I've had a shocking month with my previously totally reliable PCB Einsteins. Three expensive failures inside a month. It's shattered my confidence in them. Luckily I have six of them so breakdowns while on jobs have been limited to annoying changeovers rather than ruining the shoot. I always take spare everything!
It's got me looking at alternatives. I'd get four heads initially. On the list being considered are:
Elinchrom ELC PRO 500 (looks good, premium price)
Elinchrom BRX 500 (half the price, what's missing?)
Profoto D1 500 Air (I dumped unreliable & heavy Profoto Compact 600's to get Einsteins)
Then there are dozens of Chinese alternatives which I don't know whether to trust or not.
Anyone been down this road? Whatever I get will be used solidly, carted from studio to locations and occasionally air-freighted. I don't necessarily need battery power, TTL or HSS. Fully manual is fine.
What I did love about the Einsteins is their huge power range, compact dimensions and light weight, not to mention low price and inexpensive modifiers. But reliability is paramount when your business depends on it.
-pw
It's got me looking at alternatives. I'd get four heads initially. On the list being considered are:
Elinchrom ELC PRO 500 (looks good, premium price)
Elinchrom BRX 500 (half the price, what's missing?)
Profoto D1 500 Air (I dumped unreliable & heavy Profoto Compact 600's to get Einsteins)
Then there are dozens of Chinese alternatives which I don't know whether to trust or not.
Anyone been down this road? Whatever I get will be used solidly, carted from studio to locations and occasionally air-freighted. I don't necessarily need battery power, TTL or HSS. Fully manual is fine.
What I did love about the Einsteins is their huge power range, compact dimensions and light weight, not to mention low price and inexpensive modifiers. But reliability is paramount when your business depends on it.
-pw