Elinchrom Style RX 600 or BXRi 500

I'm looking to advance from a set of 580EX speedlites to a set of monolights to explore studio photography.

I really like to save up and buy quality when I buy, rather than compromising (within reason) - and I am pretty sold on Elichrom after reading up on them and seeing what other POTN members have said about them in the past.

To those of you who use the RX'es - if you were making the choice, what would be the main reasons for getting BXRi's instead - or would you prefer to stick with you RX'es?

Thanks
James

Hello,

I'm a BX owner and user but if I were to upgrade I would not get the BXRi and would opt for the RX. I had a chance to see and play with the Ri's a bit, as well as talk to the people from BogenImaging about the new lights and as cool as they are, they are not of the quality in build or performance of the BX or RX. My take on them was that they were a mix of BX and D-Lite. The built in Skyports are nice if you're using Skyports. The build, in my opinion is not as good as the BX and has aspects that resemble the D-Lite's. Like the D-Lite's the Ri's are not made in Switzerland and are made in India. The controls and swivel mount more closely resemble D-Lite's than the BX or RX.

I'm sure the Ri's will be popular but I don't see them as being in the same class as the BX or the RX which have both been repackaged in the new black and gray cases.

I'll agree (mostly) wih what Robert had to say. I also examined the new 500Ri at PhotoPlus Expo in October and came away with somewhat mixed feelings. I think the current, Swiss-made BX units are better built (or at least give that impression) and I was disappointed to learn that the BX line was being 'cheapened' by by the introduction of units manufactured in India.

Now then, that said, I must add that I was tremendously impressed by the amount of technology Elinchrom has crammed into these lights. It's more than just Skyports. Have a look at this video for a full explanation of the Ri's feature set:

http://www.youtube.com …VpE4&feature=ch​annel_page

US pricing for the 500Ri hasn't been firmly set as yet but Vistek in Canada already has the 2-light kits in stock at a US equivalent price of $1443:

https://www.vistek.ca …mitter-2xsoftbox-bag.aspx

If I were going to add a third light to my two 600RX lights, I'd go for another RX. However, if I were starting from scratch, I think I'd take a long hard look at the 500Ri (depending, of course, on what Bogen does with the pricing).

You say you want to "explore studio photography". That statement doesn't suggest you're intending to subject your lights to heavy-duty professional usage. If that's the case, the Ri lights might be the perfect way for you to start your exploration relatively affordably while giving you an upgrade path to RX units should you feel the need to do so.

Dave F.

Thanks for great advice from both of you, Robert and Dave F. This was exacty the sort of hands-on, first-hand experience-based information I was looking for. I'll definitely need to look closer before I buy, and perhaps define in my mind "exploring studio photography" somewhat more precisely.

Thanks!

If you're not going to be using the strobes on location you may also want to look at the 400BX. I own them and love them. They have more than enough power for a small to mid sized studio and while not feature packed, you do need to ask yourself which features are important. If you want strobes with the necessary controls, proportional modeling lights, quality build and solid performance then there's no reason to discount the BX.
Something else to think about.

I have RX600's in my studio, and if I had to do it again, I'd buy the RX strobes. Again! Saw and played with the BXRi's at the shop, and they're nice enough, but a different league to the RX strobes. Made in India, and overall build just does not inspire the confidence that my RX600's do.

I have and use Skyports with my RX strobes, but prefer to have the Skyport units separate to the strobe - if one fails, I don't have to send the strobe away. Conversely, if the light fails, I can still use the Skyport receiver on another strobe, or my Ranger pack.

As for all the features built into the BXRi's - I couldn't care less! Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they'll come in handy for many people, but personally I prefer to keep things simple. The more features things have, the more chances of this photog to stuff things up. Since I don't use a hybrid system with speedlites, I have no use for "preflash ignore". Changing the power increments in 1/10 of a stop has never been a problem for me, so I don't need to change that. And so on... If they build these things into a future version of the RX strobe, I will likely not use any of them. The only feature that caught my eye was the fact that you can adjust the modeling light to be proportional between different models of monolight, and that is something that could become useful in a studio. Otherwise... if they include the features in all their new models, they'll be there for the people who need them, and give us more options if we ever need them. But... I don't see myself using most of those features inside a studio!

Thanks again for your time in answering above - a couple of quick follow-up questions:

TMR Design wrote in post #6877981
If you're not going to be using the strobes on location you may also want to look at the 400BX. I own them and love them. They have more than enough power for a small to mid sized studio and while not feature packed, you do need to ask yourself which features are important. If you want strobes with the necessary controls, proportional modeling lights, quality build and solid performance then there's no reason to discount the BX.
Something else to think about.

Definitely - presented with a choice and without critical thought people tend to want the cell-phone, dvd-player, <insert household appliance or gadget here> with the most features - even though they will actually only ever use a fraction of those features. I guess I'm no exception But features or not, I really AM a sucker for quality and build.

Rudi wrote in post #6878624
I have RX600's in my studio, and if I had to do it again, I'd buy the RX strobes. Again! Saw and played with the BXRi's at the shop, and they're nice enough, but a different league to the RX strobes. Made in India, and overall build just does not inspire the confidence that my RX600's do.

Am I understanding you both correctly that the current line of BX have about the same quality build as the RX (though less features) - while the new BXRi's are more like the D-Lites?

Rudi wrote in post #6878624
I have and use Skyports with my RX strobes, but prefer to have the Skyport units separate to the strobe - if one fails, I don't have to send the strobe away. Conversely, if the light fails, I can still use the Skyport receiver on another strobe, or my Ranger pack.

Excellent point!

Rudi wrote in post #6878624
The only feature that caught my eye was the fact that you can adjust the modeling light to be proportional between different models of monolight, and that is something that could become useful in a studio.

Sorry if I am a bit slow on the uptake here : I am assuming that all monolights with modelling light let you adjust the strength of the modelling light freely as well as set it in relation to the amount of strobelight you are putting into your scene from that light during the actual shot - so you can basically model with the light and see how much our key-light is going to contribute compared to your fill-light etc. So what you are referring to is the ability to somehow key in the strength of the other lights in your setup (even if they are not BXRi's) so you can work them all using ratios?

xenomorphic wrote in post #6881278
Sorry if I am a bit slow on the uptake here

What the BXRi enables you to do is adjust your modeling light so that you can use two monolights of different power, yet your modeling light will be proportional. For example, you could have a BX500Ri and a BX250Ri, both of which have 100W modeling lights, but you can adjust the modeling light of the 250Ri so that it will be half the power of the 500Ri, at all settings! In other words, you can still use the proportional modeling light feature, but the two lights will remain perfectly proportional to each other as well! I hope that makes sense...

Thanks Rudi - that makes perfect sense!

tetrode wrote in post #6877883
I must add that I was tremendously impressed by the amount of technology Elinchrom has crammed into these lights. It's more than just Skyports. Have a look at this video for a full explanation of the Ri's feature set:

http://www.youtube.com …VpE4&feature=ch​annel_page

That Video presentation drove me nuts the other day. Mr Whittle would be better off frosting a wedding cake on the Queen Mary II.

***The presentation by this company ( TheFlashCentre ) is how it should be done.
http://www.youtube.com …heFlashCentre&v​iew=videos

The demo on the pre-flash settings where the heads automatically detect and select the count was impressive.

Granted I'm just getting started in gathering gear to upgrade. I do have the older 500 series Elinchrom. I have fun with them.
Used primarily to document industrial applications where it's always dark.

I think the full featured options would make my moment just a little more fun.
They made these for Gadget Masters. Heck, We're only here a short time.
If a head ever goes bad, what ever. Go to plan B.
Your in-dash GPS is pretty worthless, when the car is in the shop for injectors.

I can only assume if they were not made in India, they would be double in price.
Like our supposedly American cars, being 1/2 American at best.

If i can get my hands on them locally, I suspect a Bxri kit would end up in the shop.

Philscbx wrote in post #6883432
Your in-dash GPS is pretty worthless, when the car is in the shop for injectors.

That's why I have a stand alone unit.

Philscbx wrote in post #6883432
I can only assume if they were not made in India, they would be double in price.

Nope! If they were not made in India, Elinchrom would only reap half the profit. There is a difference!

(Just to be clear, I'm not against them making a profit - they're in business to make money. This is a common trend these days, and it's because the buying public is only looking at price, or mainly looking at price, when making buying decisions! Just because it's a common trend does not mean I have to like it. ).

Philscbx wrote in post #6883432
That Video presentation drove me nuts the other day. Mr Whittle would be better off frosting a wedding cake on the Queen Mary II.

Funny you should make that comment. I was going to issue a warning when I posted the link to that video. Mr. Whittle is like a mortician on downers. Chris Burford (sp?) usually does the videos from The Flash Centre and he's pretty good. I think they'd be wise to confine Mr. Whittle to the stockroom.

Dave F.

tetrode wrote in post #6884019
Mr. Whittle is like a mortician on downers. Chris Burford (sp?) usually does the videos from The Flash Centre and he's pretty good. I think they'd be wise to confine Mr. Whittle to the stockroom.

Philscbx wrote in post #6883432
That Video presentation drove me nuts the other day. Mr Whittle would be better off frosting a wedding cake on the Queen Mary II.

***The presentation by this company ( TheFlashCentre ) is how it should be done.
http://www.youtube.com …heFlashCentre&v​iew=videos

Seeing Mr. Whittle in light of your comments (no pun intended) was hilarious.

Thanks for the link to Mr. Whittle and The Flash Centre videos - there was some good information there!

Hey James,

I just recently went through the whole process of picking a line of Elinchrom lights. Of everyone out there in cyberspace I probably got the most help from Rudi so I would not doubt a single thing he has mentioned in the posts above.

I just took owner ship of the BXRi 500/500 To Go kit and after a long research period I just had to make a decision to get going with something. Cost did play in but I also did find the new BXRi line pretty cool with the built in Skyport. Perhaps I got lured in. Using the RX600s with a receiver really wouldn't be much trouble but I still really like the no fuss approach with the BXRi line. I would agree with Rudi that these things have a bunch of features that most likely I will never use.

So how is the built quality. Honestly I was bit disappointed when I first unpacked them... but after using them (only one day so far) they work flawlessly and they are growing on me.. The whole kit is very light weight. I have my first shoot tomorrow... a couple of soccer teams so we'll see how that goes.

As Rudi also knows I was very tempted to go for a couple of RX600 or even get them one at a time. For the difference in price I will be picking up a L-358 Sekonic light meter and probably a 135 cm Rotalux Octa.

I think either way you will be getting a good kit.

Thanks, mfoto - glad to hear your happy with the BXRIs. I think I am just going to have to go down and try out and handle a few to make my mind up. The norwegian dealer ExpoService haven't updated their site yet to include the BXRIs - they're probably too busy selling them already.