PRIOLITE: What do you think?

[pophoto]

First of, a quick introduction of what I am talking about and asking:
These are Monolights, coming in at 500Ws and 1000Ws.

The key thing about these, they are complete wireless lights except for charging, running off lithium batteries, so no battery pack or cables. Another amazing thing, is that the flash duration is rated at 1/15000 at min power, and 1/4500 at full power. So yes for both indoors and outdoor location use. Also sports a LED modeling light. Respectable and comparable recycling time and battery life for shots fired (220 for full to over 6000 at min, per company website). German engineering.

However, these advantages bring obvious disadvantages, but I feel the positive far out weight the negatives, and also is the nature of what the positives features describe in such units. So size is a little bigger than the usual monolight and perhaps a touch heavier.

As a customer with limited funds, this is a new company and the lights haven't been tested over years of use for reliability and robustness, or really any issues brought up because of limited user base. Also, other unknowns such as color temperature throughout the power range. Quality 'looks' on par and the person behind the lights is from Hensal!

Ultimately I have a question behind all this, would it be reckless to take a risk on these lights. Given that the cost of these lights are upper tier pricing similar to those of the Profoto D1s. Also they are relying on distributors to bring the lights to many countries including the USA. So customer support is a huge unknown as of yet. Frankly I want this company to succeed, since they seem to be heading in the right direction, and the spec sheets is a lot of what I would want for my own studio lights!

Anyways, feel free to chime in and in the meantime visit their website and check out the videos below from Kelby!

Company website:
PRIOLITE - the revolutionary lighting system for professionals :: Home

Scott Kelby Photo shoot video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqi2ibIrkbo

Another video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=los99uRcBD0

 

[J.Look]

I have seen them at the Photokina last year and 2010 and I know many photographers in Germany who are using them and are very happy with them.

You can use Bowens and Hensel light formers with them but there seems to be some problems with some Hensel light formers like the beauty dish.

The owner is the former managing director of Hensel.
I like the concept and it looks like they are very well build but for me they are a little bit too heavy for outdoor use if you put them on a light stand.
I also don't know who is doing the support for them in the US.

Jens

 

[pophoto]

Thanks for your input Jens!

I agree they are a little on the heavy side, but at least you have that option to go outdoors which I think is nice! You bring up a good point about the beauty dish, I will probably be using a Mola Demi, so will need to know if an adapter exists for it!

 

[JoshMerwin]

I think the next Profoto monolights will have a LiFe battery built in/exchangeable like this ,with an LED model light... That's just a complete guess, but would be a really nice solution! And I think the natural evolution of the product line.

 

[kdphotography]

To be fair, I bet most of the extra weight is from the Lithium battery. Nice options...

 

[pophoto]

Josh, that would be awesome if true. My only hope is that pricing would be comparable!

The PRIOLITE mount system is also very clever and budget minded for the consumer too!

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Can they be used with mains power as well? Battery is all very nice but you need backup.

 

[pophoto]

Ben, from what I understand you can connect it to the charger to the mains. Able to use it as you shoot.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

With the unit which has the removable pack you get 200 shots at full power (rather than 400 on the built in pack) which was making me rather antsy. The kind of shoots where you can afford this level of lighting are usual far more intensive than a predicted (and therefore usually overestimated) 200 shots. Carrying around batteries for a full shoot using 3 lights on location plus the sandbags due to the weight is rather going to make you wonder whether a cable with a couple of Batpac's which can double as sandbags might not make more sense.

 

[Kirk Candlish]

I think the next Profoto monolights will have a LiFe battery built in/exchangeable like this ,with an LED model light... That's just a complete guess, but would be a really nice solution! And I think the natural evolution of the product line.

It'll never happen. The flagship B4 will see some evolution and the AcuteB will stay the same. The Batpack if changed to LI would be priced as ridiculously as the B4. Profoto won't undercut these products by offering D1s that need anything less than the Batpack.

They've already missed the mark in the high end battery portable market with the B4. Have a look on ebay at the flood of used Profoto B packs and heads if you want to see the direction of the market. Broncolor's Move is the current reference.

 

[JoshMerwin]

I don't want to take this too off topic. But the acuteB will definitely be updated to full air control. They can't not do that, when the Hensel Porty is fully digital. I don't think Profoto cares too much about the Batpac. They already made the D1s compatible with the Paul Buff vagabond mini lithium battery pack, by updating the firmware for battery mode. The batpac is probably the product they sell the least of. They can raise the price of the D1 series by adding a battery option inside of it... The D1's and B4 are not made for the same category of photographer. They can obviously be used together, but generally photogs that buy the B4s will use the Pro 8s, because of flash duration, recycle speed, etc. The whole Acute 2 line is also due for an update to the air system. It will probably be similar to the Bron Senso with part rocker switches/part digital control. Otherwise they would cut into the D4 pack sales too much. So that is a little trickier.

They made their money off the B4s by selling to the Rental Studios. I agree that the Move is more more bang for the buck and a lot smaller. I love shooting with it. They really should have made the B4 a 1600 ws pack or priced it lower.

As I said it's a guess, I could be totally wrong. But I would be very surprised if they don't at least update the D1 & AcuteB. It will be interesting to see what happens.

 

[fotografz]

The questions I would dig deep into is exactly how securely the modifier mount works, and how common it may be ... the Hensel mount is just okay, so it has to be at least that good or better. I'd hope they will be more aggressive marketing in the USA than Hensel has been ... some Hensel stuff takes months to get.

I'll stick with Profoto because I can rent what I don't have almost anywhere I travel ... and the AIR works with my Leica S2 CS lenses at 1/1000 sync.

I for one hope they don't put more weight into the D1s ... they work fine with Vagabond Minis clamped low on the stands when occasionally working mobile ... or the BatPac when I have some Beefy Boy assistants to lug it around.

It'll be interesting to see how Profoto "updates" the Acute series ... The Acute B600 AIR Lithium is pretty bullet-proof ... but it'd be nice to lose the rocker switch combos and add AIR levels control ... although I'm not sure I'd pony up the inevitable price jump that'll add for a 600 W/s box.

- Marc