Dynalite Generator vs. Elinchrom Monolights

[rob_martin5]

Hi everyone.

 

At the risk of this sounding like a "which is the best lighting

setup?" question (I prefer to think it's not), I have a related

question.

 

I'm struggling between these two systems for relatively close-

quarters home portraiture work: the Dynalite 2-head/3-light kit

(2x500w/s) or the Elinchrom two-head kit (2x300RX).

 

I've rented the Dyna 500 pack with two lights and feel from

experience that it's a bit more power than I can reasonably use in a

small "studio" setting. I found myself having to crank way down on

the power switches (on both channels) as well on the variator just

to be able to meter within the range of what my lens could handle.

If I recall (it's been awhile ago), I had one channel set to 125 w/s

and the other at 62 w/s with the variator at least 1 stop down

(across both channels, as required by the unit). Seems my subject

metered at f/11 if I'm not mistaken. This doens't appear to leave

much latitude for creativity (e.g., DOF adjustment, etc.). Oh, and

even this required that the lights be no closer than ~5 feet from

the subject, making it difficult to achieve the softer/wraparound

look I wanted.

 

It seems the Dyna packs can provide fair flexibility with their

asymmetrical setting, but this asymmetry appears to be quite a bit

coarser than that available from a monolight setup like with the

Elinchrom RX series.

 

A pair or more of 300RX's are attractive, because I think you can

throttle them down as low as 9 w/s...I don't think I could ever use

more than a full 300 w/s per light in my home...and, you seem to get

much more granularity across all heads in this type of system.

They're a little more expensive, when you factor in accessories as

well as a wireless rig (vs. the 500Wi packs I'm considering from

Dyna).

 

Based on what I've already indicated as my low output requirements,

I realize two 500w/s packs (1000w/s) seems like overkill; but, I was

thinking the extra pack would give me the increased

flexibility/granularity it seems the Dyna solution inherently lacks.

 

It sounds crazy, but I've researched the specs on these and other

solutions for several years without taking any plunge. I know the

technical data and features pretty well inside/out on at least these

two. However, from a practical perspective, I'm no expert my any

means. In fact, I'm very much a novice when it comes to good

lighting for portraits. I've only done a few "shoots" of my baby

daughter, one of my wife w/her and one with all three of us.

 

I guess I'm looking from some experiential input in terms of how

crucial this "granularity" (as I've termed it) is in this type of

work and how much of a factor it should play in my decision. Also,

I'd be curious to hear any responses to my notion that the 500w/s

pack(s) could be overkill (short of always having to employ ND

gels). I've been so impressed with this site and all the incredible

education, ideas and examples you all have to offer. Any such

feedback here would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

Thanks!

Rob

[jonathan_brewer1]

There's two issues to consider, light mods and filtration will knock down the amount of power you have at your disposal, when I do b&w I'll typically use an orange 21 filter(filter factor-4x[2-stops]), now on top of that slap a 10deg. grid over your key light(knocks down the light a stop), now do the math on what this does to a light putting out 500ws.

 

Using the orange 21 filter knocks down your illumination to 125ws, the grid cuts it down again to 65ws,............light mods, filtration, bouncing your light off the ceiling, needing a certain DOF will require more power. I once did a fairly wide angle portrait in a clients home in her living room, in the middle of the shoot after looking at a polaroid of the shot she asked me if I could get the picture on the wall behind her in focus,......................'sure, no problem'...............I was able to say that because I had the power to build up my DOF.

 

If you're convinced that your shooting style/the situation will never come up where you need more power then don't bother getting more power, my experience is that every shoot is different, you get a job requiring more power than you have, you've got to go out and buy, or rent, and you've ended up shelling out money for more power anyway.

 

Second issue is whether you can lower the power on a more powerful unit so you can use it, one of my packs can be dialed down from 2400ws to 37ws, so if you spring for a more powerful unit, make sure you can dial it down low enough when the situation calls for it.

 

Plus your shooting stype may evolve/change, it's your call, but tomorrow is another day.

[rob_martin5]

Thanks Jonathan.

 

I hadn't considered the increased stop-down impact of other filtration (besides neutral density) or from grids. The few shoots I mentioned included softboxes on both lights. Each channel on the Dyna 500 w/s pack has three power settings, 250, 125 and 62 w/s, and be controlled asymmetrically. To go any lower than 62 w/s, you use the 2-stop variator (in 1/3 increments), but this applies globally to both channels. So, it appears that I'm rather hamstrung with this rig as I try to work with low power settings (grids, filters and other output-inhibiting accessories aside). It's the "granularity" where I'm concerned as much as the ability to stop the whole pack down. I guess this is where I see the comparative advantage to someting like the Elinchrom 300RX or even 600RX monolights. They'll stop down to 9 w/s and 18 w/s respectively, but perhaps more importantly, this can all be done in 1/10th-stop increments AND can obviously be done far more asymmetrically. It just seems there's way more control to be had with the monolight setup in this comparison. I don't know why I stay hung up on the generator config. I like the built-in PW feature, because I was also planning on picking up a PW-enabled Sekonic light meter. Plus, I guess I like the idea of lighter heads for use on booms, for example. Decisions, decisions...

 

Thanks again.

[glenn usdin]

nobody ever asks for LESS power once they start using lights. Its always more more more. I have both the Dyna 500 and 1000 packs, as well as some monolights from DynaLite and Alien Bee. The monos give you more individual range, but require their own power cord and need to be triggered either by cell or wizards. heads don't have the problem off a pack.

 

I guarantee you that in short order you will need more power rather than less.

[garry edwards]

I agree with Jonathan and Glen. All things being equal it's a good idea to have reserves of power.

 

But all things are not equal, and precise adjustment is very important, IMO much more important than raw power.

 

If you go for the Elinchrom and later find that more power is needed you could always get another, more powerful Elinchrom head or a generator (pack & head) to supplement what you already have - the big benefits of the Elinchrom system is the wide range of well-designed accessories, which of course will fit any head

[rob_martin5]

Thanks guys. To Glenn's point regarding the wizards and monolights...Am I right that I would only need a receiver on one of the heads and can trust the cells on the rest to fire? I've heard that the Elinchrom cells are pretty sensitive.