June 18, 2009 – 4:09 pm
Since I get so many questions about my gear, I decided to post an article every now and then about what I use and why. Don’t expect lab tests, honest comparisons and too much technical data, there are other sites who do that kind of stuff way better then I could do. Sure, the specs of any piece of equipment are important in making my choices but there’s also the beyond scientific factor of personal taste, look and feel. Remember, my ideal choice may be completely wrong for you. A personal subjective view hardly qualifies as a real review, so I’ve called this new section RSO (Review, Sort Of).
Let’s start this series of articles with the most expensive piece of gear I’ve bought lately: the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS kit. This is basically a very powerful studio flash (generator + head).
What’s in the kit?
- Ranger RX Speed AS generator with battery
- extra battery
- battery charger
- “A” flash head
- standard reflector
- softlite reflector + softlite umbrella
- case
info: 1/200 – iso100 – f/16 – 24mm – bare Ranger Head to camera left
The need for a battery powered studio flash
I guess I’m a bit known for my use of small flashes (speedlights), the Strobist way. I still think small flashes are often the best choice, so the Ranger is not a replacement for my speedlights, rather an addition to have more options in lighting. Small flashes are remarkably powerful but sometimes that still isn’t enough. Placed close to the subject a speedlight is usually powerful enough to do whatever you want, but I evolved into making more wider shots which means that I have to put the flash further away from the subject to avoid having it in the frame, so more power was needed. And even if a speedlight throws out enough photons, recycle times become really slow at full power, 5-6 seconds between two pictures can be too much to keep a nice “flow” in the shoot.
Even more important than sheer power is the quality of light. With light modifiers like umbrella’s en softboxes, I find speedlight to throw out pretty beautiful light, but the hard light they throw out is not always as pretty. A speedlight is a bit of a compromise between power and light quality, with studio lights that’s less of an issue.
The last reason why I invested in portable studio equipment is to have more lighting options: beautydish, large softbox, … Sure, you can put a couple of speedlights in a large softbox or make a beautydish out of a salad bowl but sometimes the real deal makes work that little bit more enjoyable.
info: 1/200 – iso100 – f/14 – 17mm – bare Ranger Head to camera left
Why the Ranger RX Speed AS?
Let’s have a look to my list of requirements:
- Lots of power
- Consistency and accuracy of power settings
- Being able to dial the power way down
- Fast recycle
- Short flash duration capable to stop action even at full power (many flashes have to long flash durations, certainly on full power)
- Long battery life / pops per charge
- Availability/Price of modifiers and accessories
- Price
The Ranger meets all those criteria even though I wouldn’t mind if the price was a bit lower. Elinchrom is also a brand that has been regarded as very reliable and sturdy, which is important for a location photographer. When you’re buying your first studio flash, it’s wise to see it as buying into a complete system. If you end up with two or three different brands, accessories are often not interchangeable and assistants must be trained to use different systems. So I wanted a brand that can grow with me. Elinchrom wasn’t the only brand that qualified. Other brands like Profoto, Hensel and Broncolor have maybe even better reputations and products so they where on my shortlist too. Comparable products to the Ranger tend to be a bit more expensive but that wasn’t the major showstopper. “Availability” was my last but not least requirement. The possibility to rent or borrow equipment within the same system is important to me too. I don’t want to buy stuff that I only use once a year. Those things are better rented or borrowed from a friend. You can rent some other brands but usually just a basic kit and isn’t that just what a photographer would likely invest in. When it comes to huge modifiers, super powerful packs and exotic accessories, there’s a vast wasteland in Belgium. Only for Elinchrom there’s something to rent (although still not enough IMHO). It also helps that most of my friends who own studio gear, use Elinchrom.
I am not saying that Elinchrom is the best nor am I saying that I will stick to this brand forever. The recycle time of the Profoto’s, the inovativeness of Hensel and Broncolor’s sublime light quality are still very appealing. And there are probably more good brands around. I believe in using the right gear for the job and if that means switching over to another brand, so be it.
info: 1/200 – iso100 – f/10 – 70mm – bare Ranger Head to camera right
Why assimetrical?
You can plug in two heads into a Ranger pack and the Ranger Speed comes in a symmetrical and assymetrical flavor. With symmetrical, the power is distributed evenly (50-50) over the two outlets. The assymetrical distributes two thirds of the power to outlet A and one third to outlet B. I didn’t buy a second head and I’m pretty sure I never will buy one without buying another power pack. The idea of attaching two heads seems interesting at first but I see very limited use for my work. You don’t have control over the power of the heads seperately, with the symmetrical one, both heads put out the same power and with the assymetrical one, head A puts out twice the power of head B. I know you can start fiddling around with ND filters but that seems a bit too cumbersome. With two heads you’ll probably going to have cables all over the place and that’s not my idea of a smooth way of working either.
So if I’m just going to use one head, it doesn’t matter if you buy the symmetrical or the assymetrical, right? No, wrong otherwise I wouldn’t write this. For me the minimum power of a flash is at least equally important as the maximum output. I still like to use wide aperture when using flash so I need to be able to dial them way down. With the assymetrical Ranger, you can go down to 7 Watt/seconds if you plug the head into socket B. While if I’m not mistaken the symmetrical Ranger’s minimum power is double of that.
info: 1/160 – iso100 – f/10 – 200mm – bare Ranger Head to camera left
In the field
Enough about numbers, specifications and theory, how does the Ranger performs in the field?
Remarkably well, it’s a bit more of a hassle to set up a Ranger than a speedlight but it’s still pretty fast and easy. Very important to me is that it looks like it can take a serious beating. What’s the point in location lighting equipment if you’re afraid to use it on location? It packs more than enough power for most of my needs and recycles very fast. The battery seems to contain and endless suply of power even while using the modelling light a lot. I never had to use the spare battery yet.
And then there’s the quality of light. Especially hard light looks a lot better when it comes from the Ranger. With speedlights I’m always worried that hard light will not be very flattering, with the Ranger I’ll be using more hard light.
To me the Ranger is very much worth the investment because it opens up many new possibilities in my photography and can make some of the things I’m already doing look even better.
Posted in gear, lifestyle, outdoor, photoshoot, review-sort-of, strobist | 6 Comments »
