A Canon Speedlite EL-10 is coming in 2021 [CR2]

[privatebydesign]

With Einsteins, what do you do when you need high speed sync? Love my White Lightning Ultra 1800s, but the Godox AD-600 with HSS led me to put the Ultras on the shelf. The Ultras were pretty revolutionary when they were introduced. The Cyber Commander was a valuable upgrade, but once you get a taste of HSS it is hard to go back.

ND filters. But with the 1 series cameras you can easily push the Einsteins to 1/400 sec if you frame with a small band in mind. Though I rarely use them like that because I can gang the 7 600’s I have, not that I bought them to gang, but they work well like that.

In the tests I have done HSS loses far too much power compared to Hypersync so I’d be very reluctant to move to HSS ‘studio’ lights. Far rather go to a Hypersync solution if I had the need. Having said that PCB have been teasing the Link light for quite a while now and it sounds like after testing it went into a bit of a redesign but is due soon. Maybe I’ll pick up one of them when it comes out to see if I need the capability.

 

[goldenhusky]

Canon is going to jack up the price like crazy. Like many others said before, I cannot get my head to wrap around the idea of a $1100 flash and same with the $1000 grip. The ORLIT RoveLight RT 610 TTL and the Godox speedlite serves me well. I do have a Canon Speedlite 600EX II-RT but I have not used that in a while now. I don't see myself buying Canon flashes at these ridiculous prices.

 

[criscokkat]

It is a hard price to swallow but so is the price of Profoto who seems to be doing well among the pros. I have 2 Godox flashes which are knockoffs of my 4 Canon 600EX speed lights. Godox is a great value but not close to the Canon speed lights in build quality. When a Godox quits working, just throw it away and order a new one.

Actually, just buy a flashpoint from Adorama for roughly the same price as a Godox from amazon and you'll have the same exact unit but with support and a good warranty.

 

[Richard Anthony]

I have the Westcott 400's strobes , and Westcott has just released the FJ80 Speedlight and FJ 200's strobes , I have been doing Christmas Children's and families shoots with the 400's and they have more than paid for themselves , I have now ordered an FJ80 to see how it works with the system .

 

[Bdbtoys]

I have the Westcott 400's strobes , and Westcott has just released the FJ80 Speedlight and FJ 200's strobes , I have been doing Christmas Children's and families shoots with the 400's and they have more than paid for themselves , I have now ordered an FJ80 to see how it works with the system .

That's funny that you mention Westcott. Just watched a rant last night on YT from Robert Hall on them.

 

[Richard Anthony]

That's funny that you mention Westcott. Just watched a rant last night on YT from Robert Hall on them.

Thanks for that hadn't seen that video , I will be looking into Jinbei now , the FJ 400 is identical to the HD400 pro from Jinbei , I haven't had any issues with the FJ400 , but I would be happy to use the Jinbei lights and save some money .

 

[danfaz]

Who wants to put an EL-1 on a small mirrorless camera body for all day shooting?

Me

 

[Bdbtoys]

Thanks for that hadn't seen that video , I will be looking into Jinbei now , the FJ 400 is identical to the HD400 pro from Jinbei , I haven't had any issues with the FJ400 , but I would be happy to use the Jinbei lights and save some money .

No Problem... yeah don't know what the big deal is with the rebrand. Godox/Flashpoint pretty much broke that ground... and now, not many care. BTW, I totally agree with RH's frustrations in that video.

 

[jonnopi]

More about specs would be interesting though *sigh

I agree. I do mainly birds would like more on specs. You mainly get lighting for portraits etc with Speedlite info??

 

[SilverBox]

If this is a more-durable, battery-pack version of the ex430RT, I'll take five of them

Who wants to put an EL-1 on a small mirrorless camera body for all day shooting? Not me.

I still use my old school 430ex almost every other day, a real workhorse and light as a feather!

 

[Talys]

If this is a more-durable, battery-pack version of the ex430RT, I'll take five of them

Who wants to put an EL-1 on a small mirrorless camera body for all day shooting? Not me.

The problem with the flash is that there are no freebies. If you want a lot of light it won't be small, and a lot of the rest of it is trading generic dime a dozen batteries for expensive proprietary lithium rechargeables.

Canon flashes have always been expensive relative to after market so I don't think any of us should be shocked. However, as many have said, there are good (great) alternatives running the entire price spectrum which we may avail ourselves of, and for that matter there's nothing wrong with buying a cheap used flash.

Regaddjng Yongnuo flashes, they are great knockoffs and I purchased more than my fair share (at least 5). However, they are definitely a cheaper quality, the battery door is crappy, and thry are less durable. I think the Godox / Flashpoint is a better product, but it is not a true knockoff (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

The godox remote transmitter is fantastic.

 

[David Hull]

Continue reading...

I have never figured out what the EL-1 does to justify an $1100 price tag.

 

[privatebydesign]

I have never figured out what the EL-1 does to justify an $1100 price tag.

Competes with the Profoto A1X with no connection issues ever...

Profoto A1X Off-Camera Flash Kit with Connect for Canon

Buy Profoto A1X Off-Camera Flash Kit with Connect for Canon featuring A1X AirTTL-C Flash for Canon, Connect Wireless CanonTransmitter, Built-In AirTTL, Use On or Off Camera, Faster Recycling: 1 sec, Upgraded Battery: 450 Full Power Flashes, High-Speed Sync, LED Modeling Light, 9-Stop Power...

www.bhphotovideo.com

 

[Bdbtoys]

Competes with the Profoto A1X with no connection issues ever...

With the Godox V1 being a thing (was just on sale for <$140)... both the Canon & Profoto price seems a bit out there.

 

[privatebydesign]

With the Godox V1 being a thing (was just on sale for <$140)... both the Canon & Profoto price seems a bit out there.

Oh I don’t disagree, and seeing as I use so many speedlites there is no way I am in the >$1,000 a head market, just pointing out there are others out there at the same price point. Of course with Profoto being a pure lighting company the A1X is merely part of a much bigger and very complete system, the EL-1 just seems to hang out there on it’s own.

 

[photo212]

I have several 580/600 speedlights, but once I purchased a Profoto A1, my Canon speedlites are destined to find a box next to my Vivitar 283 flashes. While Godox are affordable, I still believe the Profoto brand is better quality and more consistent color temperatures. My decision made more sense for me since I also use Profoto B1X, B2, B10.

Maybe some day I'll want a dozen separate lights for a scene, not yet, and not today, nor tomorrow. Some day.

 

[Kiton]

Canon lost me with flashes at ver 2 of the 600.
I still have 3x 580 and a 430 RT, but I cant see staying with canon for a 1200 cdn dollar flash!

I have 5 cheapies from BH, the Yougnuo 600 RT, that work great with the Canon transmitter. I liked the Canon transmitter better than the Godoz or Yougnuo (same company??)

On camera flash in a big scrum, the Canon 600 (before its death on a courtroom floor) was ever so slightly more consistent than the Yougnuo. Not enough to make a big deal of. Off camera in umbrellas and softboxes the Yougnuo are great.

Like others, if I really need more, I still have a whack of Dyna-lite (sad to see them go under, they were great!)

 

[shawn]

I just heard about that 1099$ flash.. Wow....

I mean, I am a professional photographer, I get it: durable build quality, high output with stable colors, good service, native software communication, a well thought out design (even with a red ring! :-D), internal adjustment light... but still - 1100 USD??? Thats crazy for a flash. You can get a Hensel integra 1000 for that amount of money... thats crazy.

I mean, I have 4 Godox flashes for mobile jobs. They are sturdy, bright, stable, super reliable, great interface, reliable wifi, handy transmitter unit, offer HSS and ETTL.... and cost less than 100 USD each...... 1100 USD....

I hate Godox. I had two AD200's and sold them on eBay. I didn't even push them that hard. The last straw was shooting a wedding and they locked up randomly and had to be restarted. They seemed to get worse and worse the more I used them as well. A few times I went out and they fired consistently but after awhile miss flashes became the norm. In the end out of any ten flashes one or both would misfire half the time unless I waited a couple seconds between shots. I rarely if ever used them at full or even half power so not sure what went wrong with them. I had a thought that it could be bad batteries and that's how they make their money back. If that's the case I'd be buying new batteries every month, seems like a waste.

Anyway, I am currently using Westcott FJ400's and they've been better, but also a little lacking at times. They overheat after about 20-30 minutes at the higher power settings. They're best at 1/4 and lower, which kind of sucks because 1/4 is only 50 watts of power. I got them because I wanted to fill big banquet halls with some background light but they don't quite manage. In medium sized and smaller banquet halls they're great. However, the one good thing I experienced with Westcott is that they updated the firmware on the units and they're currently working pretty well with my Canon 600 EX II RT. The really nice thing about Westcott FJ strobes is that they work with Canon RT. And they can shoot super fast at low power. I think they actually fire at 12fps from my EOS R5. Pretty cool. Not that I would do that at a wedding or event LOL. (I can imagine random people falling out of their chairs in seizures after a few seconds of that...)

Westcott also introduced a new on camera strobe (FJ80) just recently that packs 80ws and can recycle in 1.2 seconds at full power. Not quite Profoto/Canon EL-1 territory but also only $349 vs $1,099.

I expect the FJ80 to be better than the 600 EX II RT and if it manages that it will be well worth the money IMHO.

Canon used to make flashes that could be abused like nothing else, but they've gone down a bad road with their recent stuff. It sounds like the EL-1 is another fluff product that doesn't cut the mustard when push comes to shove. Just looking at the specs is kind of a joke. 170 continuous flashes? Their old stuff would run continuously until the fresnel lens melted and fell off....

Dunno what happened to them but they lost they've become **** peddlers.

 

[shawn]

With Einsteins, what do you do when you need high speed sync? Love my White Lightning Ultra 1800s, but the Godox AD-600 with HSS led me to put the Ultras on the shelf. The Ultras were pretty revolutionary when they were introduced. The Cyber Commander was a valuable upgrade, but once you get a taste of HSS it is hard to go back.

I used to think HSS was a thing as well, turns out it is not a thing, it is a big fat nothing.

With an AD-600 you won't get anywhere near full power with HSS enabled which kind of defeats most purposes in using HSS in the first place. And people seem to forget that you can get the same effect most of the time with an ND filter and using the strobe in normal sync. The one situation I can think of where you need HSS is if something in your background is moving fast like a car. But if we're being honest the picture would probably look better if fast moving objects like cars were a little blurred. Anyway, maybe for an advertisement it could be useful but you'll still need like 4 AD600's to really combat strong sunlight.

There are other issues with HSS that can be encountered such as rolling shutter effects which are never encountered with a normal flash sync.

Basically, you're better off NEVER USING HSS.

It's probably the dumbest feature ever introduced to strobes and just goes to show you can sell useless shit to the ignorant.

On top of it all, the day Canon/Sony/Nikon introduce a global shutter HSS will be officially and indisputably f***ing pointless.

Thanks for reading.

 

[privatebydesign]

Westcott also introduced a new on camera strobe (FJ80) just recently that packs 80ws and can recycle in 1.2 seconds at full power. Not quite Profoto/Canon EL-1 territory but also only $349 vs $1,099.

I expect the FJ80 to be better than the 600 EX II RT and if it manages that it will be well worth the money IMHO.

The Westcott's are just rebranded Jinbei flashes.