Just recently, Elinchrom announced two new monolights in the form of the ELC Pro-HD 500 and 1000. Don’t ask us why they have the term “HD” in there, but they’ve got quite the feature set. The lights boast what the company is calling a lighting fast recycle time of 0.6s at full power for the 500W and 1.2s to full power for the ELC 1000w with flash durations of 1/5000th and 1/5260th respectively for both lights.
The heads have OLED screens, variable factors for the power scale (such as watt seconds, joules, and stops), a sequence mode for rapid shooting (similar to Einstein’s action mode), delayed mode for second curtain or first curtain sync, and stroboscopic mode.
As for the prices, don’t expect them to be Profoto or Broncolor prices. The European prices translate into $960.50 for the 500, $1,235.32 for the 1000, $2,059.78 for the two head 500 kit, and $2,609.42 for the 1000 two head kit. All kits include 2xheads, 2x16cm reflectors, Pro Tec carry bag, and Skyport radio transmitters.
These lights mostly seem like Paul C Buff Einstein competitors and trying to edge a little bit into Profoto territory. While we’ve tested Elinchrom lights and loved them, those prices are a bit too rich for our blood.
