LIGHTING TEST | Above: The O-Lite2 with 3 16cm feflector A it comprised of two heads, tw of these reflectors, to Drllies, two stands, plus bags is available for under £400. 18 GRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY 12 | Welcome delight Goodbye to Prolinca, welcome in the D-Lite. Elinchrom’s new range of budget-priced lighting impresses Steve Tho Pralinea studio flash units have enjoyed a long and suc cessful history as competent and reliable stucio kit, albeit without many frls. Made by Elinchrom in Switzerland, the Prolinca units were aimed at the entry evel market, an area in which they stood out from the crowa for their decent build wali But all good things mu come to an end, ané ti Prolinca lights have now gone. However, they have been replaces by a new range of heads bearing the Elinchrom name and selling for similar prices to the heads. they replace, despite having many more features. The new D-lite range is ‘made up of three models, The base model is the 100 Joule head, simpy called the D-Lite ‘Next is the 200 Joule D-Lte2, and at the top of the range is the 400 Joule D-Lited, They tse the same accessory rirg 35 the more expensive Elinchrom Style heads, allowing an Upgrade path without heving to buy new accessaries, Construction The heads are lightweight and ‘compact, the 100) model measuring just 16em long and | 2006 12¢m in diameter. The 200 and 400) models use the same casing and measure 2m tong and 16cm in diam: ster They weign 900g, 11003 and 13003 respectively. The compact construction is helped by the fact that they don't have cooling fans ~ 2 Point that needs to be kept in mind if using sccescories that impede heat dispersal, such as honeycomb gris. In such cases the modeling ight Should be used sparingly. & thermal cutout prevents things ram getting dangerousy hot. All the models have power output variable in 1/10-stop Increments. The D-Lite a¢ from full to 1/8 power, giving it 2 minimum output of 124. The D-Litez and D-Lites can go ‘down to 1/16 power, giving them minimum outputs of 12 and 25) respectively, Settings are controlled by membrane buttons, which are located on tho back panel. A pair ef buttons marked with arrows raise 0: lower the paver ‘output, which is eisplayed on an LED panel located above them, The power management system inclides an auto. dumping feature that drains ‘excess power from the capaci- tors when power is dacressedThe power display flasnes wile power is being dumpes ad, if the fash-ready bleep is eratled, it sourds when dumping i complete. Flash fi- ing is not disabled during dumping, so i's important to wait until the process is com plete The modelling lamp has set tings for minimum, maximum, proportioral ar oft The remaining three centro are the flesh test button (which aubles as aflash-ready light) a button to switch the flash: ready bleep on or off, ard one to onatle or disable the photo cell trigger. ‘At the business end is a pustrin flash tube that can be changed by the user and a LOOW screw-tnread modeling lamp. I's worth noting here that all the D-Lite heads use the same modeling lamp, This should be kept in rind If mix. ing heads of diferent pow, a5 the lamps will not accurately represent the relative output of the heads. For exampe, if you were using 109 and 400) heads both set to hall power, the modelling lamps. would deliver equal outout, while the flash cutouts would difler by two stops. Recycling times at maximum power are two seconds for the Diite, 0.75 for the D-Lite2 and 1.3s for the D-Lited. Fash durations, based on the (=0.5 standard, are 1/1600, 1/1200 ‘and 1/800s respectively. Performance ‘The heads reviewee here were the D-Lite2 model and meas: urements may or may not ‘apply to others in the rarge Power oulput was measured rectly using @ fash meter ca ibeated in increments of 1/19 stop, The claimed output of the D-Lite2 covers tive stops, or four stops of spread. This turned out to be pretty wel spot on. The meter indicated 3.9 steps, which isa nogligible Variation. The variation from Stop to stop was also within UL0 stop, To pat some real tigures 01 ‘output power, a measurement was taken from three metres using an 18cm reflector, At full power, this gave a shooting aporture of 11.6 at 180100 Fitting an Elinchror 70cm softbon reduced this to 18. Fer those who tke to think in guide umbers, that’s 35 and 24 (mm), oF 116 and 80 (tv, The colour temperature is quoted as 5650K across the board, The 200) heads Showed impressively constant colour temperature across the power range, This was checked by sheating a Macbeth chart at ‘each power setting with tho ‘camera's white balance sat ‘manually to the nearest Kelvin value. In this case the nearest setting was 600K. The resulting images showed no detectable colour variation across the power range and were close to neutral, with just four Photoshop points too much blue. Setting the camera tos ‘Above: The flash tube can be changed by the user. The LOOW ‘modeling lamp fs commen to all thiee models. Picture © Steve ynes. The 200J heads ‘onstant @ power range nex highest setting of 5900K produced totally neutral Images. This small aiscrepancy could be due to variation in either the camera or the lights such atest should be carried ‘ut with any new combination of lights and camera Importantly, the colour tamper ature dees not change detectably with power Prices and kits Prices for the kit, excluding VAT, are £129 for'the D-Lite, £179 for the D-tite2 and £229 for the D-Lited 2 number of kits are avail able that offer better value than buying the items individually The supplied kit included two D-Lite2 heads, two 16cm reflectors, a silvered retective broly, a shoot-through broly {wo stands, plus a tagiorme “COLOUR STABILITY heads ang one for tie stands and trols. This package sells Exposure and colour temperature is very stable for£395 + VAT. across the entire eutput range These are exttemey compet- itive prices, low enough to compots head-on with tre cheap and nasty stuff that has been coming out of China. But their performance and build quality are ina clferent ieague To make such low prices possible, the D-Lites are man- ufactured in India, not in inchram’s Swiss’ factory where labeur prices are among the highest in Europe. But high standards have been main- tained and no corners have een cut, Conclusions These are arguably the best value entry-level flash heads fn the market. They pertarm well by every measure and appear to be built to deliver years of relible service. They also offer features rot usuelly founc on buoget modes. | can highly recommen ther, Contacts For more information visit vwweweelinchrom com, Elinchrom preducts are availabe in the UK via The Flash Centre ~ for details visit vu theflashoentr.com, Minus 4 stops. 12 | 04 | 2006 BRTISH JOURVAL oF PHoroaRAPHY 19