Profoto's or........

Ok maybe ya'll can help me tip the scale here.

I was a heavy fashion/commercial photographer and I've since moved to more weddings and fine portraiture on location. I've sold most of my studio Profoto gear and now I'm left with one set of Acute 2 1200w/s which include 2 heads two speed rings and one profoto beauty dish. These babies are sitting in their case in my extra bedroom seeing very little use. I'm trying to decide whether to sell all my profoto gear and just get multiple 580exII's or keep the profoto's "just in case" The practical side of me is saying sell and buy the gear you will actually use but the hoarder/snob/prideful side of me is saying keep the prestigious profoto's any input folks?

J

I agree with the hoarder/snob/prideful side. "Just in case" you never know! If finances allow you to buy the 580's, why not?
Then again, i'm new at this, I'm not even sure what Profoto's are. =-0

Do you feel that you will use the 580ex more? You can always rent a pack and heads for a job that needs them but if you feel that speedlites will be better suited for what you want(less power and well, not studio strobes).

Nick

I'd sell the profoto's pick up an Elinchrom Quadra and maybe a 580EX also.

yes that's what I've been using a lot lately my 580exII mixed with ambient light. but yes there is a very respectable rental house here in Dallas that specializes in Profoto gear so I could always rent profoto gear if needed.

Well the "fine portraiture on location" makes me think you need a battery powered strobe. Yes to a 580EXII but I'd think of something, at least one strobe that's battery powered, a beauty dish and something in a softbox. Wedding stuff I don't know, it's never been an interest for me.

Be practical and get what you need or will put to use. Retaining something merely for the prestige of owning it is absurd.

Hey those Ranger Quadra's don't sound too bad but 400w/s seems a bit low? Does anyone else use these lights? going from 1200w/s to 400w/s is pretty rough no?

lapiqurestudios wrote in post #12006463
Hey those Ranger Quadra's don't sound too bad but 400w/s seems a bit low? Does anyone else use these lights? going from 1200w/s to 400w/s is pretty rough no?

The Ranger RX AS Speed is 1100 Ws and is transportable. It's much heavier than the Quadra but it's also much more robust and weather resistant than the Quadra is.

lapiqurestudios wrote in post #12006463
Hey those Ranger Quadra's don't sound too bad but 400w/s seems a bit low? Does anyone else use these lights? going from 1200w/s to 400w/s is pretty rough no?

The Quadra is a little less than 2 stops difference from the Acute but quite a bit more powerful than the 580's and not much more weight wise than a 580 with a battery pack.

In my experience about the only people who are impressed with the logo on lighting equipment are other photographers, and maybe the occasional art director.

Right now the best bang of the buck along with versatility and weight is an Einstein with Vagabond Mini. Unfortunately, they are on backorder.

Ranger Quadra is a nice package, remember to get the adapter to use the Elinchrom modifiers.

If you are going location portraiture and want to have equipment that will also be useful for wedding Speedlites are nice. (Small and light) The 8 cell packs are inexpensive, if you are willing to buy knock offs, and they work well.

If you prefer manual to TTL, then you can buy a bag full of YN 560 manual speedlites for about $90 per. Another $50 for an 8 cell pack and you are good to go for a long time. In fact Yonguno (sp?) has the flash units, packs and remotes. They are available from several sources. Just about the same output as a 580EXII.

And for portraiture, with the light in a modifier and close to the subject a 580EX if well below full power. Its even reasonable to expect to have a sunny background properly exposed with the speedlite lighting the subject.

If you want to use TTL then PocketWizard ControlTL and get some Nissin Di866 Pros. Again the packs add benefits. Incidently, Pocket Wizard has module for incorporate certain Elinchrom lights with ControlTL. Also, are about ready to introduce a module for the Einstein. (Already have a module for the older Buff lights.)

Newer cameras do well even at ISO 800 or higher so light from 3 or 4 speedlites goes a long way.

Thanks dmward, and all of ya'll.

For me a big part was getting rid of the profoto's because of the pack to head set up and still needing to power the pack. If they were monolights at least I'd be more inclined to keeping them because I could get an external power source like the vagabond mini. Profoto's have always been good to me and to be honest I've never used anything else, well except 580exII's. That's why I'm so nervous about jumping on another system. Elinchrom is one of the few systems that I think can compete with Profoto and the price is very attractive. Darn it! I hope I don't kick myself in the ass for getting rid of the profoto's.

I have conflicting ideas on this. On the one hand I think you should sell it if you don't need it, but why sell it to buy another brand if you already like working with what you have. For portraiture you should have something other than 580's.

I'm also not sure about peoples obsession with high powered strobes. I have never needed 1200ws indoors or out. Unless you need to light a huge object or space I don't see the point. I find that indoors my ab1600 which is only 640ws is often too strong. Can someone explain this need for power?

Will the Acute 2 heads work with the Profoto 600W battery pack? I'm not under the impression that people buy Profoto to impress someone, I seriously got interested in them because rental houses seem to carry them because they are durable and what many pros prefer to use. They are not nearly the most expensive but considered really good lights, and many have stated that they really like the quality of the light that the heads put out. That said, a lot of those pros who use Profoto, don't use only Profoto modifiers.

Elinchrom has a reputation for taking a long time to get things repaired, that counts for something. I really like Elinchrom gear but wish I had your Acute 2 setup and considered swapping to just that last fall. My reasons came from a whole bunch of reading and questions but in the end I decided to keep what I have and spend my money on the modifers that I really, really wanted which was 2 Mola BD's, the Demi and Euro and the Elinchrom 74" Octabank and it's been a good decision, if I decide to switch later, it's just a matter of speedring adaptors. I would love to have one of the 600W Profoto powerpacks and heads, I've looked at them a lot at my store, and for me 600W would be enough.

But I am retired and don't work that much so there's no point that I can see for spending a whole lot more into this stuff, I got what I want to play with and for the last 3 weeks have been doing portrait sessions 5 days a week to mess with looks and further develop any style and idea I may want to try. With that, for me the most intersting thing will be the new powerpack that TMR has been telling us about that can be used with my multivoltage Elinchrom heads.

RE: Alien Bees, there are people here who thing they are the greatest thing going, but I've also read so much stuff about people having problems or waiting for their orders or really long times. It seems the thing that they are really good at is there servicing problems and that counts for something. But from what I've read here on POTN since 2007, I wouldn't touch them.

Jannie, I think you're on to something. Maybe I should just try and trade my profoto head and pack kit for a profoto battery pack and head kit. I was a very busy pro working on editorial and Fashion for publications and shooting for several fashion designers and their look books and new release clothing lines. But now I've really just been fed up with the fashion industry and it's inner working so I've decided to change up my business plan to do more Portraiture and Weddings. So far these outdoor location portrait sessions I've been very successful with a simple 580EX II set up but I have needed some stronger light on just a few occasions but oh my gosh that profoto set up is so not portable. And no Jannie, my acute heads are not compatible with the 600b power pack. There is a reason why "pro's" use profoto though.