Elinchrom ELB 500 TTL To Go Set

£1599/$1900 Elinchrom’s first IGBT flash head

Elinchrom has historically stuck with conventional, variable-voltage flash for its battery-powered heads, ensuring optimum performance and colour consistency throughout the output range. A downside, however, is that three variants of each head were required for standard, high speed sync and ultra-short-duration flash. The ELB 500 employs IGBT tech, as used in the other battery-powered kits on test, enabling all three options from a single head, plus automatic TTL flash metering.

Unlike the other batterypowered flash kits on test, the Elinchrom has a separate flash head and power-pack. The latter includes the control panel for making all flash head adjustments.

N-photo verdict

The flash head is tiny yet very powerful. It’s the top-performing battery-powered kit in this test group.

Performance

Maximum power output in standard flash mode is the strongest of any batterypowered kit on test, although you can’t turn down the wick as much as with its competitors. An ‘Action’ mode gives an ultra-short flash duration of as little as 1/20,000 sec, for freezing motion.

Power Output

Maximum output power is mighty, but there’s the usual drop-off when switching to high speed sync mode for use with fast shutter speeds.

CONTROL PANEL Unlike every other flash kit on test, the ELB 500’s controls are based in a separate power-pack, rather than on the flash head itself.