ELINCHROM ELC 125 TTL / ELC 500 TTL
PRICE: £1,189 / $1,500 (dual kit) Elinchrom unleashes top-flight, fully featured studio flashes at affordable prices with the ELC 125 TTL & ELC 500 TTL heads
Uncover the performance and power of two top-flight, fully featured studio flashes
Elinchrom has built a strong reputation in studio and location flash systems for robust build quality, top-drawer performance, reliability, and ease of use. Mains-powered D-Lite monobloc heads and kits have long been a favourite of discerning photographers, thanks to their compact portability, simplicity and overall superb lighting quality, especially when combined with Elinchrom’s excellent range of softboxes and various other light modifiers.
However, based on conventional rather than IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) technology, D-Lite heads lack advanced modes like TTL flash metering and an ‘Action’ option, which fires a short-duration flash to freeze action. The Elinchrom ELC 125 and ELC 500 heads add these and many other upgrades.
KEY FEATURES
IGBT technology enables the versatility of advanced shooting modes, but it comes with a catch. There’s a real technical challenge in maintaining the consistency of colour temperature throughout the power range, especially at low-power settings. Consistent colour quality has always been a particularly strong point of Elinchrom flash heads, and thankfully it’s been passed down to the new IGBT heads we have here.
The 125 and 500 heads have power ratings of 131W and 522W respectively, the latter being somewhat larger and heavier at 2.5kg compared with the smaller unit’s 2kg. Unlike the older, more conventional D-Lite heads, there’s a larger overall power range, with both heads enabling a minimum output of just 7W. The lower end of the scale is especially useful if you want to use wide apertures to enable a shallow depth of field, or you don’t want to overpower low-level ambient lighting. With D-Lite kits, you would have to resort to using an RX One head for subtle output, coupled
Consistent colour quality has always been a strong point of Elinchrom flash heads
with RX 2 or RX 4 heads for when you need more power.
On their own, or with a basic trigger, both heads offer a wide range of features. The streamlined interface combines a full-colour OLED screen with a simple rotary dial and push-button controls. For example, left and right arrow buttons enable you to alter the flash intensity in full f-stop increments, whereas the rotary dial allows for 1/10th or 1/3rd f-stop fine adjustments. There’s a menu button at the bottom left of the back panel that can be easily navigated by turning the rotary knob and pressing it to select and change settings. The menu itself includes many customisation options, including the facility to optically slave the head from a flashgun, ignoring any pre-flash pulses. At the bottom right of the back panel is a modelling lamp button, above which there’s a ‘Favourite’ button, which you can assign to your preferred function for quick and easy access.
The modelling lamp itself is a powerful 20W LED, equivalent to a 120W halogen bulb, and it has a high-quality CRI 92 (colour rendering index) rating. Options here include on, off, proportional and variable free control. Output power is sufficient for constant lighting in video and stills, with a measured power, in our tests, of EV 9.1 at one metre – 1/60th of a second at f/2.8 with a sensitivity of ISO 100.
The menu system also gives easy access to alternative standard and Action flash modes, the latter delivering ultra-short flash durations as little as 1/7,750 and 1/9,430 seconds with the 125 and 500 heads respectively. Action
mode is available from the lowest power setting right through to the maximum, with no loss of output intensity. The only compromise is that the short flash duration is slightly less colour accurate. The menu also gives easy access to Fast or Eco recycle speeds, both of which are very quick.
Add an Elinchrom Skyport Pro trigger, which is available in seven different options to cover a wide range of camera makes, and you can stretch the versatility even further.
The wireless trigger works seamlessly with RF transceivers built into the flash head. For quick and easy flash exposures on the fly, many will find the TTL flash metering option a big bonus. For those who like to stay in control and adjust the individual strengths of multiple heads for best effect, auto TTL can provide a good starting point, as you can easily switch to manual while the auto settings are retained for reference.
The Skyport Pro trigger also adds the availability of high-speed sync, so you can use the flash up to and including the fastest shutter speed your camera has to offer, typically 1/4000th or 1/8000th of a second. You’ll need to use high-speed sync with the normal rather than Action flash mode, but it enables you to freeze motion even when combining flash with bright ambient lighting by selecting a fast shutter speed. You can also overcome bright ambient lighting and even direct sunlight to darken the surroundings.
The only compromise is that the short flash duration is slightly less colour accurate
BUILD AND HANDLING
The tough metal chassis, heavy-duty handle and all aspects of the mount and other components feel of pro-grade quality. The rotary dial and push-button switches have a pleasant, tactile feel, and even the locking arm for the tilt adjustment operates with particularly pleasing and smooth effectiveness.
When using a remote trigger, you can take advantage of the ‘auto-on’ feature, which enables the flash to be activated from standby mode on demand. A clever design flourish is that the four different groups to which each head can be assigned are made easily recognisable. That’s thanks to an illuminated logo on the side of each head that changes colour from blue to orange to red to green, as you cycle through the four groups. Low and high intensities are available (or you can turn it off), and the colour coding is replicated on the head’s rear OLED screen. Similarly, five different volume levels can be set for the ready and error beeps, or you can turn them off.
Nobody likes noisy cooling fans, but some forced air throughout can be necessary to ensure cool running, especially as the heads have a duty cycle of 3,000 or more portraits per day. Thankfully, not only are the fans fairly quiet, but they’re also driven by a ‘smart proactive cooling’ system that can learn your typical shooting methods and adapt the cooling cycle for optimum efficiency and minimum fuss. The fans are only switched on when necessary and don’t spin any faster than they need to.
Naturally, the new heads are designed to be fully compatible with Elinchrom’s legendary range of softboxes and other modifiers. An additional bonus is that while most Elinchrom heads are limited to a proprietary 7mm brolly shaft, the ELC 125 and 500 can accept both this size and the more industry-standard 8mm shaft as well.
THE VERDICT
The performance is every bit as good as you could hope for. The intensity of flash output is entirely reliable and consistent on a shot-toshot basis, and colour temperature remains highly accurate throughout the entire power range. TTL metering works with similarly impressive reliability and consistency, and even the LED modelling lamps make for an excellent constant light source.
Recycle speeds are quick, even in Eco mode, and the cooling system enables excellent stamina. Maximum power output is as expected from 125Ws and 500Ws heads, with absolutely no drop-off in Action mode. Maximum output power does take a slight hit in high-speed sync mode, but this is normal. Overall, this system from Elinchrom is simply superb, and is definitely worth every penny.