fbpx
Lighting

First Impressions Review: Profoto B10 (Canon and Sony)

Chris Gampat
No Comments
09/12/2018
7 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Profoto B10 first impressions product images 7

Last Updated on 09/19/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

The Profoto B10 is the one light that I’ve been wanting for many years.

As you can already tell, I’m a fan of the newly announced Profoto B10 light. For years I’ve been looking for something more powerful than a small hot shoe flash. I wanted something that stays small and it didn’t need to be as powerful as the B1, B1x, or the Einstein E640 that I used to call my bread and butter light. With the sea of products that Godox releases and that B&H Photo and Adorama rebrand, you’d think that there are lots of great lights out there. And there are, but they’ve got problems.

Editor’s Note: No, this isn’t a paid ad. It’s genuine. We are very upfront with what content is sponsored and we’re also up front about that type of content.

I never really thought about this in full until I took a step back and listened to a few photographers whom I work closely with. The house brand stuff is good, and it’s reliable enough until it isn’t. For a few years now, I’ve had misfires and TTL issues with Godox, Impact, Flashpoint, etc. They work around 90% of the time, but then I’ve had build quality issues with them too. My Orlit Rovelight has had the knob fall off and the battery takes forever to power up. But it works well enough. Then in a few years you go ahead and replace it. That works fine for photographers who genuinely don’t shoot each week.

My journey with lights started with the Canon 430 EX II, then the Canon 580 EX II, then the Phottix Odin system and their flashes, then that lived alongside the Einstein E640, then Lumopro, then Flashpoint lights, then Impact, then Flashpoint, then Orlit, and at the moment of my writing this I use a combination of Godox and Flashpoint lights. You can sing their praises as much as you want but none that I’ve used for long periods of time (with the exception of the Einstein) has worked out in the long run. If Paul C Buff and company would just make a Vagabond battery pack that wasn’t affected by the modeling light, they’d probably still have my business.

Today, Profoto is announcing their brand new Profoto B10. This unit is:

  • More powerful than five or so speedlights and maybe three times more powerful than other third party hot shoe flashes
  • Around the size of a 70-200mm f2.8 lens
  • Has Bluetooth control built in
  • Has a continuous lighting option with variable color temperature
  • Works with the Air system
  • Has TTL, HSS, freeze mode and a bunch of other cool options
  • Is small
  • Lightweight
  • Reliable build quality; I don’t expect it to fall apart
  • Consistency with firing and communication that I haven’t really gotten since working with Phottix and Pocketwizards via the Einstein
  • Color temperature that doesn’t vary too much in freeze mode and otherwise stays consistent
  • Is perfect for location work

Tech Specs

Ergonomics

The Profoto B10 is a very small light. If I had to equate it to anything it would be to a 70-200mm f2.8 lens.

On one side is the battery pack. Profoto’s packs are pretty seamless in their design and don’t hang out a lot from the unit.

On the back is where all the action happens with the Profoto B10. You’ll find a big LCD screen, test button, power and main dial, and the dial for adjusting the modeling lamp.

Build Quality

The Profoto B10 is very solid. It doesn’t feel as heavy and weight as the B1x and it feels a tad more hollow than something like the A1 series of flashes. But the build quality of the B10 really can’t be faulted at all. I’m not too sure about how it will stand up to inclement weather as I spent all of three hours with the pre-production unit. However, I think that the build quality is more than adequate enough to be brought onto any location shoot and you shouldn’t need to worry about any sort of major issues. I’m positive that it can stand up to dust and a lot of the other environmental factors that may be around.

In contrast, I’m not sure that anything from Godox or the rest could do that. With all fairness though, when buying one of those units you accept that because they’re so cheap you’ll buy another one. Nothing I’ve held from Godox or the other retail house brands feels as solid as the Profoto B10.

Ease of Use

The Profoto B10 uses much of the same simple interface that other Profoto lights use. But there are new additions here such as Bluetooth control via the app. Broncolor has had this for years and now Profoto does. Otherwise you can control everything from the remote control (ideally the best way) and by going up to the light.

The Profoto B10 app has a number of guides and resources. You can log into your account, and you can also obviously control the light.

With the app, you can control the power output of the flash and the power of the continuous modeling lamp. You can also adjust parameters like the color temperature. You can do things like naming your lights to differentiate them. Additionally, you can use a camera app built within the Profoto app to take a photo and preview what the scene will look like. While I didn’t personally use the Profoto app, I’m very confident that I’d be able to figure it out on the fly. For what it’s worth though, I think that it would be more useful for a photographer using something like a PocketWizard or something. To get the most from the Profoto B10 you’re obviously going to need to use their transmitters. Their transmitters are a no brainer in my opinion.

Image Quality

One of the reasons why photographers use Profoto lights to begin with is color consistency. If you’re manually setting your parameters, manually white balancing, etc, then this light will give you the most color consistency. Ideally, it will mean less syncs needing to be done in post-production. This goes even further if you’re using gels. Then there is no guesswork needed. Profoto lights have also always given off a very specific, high end look. With the Profoto B10, I feel like that look has been dialed down quite a bit. Of course, these aren’t the more powerful lights that the company has either.

Standard Flash Output

The Profoto B10 will give off output that looks like a light that has the power of a bunch of speedlights/hot shoe flashes. For sure, it isn’t the super powerful 500 watt seconds lights that you may be used to otherwise. Because of confidentiality reasons too, I chose to use the Profoto B10 in a studio. We knew about the units for weeks before the announcement and if I brought it out to a location we risked the public seeing it.

For what it’s worth, the Profoto B10 is designed to be used on location with ambient lights, overpowering the sun, getting you a fast flash duration, etc. I’m positive that in most situations it will be more than good enough for something like that. In a studio where you’re trying to control all of the light, I think that you’re best off using it with a higher ISO setting like ISO 400 or higher. This goes double for using a light modifier like Profoto’s beauty dishes or an umbrella. Personally I adore large umbrellas and I’m very curious to see how this light will perform with a six foot umbrella.

I found the TTL output to be adequate. But at the same time, I find that with the way I like to light things I’ll most likely set it to manual mode to get the image I want in the first place.

Second Curtain Sync

Second curtain sync for some camera systems can be a pain. With Canon it has always been a thorn in their side and with Sony, only external systems can do 2nd curtain flash sync. The Profoto B10 can do that. Again, I genuinely think the Profoto B10 is powerful enough to be the only light in the scene, unless you’re specifically going for that look.

Freeze Mode

In freeze mode, the Profoto B10 delivers output that has a super fast flash duration and also has some variability with color consistency. You’re accepting that when you use it. I’m not totally sure what the number is on that flash duration, but I’m sure that it’s super fast to otherwise be killing this much ambient light in the scene.

First Impressions

I really like the Profoto B10 thus far. I think that for me it could be the perfect light and so I’m going to put in an order for one. As a photographer who mostly shoots on location and not in studios anymore, plus someone who blends ambient lighting with my own created lights, the Profoto B10 could be a perfect option for me. It gives me lots of light output, I can use it with umbrellas and such, and it’s compact.

I’m eagerly awaiting using it on a location shoot and I will soon.

build qualit build quality canon ergonomics flash Godox hss nikon profoto Profoto B10 sony TTL
Shares
Written by

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.
You might also like
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM review product images Canon EOS R
Features

Did Canon Miss the Memo That Says Mirrorless Lenses Are Meant to Be Smaller?

3 Mins read
12/26/2018

When Canon introduced their new Mirrorless cameras earlier on this year (The EOS R) one of the stand out features was that the lens mount was so huge. While other manufacturers like Sony have made all things Mirrorless smaller, the late comer to the Mirrorless party seems to have decided that bigger is better. In a recently released interview, Canon engineers seem to be having a sly dig at Sony by saying that lenses with smaller mounts are far less capable than those with larger mounts. Read on after the break to find out more about what the Canon engineers are wafting on about.

P1000_BK_front34r_lo_t
News

The New Nikon P1000 Has a 125x Optical Zoom with a Laughable 1/2.3 inch Sensor for $999.95

9 Mins read
07/10/2018

Today, for some odd reason, the Nikon P1000 point and shoot camera is being announced. Odd, you ask? The fact that it is a point and shoot isn’t such a big issue at all; but the fact that it’s a superzoom camera being marketed as one with a 125x optical zoom is what’s insane. Kudos to Nikon for being able to do something like this; but then you read the fine print (or in this case, print that’s not even in the press release) and see the bait and switch–this Nikkor lens is having its potential wasted by being placed in front of a 1/2.3 inch sensor.