Profoto: Spot smalls, Fresnel, and precision lighting.

[kevs]

I'm trying to expand my Profoto and lighting muscles. I own a bunch of D1's, and own the Mangum, small grids, and Beauty dish white.

I just rented the Fresnel small. It was great. But where you can find it, it's $1600.00.  Perplexes me as it's just a round pice of metal with some glass. (not like a Canon/ Nikon lens or even the light head itself, which took hundreds of hours of engineering and design, and a huge staff to create -- am i being too harsh? )  Apparently  Bowens made it for them and they went out of business. If I found the Bowens for sale, how hard is it to put a Profoto speed ring on it, difficult?  And any other Fresnel suggestions, please.  I could buy the Profoto but is it worth $1600 to anybody? (you can get very close to that dramatic look also with a few grids I think). But I do dig the product - fresnel small.

Profoto Spot Small with inserts, read a cool article about this. Again not made anymore. I imagine it would be hard to get these used, and most likely over- priced. Any opinions on this? I like the idea of being able to get a straight line or lines - for example, a sharp rectangle of light with precise lines, on a persons face (for portrait). Ideas of this topic appreciated. Open to 3rd party ideas if not too complicated.

[funfoto]

You might check out the Profoto MultiSpot...the price isn't for the faint of heart, but it's fantastic.

[Watermelon_seller]

I'm trying to expand my Profoto and lighting muscles. I own a bunch of D1's, and own the Mangum, small grids, and Beauty dish white.

I just rented the Fresnel small. It was great. But where you can find it, it's $1600.00.  Perplexes me as it's just a round pice of metal with some glass. (not like a Canon/ Nikon lens or even the light head itself, which took hundreds of hours of engineering and design, and a huge staff to create -- am i being too harsh? )  Apparently  Bowens made it for them and they went out of business. If I found the Bowens for sale, how hard is it to put a Profoto speed ring on it, difficult?  And any other Fresnel suggestions, please.  I could buy the Profoto but is it worth $1600 to anybody? (you can get very close to that dramatic look also with a few grids I think). But I do dig the product - fresnel small.

Profoto Spot Small with inserts, read a cool article about this. Again not made anymore. I imagine it would be hard to get these used, and most likely over- priced. Any opinions on this? I like the idea of being able to get a straight line or lines - for example, a sharp rectangle of light with precise lines, on a persons face (for portrait). Ideas of this topic appreciated. Open to 3rd party ideas if not too complicated.

Forum lurker chiming in.
Perhaps the Hive Lighting adjustable fresnel would work for you? Cheaper ($399) and it looks it uses a Profoto mount, for some strange reason. Doesn't have an iris but the fresnel lens is can be adjusted, I think it would give a spread between 15 - 50 degrees, definitely not as narrow as the Profoto can give you. It can hold gobos in the front. I've had one in my wishlist for some months now.