It’s been a while since we’ve reviewed anything from Elinchrom. After announcing the Elinchrom One, Three, and Five in the past six years, we were wondering when a new light of some sort would be coming. And today, we’re instead getting a new transmitter — which has me scratching my head as nothing was wrong with the previous Skyports at all. Still, if you’ve been looking to move away from Profoto since their AI promotion and haven’t wanted something from Godox, then Elinchrom is a good middle-ground to often consider. Yet at the same time, I don’t know why the Elinchrom Transmitter Pro X for Canon is coming now.
Elinchrom Transmitter Pro X for Canon: New Additions
Here’s what Elinchrom is saying is new:
- Modern color touch screen with clear visual feedback
- Real-time control of flash power and modelling lamps
- HSS and Hi-Sync up to 1/8000s (camera and flash dependent)
- TTL support for fast and accurate exposure
- 20 channels and 4 groups
- Color-coded groups displayed on screen
- Extended working range up to 200 m (656 ft)
- Secure locking metal hotshoe
- Firmware upgradable via USB-C
- Powered by AA batteries
- Integrated Bluetooth for future capabilities
Of course, these transmitters are first being announced for Canon. But in the same press release, they’re stating that the Pro X is available for Canon, Sony, Nikon, and Fujifilm. I hope that both Panasonic and Leica will work with Elinchrom eventually for L-mount support. I can imagine that they’ll have some issues with the Nikon Z8, Nikon Z9, and the Sony a9 III as those have some of the most unconventional shutters around.
There are surely some nice upgrades. But overall, without using these transmitters myself, I don’t know why I’d upgrade necessarily if my Skyports still work without issues. When those break, I’d upgrade for sure.
If you’re never to photography, then you should know that Elinchom lights were used for years and years by professional photographers. Specifically, the rangers were great to have on-location when doing sports photography or anything else where you really needed to overpower the sun. LEDs really can’t do that if you’re shooting in mechanical shutter and LEDs are also tools that lend themselves to capturing instead of creating. There’s something about the magic of using a flash and something being shot that wasn’t visible with the human eye. They’re also much better at stopping certain things in the frame while letting other things blur out. I’m talking about the second-curtain flash, of course. There’s also things like stroboscopic flash that can do a wonderful job too.
This type of photography can’t be done with LEDs at all and it’s hard to really explain to generative AI what you want when you are prompting for these things. It’s often a heck of a lot easier to just work with a subject to make the action happen. I haven’t applied that technique to a review since 2014, actually.
In fact, it’s really nice that Elinchrom does a lot to talk about the flash functionality over the LED modelling lamp. The brand has its own LEDs, and for that need, you should just get the LEDs instead.