Profoto D2

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I don't quite get the Profoto design... what's with the recessed flash tube? Does it work in beauty dishes?

fwiw I'm really enjoying my newly acquired Lencarta Superfast. It may not have TTL or HSS but I expect the 1/20000 t0.1 time is comparable to Profoto's 1/63000 t0.5 time, and it can just about do 20 flashes per second at minimum power. Plus it's a quarter of the price.. and even less if bought second hand ;)

@Garry Edwards any chance of an HSS-capable version of the Superfast? Or even a firmware update?


Bernadette III by Simon Carter, on Flickr
 
So Profoto has gone IGBT for mains studio heads. That's quite a significant step, and with 1000Ws power :thumbs:

Shame they've stuck with a hot halogen modelling lamp though. At Profoto prices, couldn't they put in a nice bright cool-running and daylight-balanced LED? Some real advantages to that - anyone know if there's a technical reason why not?
 
HoppyUK said:
So Profoto has gone IGBT for mains studio heads. That's quite a significant step, and with 1000Ws power (y)

Shame they've stuck with a hot halogen modelling lamp though. At Profoto prices, couldn't they put in a nice bright cool-running and daylight-balanced LED? Some real advantages to that - anyone know if there's a technical reason why not?
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it's interesting that for the B1 and B2, they've stuck with tungsten balance modelling lights rather than daylight - presumably for compatibility across the range?

The profoto tube is quite small, perhaps they can't fit an emitter powerful enough, and with the required heatsink, behind the tube? Also sure it'll help keep selling their more expensive modifiers too.... I'll ask next time I see their guys

I look forward to using them, I'm sure they'll be fantastic, those specs are very impressive. They're releasing t times in graph form soon on their site apparently for the geekily inclined.


Part of me also hopes this means I might be able to buy some cheap(er) D1s.... :)
 
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itsdavedotnet said:
it's interesting that for the B1 and B2, they've stuck with tungsten balance modelling lights rather than daylight - presumably for compatibility across the range?

The profoto tube is quite small, perhaps they can't fit an emitter powerful enough, and with the required heatsink, behind the tube? Also sure it'll help keep selling their more expensive modifiers too.... I'll ask next time I see their guys

I look forward to using them, I'm sure they'll be fantastic, those specs are very impressive. They're releasing t times in graph form soon on their site apparently for the geekily inclined.


Part of me also hopes this means I might be able to buy some cheap(er) D1s.... :)
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Be interesting to see what Profoto has to say re the modelling lamp (y) Colour consistency with other heads is handy (it may be possible make LEDs with switchable colour from daylight to tungsten?), and I guess they're trying to keep brightness similar to other heads for the best visual match at proportional settings, but...

The battery-powered Profoto B1 has a pretty good LED modelling lamp. Profoto says it's equivalent to a 75W halogen, compared to 300W halogen in the mains powered units. My own tests back that up, measuring roughly two stops down (but bright for a battery flash). An LED lamp would obviously run cool, so no problem at full whack with small softboxes, snoots, reflectors with grids etc. Daylight balance would prevent any colour contamination when the flash is on very low power. You could also use a decent continuous LED lamp for video, or as a handy workaround for shooting at very low f/numbers like f/1.4 though it would really need to be brighter than the B1's for that.

All this should be possible, I just can't see what the problem is. Maybe Profoto is working on it for the D3 ;)
 
I think that one of the main limitations for LED modelling lamps is the surface area available. High intensity LED's are very directional and would require a lot more real estate than a filament lamp (of whatever type). Priolite have gone down the LED route but have max'd out at the equivalent output of a 100w halogen.....fine using a snoot or refelctive brolley but it starts to get less appealing when being aimed through several layers of diffusion material and simultaneously spread out to the edges of a typical softbox. The Adaptalux macro led lights highlight the problem albeit on a much smaller scale. They throw a very commendable amount of light into the centre of their target but the edge fall-off is dramatic to say the least.

Bob
 
I'm surprised, as most halogens will be banned In two years time for general use. I'm not sure of the studio situation but certainly for domestic and commercial use regulations are clamping down on all inefficient light sources.

I work in commercial lighting and the advance of LEDs in the last two years has been extraordinary, there really shouldn't be a problem with today's thermal management.
Certainly interested to know what will happen for this use. Here's a quick link:

http://luxreview.com/article/2015/04/ec-puts-off-halogen-ban-until-2018
 
Doubt if that would include studio lighting, and besides will it affect the UK if were not in the EU
 
Livin The Dream said:
I'm surprised, as most halogens will be banned In two years time for general use. I'm not sure of the studio situation but certainly for domestic and commercial use regulations are clamping down on all inefficient light sources.

I work in commercial lighting and the advance of LEDs in the last two years has been extraordinary, there really shouldn't be a problem with today's thermal management.
Certainly interested to know what will happen for this use. Here's a quick link:

http://luxreview.com/article/2015/04/ec-puts-off-halogen-ban-until-2018
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It's got to be possible, maybe not that easily and/or cheaply, but it must surely be on the way.

In fact, I can easily imagine lighting manufacturers taking the idea of a bright LED modelling lamp a big stage further, to create a dual purpose flash/stills and LED/video light with the continuous light brightness of say Jinbei's LED 100 (claimed equivalent 1000w tungsten) http://www.lightingrumours.com/jinbeis-s-fit-sun-led-uses-90-less-energy-1971
 
HoppyUK said:
It's got to be possible, maybe not that easily and/or cheaply, but it must surely be on the way.

In fact, I can easily imagine lighting manufacturers taking the idea of a bright LED modelling lamp a big stage further, to create a dual purpose flash/stills and LED/video light with the continuous light brightness of say Jinbei's LED 100 (claimed equivalent 1000w tungsten) http://www.lightingrumours.com/jinbeis-s-fit-sun-led-uses-90-less-energy-1971
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Yes, not only is it possible but it's happening now, and it will soon be as cheap as chips.

The reason for these developments is that the use of continuous lighting for video has exploded - video is now taking over from still photography.
Secondly, people are moving away from 'proper' cameras to phone cameras, which need continuous lighting.
The Jinbei light is outdated, better products are becoming available elsewhere.

What's holding these developments up (we could have had them 2 years ago, at a technical/production level) is that all of the new product development takes place in China, and the Chinese manufacturers aren't photographers, they don't value input from photographers and so they won't spend money on new product developement until they see that their competitiors are doing so.
 
HoppyUK said:
Be interesting to see what Profoto has to say re the modelling lamp (y) Colour consistency with other heads is handy (it may be possible make LEDs with switchable colour from daylight to tungsten?), and I guess they're trying to keep brightness similar to other heads for the best visual match at proportional settings, but...
;)
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indeed, the guys that do their roadshows etc are usually pretty candid, we'll see - I imagine that consistency across their other lights was the main reason.

Switchable daylight / tungsten would require basically half the brightness for the same physical size, as you need bicolour LEDs which are basically two emitters, same as most bicolour LED panels etc out there - unless they did something very clever with remote phosphor.

What I would really very much like to see from profoto is a LED head, to replace their rather doomed and inordinately expensive HMI.
 
A great improvement over the D1! Adding in some HSS capability from the B1
 
Garry and those well up on the design and manufacture of studio heads and lighting, if halogen lights are going to be banned in the near future, what is likely to happen to all our studio heads which run modelling lights based on these - will they become obsolete in the very near future and we will all have to reinvest in entirely new heads or will it be possible to change the modelling lamps to some other design which will fit the present heads and still comply with regulations?
 
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ryanyboy said:
Looks very nice doesn't it. Shame it's mains powered :(
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Another one for Garry perhaps - Can the Lencarta Superfasts be run on any kind of battery pack? I have in the past at the NEC photo shows seen large powerpacks that allow normal 3 pin plugs to be plugged in them. Would this be viable or is there some issue I don't understand?

Juggler, thats a nice image.
 
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MidnightUK said:
if halogen lights are going to be banned in the near future, what is likely to happen to all our studio heads which run modelling lights based on these - will they become obsolete in the very near future and we will all have to reinvest in entirely new heads or will it be possible to change the modelling lamps to some other design which will fit the present heads and still comply with regulations?
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No, not at all!

The ban is for the introduction of new gear on the EU market
but the supply of the "older" halogen will go on for as long as
the demand will exist.
 
MidnightUK said:
Garry and those well up on the design and manufacture of studio heads and lighting, if halogen lights are going to be banned in the near future, what is likely to happen to all our studio heads which run modelling lights based on these - will they become obsolete in the very near future and we will all have to reinvest in entirely new heads or will it be possible to change the modelling lamps to some other design which will fit the present heads and still comply with regulations?
Click to expand...
There are exemptions in place for specialist lamps. Even if these exemptions are cancelled at some future point, there is no reason why LED Modelling lamps can't replace the existing Halostar lamps, although with the existing technology at least, they will be either on or off - not adjustable for power - but that wouldn't matter because there isn't really a real world need for adjustable modelling lamps anyway.

MidnightUK said:
Another one for Garry perhaps - Can the Lencarta Superfasts be run on any kind of battery pack? I have in the past at the NEC photo shows seen large powerpacks that allow normal 3 pin plugs to be plugged in them. Would this be viable or is there some issue I don't understand?

Juggler, thats a nice image.
Click to expand...
Yes, the SuperFast can be run from any battery pack that has sufficient power. Not counting the modelling lamp, which isn't normally used outdoors anyway, the 300/600 model only consumes about 360/660 W.
 
MidnightUK said:
Another one for Garry perhaps - Can the Lencarta Superfasts be run on any kind of battery pack? I have in the past at the NEC photo shows seen large powerpacks that allow normal 3 pin plugs to be plugged in them. Would this be viable or is there some issue I don't understand?

Juggler, thats a nice image.
Click to expand...

You mean like the Godox or Innovatronix battery packs. They will work with just about anything, though there are exceptions. Just keep the modelling lamp off or they go flat quite quickly.
 
[QUOTE="Yes, the SuperFast can be run from any battery pack that has sufficient power. Not counting the modelling lamp, which isn't normally used outdoors anyway, the 300/600 model only consumes about 360/660 W.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the staggeringly rapid reply Garry. I am very ignorant of electrical supplies. If I am looking for a power pack, what specs do I need to look for or is 660w enough (for SF600) information?

Do Lencarta supply power packs?
 
MidnightUK said:
Thanks for the staggeringly rapid reply Garry. I am very ignorant of electrical supplies. If I am looking for a power pack, what specs do I need to look for or is 660w enough (for SF600) information?

Do Lencarta supply power packs?
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See my post above. The problem with battery packs is they're expensive and heavy, and now that custom-made location battery flash has big power at much lower prices than just a couple of years ago, and in monolight packages that are no bigger or heavier than a regular mains monolight, that's the route most people are taking.

In fact, new units like the the Godox AD600 look like they could be equally at home with either battery or mains power.
 
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I ran 2 SuperFast 600's off a Godox LP800 for this shot:-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/16585849580/in/dateposted-public/

Recycle times are a bit slower, but as the lights are IGBT, if the output is low enough they will still put out 4 or 5 with no delay at all before they run out of juice and need to recharge. Hardly ever use it though - as Richard says, they are inefficient, and very heavy. Lights like the Safari and AD600 that have portable power designed for the job are just much more usable.

Adorama are already selling an AC power supply for the AD600 (Flashpoint Xplor 600 in their world). It attaches in place of the battery.
http://www.adorama.com/fpppx600ac.html


Here are some dimmable LED packages designed to replace halogen lamps:-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dimmable-...hash=item2a6cbb4075:m:mkqUBlwaWjFWnuqIjWAfLig

They're only 6W LEDs right now, (about the same sort of light output as a 30watt halogen) so not really powerful enough to use as a modelling light unless the ambient light is really low. I keep an eye on this as I would like to use modelling lamps with gels.
 
Please keep us posted on your LED quest Owen :thumbs:
 
HoppyUK said:
the Godox AD600 look like they could be equally at home with either battery or mains power.
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Essential (Pixapro) will be selling the mains power adaptor for these in November for anyone interested
 
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