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The Elinchrom ELB1200 Docking Station Makes the Monolight Better for Studio Use

Chris Gampat
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07/30/2018
3 Mins read
ELB1200_detail2

Last Updated on 07/31/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

It’s about time that the Elinchrom ELB1200 Docking Station came out.

The Elinchrom ELB1200 monolight is receiving an upgrade today that’s going to make it much more versatile, especially for studio photographers. Photographers will have the opportunity to drop their hard earned $699 on the Elinchrom ELB1200 docking station. This station replaces the battery unit when connected to the ELB1200 and lets the photographer connect to outlets if they wish so that they can use their ELB1200 in a studio without wasting battery power. When they’re ready to shoot on location, they can just switch to the battery pack.

For photographers trying to wrap their head around this (in the same fashion that it took me around 10 minutes to do the same), it’s very much like the now older Paul C. Buff Einstein system. The Einstein E640 can connect directly to a wall outlet via a cable; it differentiates itself here in that it doesn’t need to be used or controlled with another pack. When you’re ready to go shoot with it on location, you can connect a Vagabond. That’s really all that there is to it without mentioning Buff’s awful reliability with using the modeling lamp when connected to a battery. In comparison, photographers who use the Profoto B1 system will probably just use the batteries all day and night. The same goes with the Adorama Orlit system. I rarely see photographers connect to a wall outlet anymore unless they’re in a studio. So now, the Elinchrom ELB1200 is making itself useful more as a studio product.

 

Here’s what the Elinchrom ELB1200 docking station can do when connected to the Elinchrom ELB1200 units. Below is what’s possible when connected to the battery packs. When you compare the two, it doesn’t look like there is a lot of variance. Luckily the color temperature doesn’t change at all; at least that’s what’s implied with them not mentioning it in the dock specs. Admittedly, we haven’t tested this ourselves yet. It makes sense as the heads are separate units.

What’s odd though is the recycling time; it seems like the dock can make it slower. Otherwise, it doesn’t look like there is much else that’s different. Of course, being able to connect to a wall jack could help quite a bit to ensure that you can keep shooting. While it’s fantastic that the Elinchrom ELB1200 Docking Station is coming out, I wonder why an option like this wasn’t available from the start. With other systems, a photographer can simply plug a cable into the monolight’s battery, connect to a wall, and shoot.

Elinchrom ELB1200 Docking Station Tech Specs

We took these specs from the Elinchom website.

  • Recycling times with Dock: 0.06 – 1.8 s.
  • Recycling times with Battery: 0.05 – 1.7 s.
  • Dock power Input: 100 V – 240 V – 50/60 Hz
  • Weight: 1.9 kg (4.1 lbs.) (Dock only)
  • Weight: 5 kg (11 lbs.) (With Dock)
  • Dimensions: 18 x 13 x 10 cm (Dock only)
  • Dimensions: 18 x 13 x 31 cm (With Dock)

FIRMWARE UPDATE NEEDED

  • The ELB 1200 unit must be updated to the latest firmware 1.7 in order to be compatible with the Dock.
color temperature dock station elb1200 elinchrom Elinchrom ELB1200 docking station equipment flash duration recycle time studio
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.