Testing the Elinchrom ELB1200

 The first non-speedlight strobe I bought was the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS. An 1100Ws tank of a portable pack and head system that I still utilize today. Elinchrom has updated this piece of kit and renamed it the ELB1200, and I was super stoked and thankful when they told me they were sending out a unit my way to test. I don't want to get too deep into all the tech specs but if you want to totally nerd out, you can check out everything on Elinchrom's site here. But to break down the main goods..
- 1200Ws of flash power
- 4.7 kg with HD battery
- 1.7s recycle time at full power
- 1/8850th flash duration at 172Ws (with Action Head)
- Symmetric and Asymmetric output
-400 full power flashes with HD battery
- OLED digital display
- Weatherproof construction
- Ability to utilize Elinchrom HS with the HS head.
- 4000 lumens daylight balanced LED modelling lights.
BATTERIES-
The ELB1200 comes standard with the 'air' battery, it weighs a measly 1.1kg and will give you 215 full power flashes or 80 mins of LED light.- For a bit more capacity, you can add the 'HD' battery, which comes in at 1.5kg and provides 400 full power flashes or 120 mins of LED light.- Both batteries have a USB port on them which allows you to charge mobile devices.
HEADS-
Elinchrom produced 3 different heads that can be used with the ELB1200, all 3 have the same modelling lamp, exterior casing, and weight of 2.2kg.Where these differ is on the inside and the abilities of the flash tubes.- The 'Action' head provides the fastest flash durations for freezing motion at normal sync speeds, pushing out a very respectable 1/8850 at 172Ws in the B channel.- The 'HS' head is optimized for shooting beyond the normal sync speed of your camera in tandem with the Skyport Pro HS transmitter, and will allow you to shoot up to 1/8000 shutter speeds- The 'Pro' head is the best for all around general photography as the flash durations are fast enough to ensure sharpness of non action photos, but also long enough to allow you to cheat past your sync speed a bit depending on the power output and your camera model. At best, this head will give you a 1/5050 flash duration, and on the slower end it hits 1/2130 which makes it possible to squeeze some extra sync out of the head.I was sent out both the 'Pro' and 'Action' heads, so some of my testing was to see their abilities to either freeze motion, or get me into the HS range.While I like the heads from my Ranger, one part I was never a fan of was the tilt and stand mount bracket as it was plasticky and unable to hold heavier 3rd party modifiers. The new heads are equipped with aluminum tilt mechanisms that employ cork friction pads to ensure your mods are kept up the way you like, there is also a better design for the secondary umbrella shaft than on previous heads.Everything on both the pack and heads feel solid and ready to last in real world shooting for plenty of years, and it's almost comical how light this pack is when you factor in its robustness and sheer power. This is much lighter than the Profoto and Broncolor equivalents, and only 1.7kg heavier than the popular 500Ws battery monoheads, I also much prefer to have a lighter head and the weight down on the pack, than flying a 7lb head on a stand, indoors or outdoors. By using the Snappy holder for the pack, you can just hang it from your stand so it acts as a sandbag. Now for the good stuff!!

My first shoot was with the incredible Danielle Eakins (@danielle_eaks01) whom I've had the pleasure of shooting before. All shots of Danielle were done with the action head, which meant I stuck to a normal sync speed of 1/250th

My next shoot was with the multitalented Tyson Hart (@tysonhartw), we headed out to the track in Kerrisdale and had to work around a soccer match happening in the middle of the field. The first shot here was to test the motion freezing capabilities of the action head, and it did pretty well considering Tyson was cooking along pretty fast!

For the next 2 shots I threw on the Pro head and tested out how much I could push my sync speed. these were done at 1/2500 and 1/5000 respectively.

Testing out the portability of the system, I trekked out with Ollie (@Olliegregoryjones) and Hailey (@haileyelisee) for some mountain biking. Each spot took about 25 mins of hiking to get to. I kept the pack in a backpack and left the head on a stand.. ohh and did I mention that we had to drive up a janky road in a beat up Toyota truck??Here's a crop in on Ollie, look at how tack sharp he is here 1/250 f5.6 isn't fast enough to freeze him with natural light. The action head is doing all the heavy lifting and freezing him. Actually, the pack is doing the heavy lifting as it's putting out quite a bit of power to push through the modifier and light him up from a distance away, probably about 10 feet.We hiked out to another spot that didn't quite work out, so I decided to shoot a couple quick portraits of them.

My next shoot was in studio with my good friend and model Emmie (@emmiewong_) I wanted to show how this unit isn't only for rocking outdoors, but is great inside as well. I don't like having to always find power and run long extensions on location. Having a battery based system makes my life a lot easier and helps to work quicker! Also, this is why I loooooooove my Elinchrom 150cm Indirect Octa, it looks like a big friggin' window!

^^^^^^^I decided to utilize the LED modelling lights and get that softer look with a slow shutter speed and shallow DOF.. And then back to some regular stuff! 100cm Deep Octa and another head banging into a V-flat for some fill.

The last shoot I was able to do was with Corinna (@corinna_alexandra) These shots were about pure power, going between f/9 and f/13. The shots in the grassy area are done with the 150cm indirect, so you need a lot of power to get that much juice through a modifier that large in bright sun. The shots in the red dress are with the 100cm Deep Octa as I wanted more punch to the images

Ohh and I did a quick shot of my homie Trevor Fox (@trevarfox) who has always been a willing test subject for me since I started photography..
I really only had one gripe with the kit, and there's 2 easy solutions to remedy this.. I would like the ability to turn off the strobe from firing while using the LED lights.. this is easily remedied by simply taking the transmitter unit off your camera, or a firmware update that gives you the option..either way, no biggie, just something I'd like as during my test I wanted to run one head with LED light and one head as a strobe, but was not possible.All in all, I think this is an amazing piece of kit, it's built extremely well, is feature rich, versatile for use in almost any situation, and offers the reliability that I've come to know and expect from Elinchrom over the years. I would love to add this to my gear stash in the future!! :D
I couldn't have had such a great time with this beauty if it weren't for the support of Elinchrom, so I send my deepest thanks your way!~Cheers~