted to see this test as I rented the Bron for the flash duration prior to this test. Just did a shoot a few weeks ago with the model running towards the camera, we rented the Profoto 8 Air this time with fantastic results. We kept the ws @ 50-100 to freeze the action. Using the Scoro @ T 1/4000 you are about 125 ws. We have used both systems & in future will rent the Profoto as we own Profoto & have speed rings & a few light shapers. We also prefer the light quality from the Profoto over the Bron but that is just our taste. The D1 does interest me as I am thinking of replacing our compacts with them.
Cheers Denis

Hi Denis,
did I get you right? You shot with 50-100Ws for your tests? Bernard posted he needs more that 500Ws that´s why I recommended to test the equipment before buying, because I still feel that it might be possible to achieve a too long flash duration for his jobs. Using a twin head will definitly help, especially when using higher wattage. Bron and Pro have a complete different approach to their solutions, but they sure are both fantastic units with their specific pros and cons (and of course there are personal tastes as well). But for the price you have to pay they have to do (and they do) a lot more than fast 50-100WS. (I believe most cheap small compact flash units will have a quite short flash duration.) We´re stuck with bron for power supply using a lot of different brands of modified lampbases (including Profoto) with them and are very happy with it.

Cheers

Ulf

mcfoto · « **Reply #8 on:** November 14, 2009, 06:14:23 pm »

Quote from: UlfKrentz

Hi Denis,
did I get you right? You shot with 50-100Ws for your tests? Bernard posted he needs more that 500Ws that´s why I recommended to test the equipment before buying, because I still feel that it might be possible to achieve a too long flash duration for his jobs. Using a twin head will definitly help, especially when using higher wattage. Bron and Pro have a complete different approach to their solutions, but they sure are both fantastic units with their specific pros and cons (and of course there are personal tastes as well). But for the price you have to pay they have to do (and they do) a lot more than fast 50-100WS. (I believe most cheap small compact flash units will have a quite short flash duration.) We´re stuck with bron for power supply using a lot of different brands of modified lampbases (including Profoto) with them and are very happy with it.

Cheers

Ulf

To get the short flash duration you need to dial down these packs to freeze the action. I have tried dialing down the power on my Profoto compacts & the Alien Bee 800 with unusable results. Real world results are shooting into a monitor & checking @ 100%. Blur is blur that is why the Pro 8 Air & the Scoro/Grafit work. Even the Profoto D4 packs don't have the short flash duration. Yes a bi tube will help. I am not sure about the new D1 units but I would be surprised if they could. My kit is Acute,Compacts & AB 800. When a job comes in where I have to freeze movement we rent the Pro 8 Air or the Scoro.
Cheers Denis

UlfKrentz · « **Reply #9 on:** November 15, 2009, 04:48:19 am »

Quote from: mcfoto

To get the short flash duration you need to dial down these packs to freeze the action. I have tried dialing down the power on my Profoto compacts & the Alien Bee 800 with unusable results. Real world results are shooting into a monitor & checking @ 100%. Blur is blur that is why the Pro 8 Air & the Scoro/Grafit work. Even the Profoto D4 packs don't have the short flash duration. Yes a bi tube will help. I am not sure about the new D1 units but I would be surprised if they could. My kit is Acute,Compacts & AB 800. When a job comes in where I have to freeze movement we rent the Pro 8 Air or the Scoro.
Cheers Denis

Hi Denis,

thanks for sharing.

Cheers

Ulf

julius0377 · « **Reply #10 on:** November 15, 2009, 08:28:42 am »

Quote from: mcfoto

To get the short flash duration you need to dial down these packs to freeze the action. I have tried dialing down the power on my Profoto compacts & the Alien Bee 800 with unusable results.

I thought the new Profoto D1 Air's uses the same technology that Elinchrom does, where you get the shortest flash duration on max power, instead of at minimum. Contrary to most other popular brands as well as the powerpacks like the 8' acutes and D4...

Author Topic: Profoto D1 Air - any experience (Read 8111 times)

CBarrett