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yalemba
14th of March 2004 (Sun), 15:54
I am evaluating a professional-grade strobe set. Can someone please comment on the following choices?

1. Elinchrom
2. Visatec
3. Photogenic

Thanks.
evilenglishman
14th of March 2004 (Sun), 17:11
I *think* I can safely comment that the elinchrom are generally considered the best.
slin100
14th of March 2004 (Sun), 23:41
Among these three, Elinchom is clearly the cream of the crop. Their Style S monolights are among the most feature-packed and exhibit less than average color temperature shift across their power range. I'm very close to buying a pair of 600S monolights, myself. The only significant drawback I've heard is that their main umbrella socket accepts only 7mm umbrellas. Most umbrellas are 8mm.

I don't know much about Visatec except that it's the lower-end range made by Broncolor, which produces truly fantastic and expensive flashes. I did a quick looksee on the specs and, this is truly my opinion, the power range is much more limited than either Elinchrom or Photogenic (3-4 stops vs 6). This might make it difficult to dial down the output.

IMO, Photogenic stands squarely in between Elinchrom and White Lightning. People in general seemed to be happy with them. The good thing about them is that parts are readily available and there's a healthy supply of used equipment on Ebay. For comparison, do a search for either Elinchrom or Visatec on Ebay. You won't find much compared to Photogenic. I hear that service times are below par and their website hasn't been updated in ages.
yalemba
17th of March 2004 (Wed), 18:15
For some reason, it looks like Elinchrom does not offer a matching 'hair/spot light' for their S series stobes. Do you know what type of hair light are Elinchrom users using?
slin100
17th of March 2004 (Wed), 18:26
I'm not sure what you mean. Are you talking about a snoot to convert the strobe to a hairlight? If so, there are two snoots available: the minispot (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=16844&is=REG) and this snoot (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=16873&is=REG).

Or are you talking about a separate light?