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Stupid Profoto.
So a photographer friend of mine volunteered to bring some profoto lights with a strip soft box and the profoto beauty dish. I thought to myself, that sounds like it would be fun to experiment with... So... now I pretty much feel like I have to have it! It was awesome! I'm thinking of getting the 600watt battery powered strobe with the battery pack and the beauty dish to start. Any advice, encouragement, or discouragement? Or if you know of alternatives I should look at instead then by all means share! Thanks! Jake Oct 16 08 07:02 pm Link If you like them and can afford them , get them.  Oct 16 08 07:04 pm Link I love my Bees & Beauty Dish Oct 16 08 07:05 pm Link better open up a line of credit, you're gonna need it. I almost choked on my latte when my store said it would be two hundred bucks for a 7" reflector to hold the grids (4 for 100). I love the lights, but they really rape you on shit like speed rings, reflectors, cables. Oct 16 08 07:10 pm Link If you can afford it, by all means get it! If I had the spare scratch I'd be shooting Profoto too. Love their zoom heads, stick lights, and their specific modifiers. If money's an object (yeah...like it isn't for any of us), you can make due with Bees or White Lightning strobes. With a few exceptions from their modifiers, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in a photo. Oct 16 08 07:11 pm Link myshkin90 wrote: Amen brother..... Oct 17 08 09:31 pm Link Agreed with everyone that if you can afford them get them. My studio has 4 profoto heads and 2 alien bees, which are also great and a little more affordable. Can't wait to get my soft boxes and beauty dishes in the mail, I have 2- 3x4's, 2- 1x6's, 5 foot octo, and 2 different beauty dishes on the way. Completely stoked!!! Oct 17 08 09:37 pm Link I feel your pain. There are several Prophoto to Elinchrom adapters out there which lessen the pain of Prophoto. Oct 17 08 09:39 pm Link myshkin90 wrote: I know what you mean. I got the Profoto grid reflector ($150) and a set of 4 Speedotron grids ($100). Oct 18 08 11:20 am Link Jake Garn wrote: The 600B is sweet. So sweet that you will probably want to buy 2. I have one and could use another. Oct 18 08 11:21 am Link myshkin90 wrote: The Speedotron grids work just fine in the Profoto 7" reflector. The guy at the camera store said they're even made by the same company and rebranded. Oct 19 08 12:53 am Link If you can afford them, cool. I work with friends that use alien bees,(dave and kesler) and their images are superb. Oct 19 08 02:36 am Link Moneywise, I scratched them together and got now a B2 set......on battery they're already faster and consistent than my Bowens Gemini-set....and faster to set up...it's awesome quality, not the least by the way they are constructed.... I used them for example on my Antaris serie, only one Profoto, the background was lit by my Bowensset.... here is a sample:   Herman Oct 19 08 02:41 am Link I have one and could use another one as well. This friend of yours sounds handsome... Oct 19 08 02:41 am Link yeah i have Profoto envy...uggg Oct 19 08 02:44 am Link Profoto is the way to go, if you can afford them. If you can't there are some other alternatives Norman and Hensel make some good lights for a little less than the profotos. If you looking for even less white lightning are the best for the price and most durable lights on the market. If I wasn't going Profoto,Hensel,or Norman I would go White Lightning. You can find the grid for the norman beauty dish pretty easily and a lot cheaper than hensel and profoto, just a thought. -Stephen Oct 19 08 03:10 am Link Do what I do, rent them if you don't use them often. Oct 19 08 03:12 am Link Look at elinchrom Oct 19 08 03:22 am Link Thyronne wrote: How could I have forgotten about elinchrom? Oct 19 08 03:24 am Link I personally HATE profoto's. I find the controls to be limiting and down right annoying to opperate. I love Ellenchromes (just forgot how to spell them) and my allien Bee's both are very intuative on how to control them and are a dream to use. The Bee's are of course MUCH cheaper. The Bee's recycle faster and I have the battery pack so can shoot more heads longer then I can on the Ellen.. Ranger pack. But love them both. Oct 19 08 03:29 am Link Jake Garn wrote: Sounds like a good plan, profoto is the only way to go imho (unless you have the money for briese). I would se if I could save the extra few bugs to go for the 1200ws B2 instead of the Acute 600w system though. Oct 19 08 04:29 am Link damn you for posting this thread  I too have been bitten by thte Profoto bug  does anyone know if you can adapt the Profoto reflectors to a Bowens S-type bayonet? Oct 19 08 05:32 am Link I would love to buy them..... But a couple of hundred for a flash tube, big bucks for accessories (like a reflector, etc) and it just gets beyond my league. Smoke 'em if you got 'em Oct 19 08 09:48 am Link The Acute 600B you have mentioned is a great system. It really spoiled me in terms of portability when I used to strictly use the B packs. Oct 19 08 10:12 am Link Profoto lights are just too expensive, I use all alien bees. Now that most people are using all digital cameras you really can't tell any difference between any of the lights, all the real magic happens in photoshop. If you placed a bunch of photos together taken with all different lighting systems you probably wouldn't be able to tell which lights were used with which photos. I've used many different lights before and by the time the photos are touched it's almost impossible to see any difference between them. It's not how expensive the lights are, it's how you use them. That's just my opinion. Oct 19 08 10:27 am Link You can never have too many lights..... You are doomed, you know. Oct 19 08 11:08 am Link Profoto has an enduring quality and I'm so glad that I started my career with them. It took me a while to learn them, really lighting in general, but I'm endeared to them now. They're easily apart of my style. The pricing isn't that bad, considering your dealing with a specialty item and it's a steep admission price in some instances. I've used my equipment non-stop for these past 4 years in and out of the studio and I can always count on them to perform. There consistent as well, and that's pretty cool. They're also the standard at rental houses. So imagine getting the base units, like a pack or monolight and being able to rent a plethora of modifiers. Something you couldn't readily do on Elinchroms or Speedotrons or Normans or Hensel etc. I'm Darnell Wilburn and I approve this message. Oct 19 08 11:09 am Link And Walmart and Kmart sell cameras so why should I spend my money on something that I need to set an exposure on...While I'm at it they both see lights that stay on all the time. Just change the lightbulb when it burns out. Oct 19 08 11:09 am Link Profotos are great. But one thing to keep in mind are that replacement parts are expensive. Their modifiers are too, but they're great. Well at least their reflectors are great. Also, if you're going to be using softboxes all the time, then I don't think you'll really see a difference between Profotos and other brands. As for the fellow that said Alienbees recycle faster, I think you better check again. Their 640ws recycles at 2 sec. while the Profoto 600ws Compacts recycle at less than a second. And when you get to the Pro Packs, forget about it, no contest, they are the fastest of any brand I know of. Also, I'd recommend Mola beauty dishes if you're looking for a beauty dish. I've got two of them and I have nothing but praise for them. Well, maybe not, they are quite expensive for a piece of metal Good luck, Warren Oct 19 08 12:02 pm Link One day I'll hope to own some profoto's and not worried about replacing parts. Kid I knew in college made some big bucks with a new company and invested profits into buying a Gallardo, guess someone should have told him how much maintenance was Oct 19 08 01:11 pm Link The only thing I don't like of profoto is how malleable are their reflectors... even the cheapie cheap brands have sturdier reflectors than profoto...for the rest profoto is a good brand. Oct 19 08 01:14 pm Link I loved my 8 white lightning 1600s & 3200s until my friend did the same F&*%ed up thing and brought his Profoto 600b & 7B kits...now I feel inferior for sure. The light is so unbelievably consistant, I had tried to convince myself that my White Lightnings are Amazing but they instantly got bumped down to Great Lights...ProFoto is Unbelievable for sure even on a dollar for dollar comparison. Oct 19 08 01:41 pm Link I have profoto acute 600b and I want to put s-type beauty dish to it, and also some bowens soft box does any body know is ther adapter for that? Profoto to bowens s-type. Feb 02 11 05:06 am Link Jake Garn wrote: I started the transition from Speedotron to Profoto Acute with just a 600ws pack and 2 (convection cooled heads) in a package (600e). Sadly they don't offer that package anymore, but size and reliability of that set encouraged me to add more Acute packs and heads which I used in studio and on location for years with lots of travel and heavy use. Ultimately for long editorial and catalog days with the need for fast recycle and numerous (1,000-2,000 pops) exposures I found that I was much happier with the Pro6/Pro7 series (far beyond the limitations of AB/WL equipment). Feb 02 11 06:46 am Link I don't know the first thing about them, so no comment on the lighting system. This is from your profile: "I shoot for fun, not money." Will having these lights make your photography better (hard to imagine - it's already awesome)? Will buying these lights increase your income? Do they offer a big advantage over what you already have in terms of reliability, portability, or some other important factor? You say you're not in it for the money, you're already creating amazing work, but hey if you have the spare money to throw around and want them, get them! Feb 02 11 06:56 am Link Stupid prices, you should say! I'm waiting for my Einstein, the 22" beauty dish and cybercommander are already here!!;-)) Feb 02 11 07:02 am Link |
