Comparing HS (elinchrom RX4) vs HSS (AD360ii-C)

[Boomanbb]

Since I own both of these units and their associated top of the line transmitters I decided to see which one is better able to deal with the sun at 1/8000 sec. I used the same modifier on both units and placed them on the same stand. Both were set to manual full power (1/1 on the AD360ii-C, 6 on the RX4)

This is the AD360ii-C:



and this is the RX4:



While I am really enjoying the TTL capabilities of the AD360, if I really need to deal with overpowering the sun I will bring out the RX4. elinchrom's use of HS is superior to HSS from the AD360 (and way more than the 40ws difference in the unit's power). Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.







--
Ben Boozer
Disagree without being disagreeable

 

[Don89]

Amen. Nothing but good times with My Eli and HS






Hummers. 1/5000 F? 2.8 ish

 

[nomnomnom]

Since I own both of these units and their associated top of the line transmitters I decided to see which one is better able to deal with the sun at 1/8000 sec. I used the same modifier on both units and placed them on the same stand. Both were set to manual full power (1/1 on the AD360ii-C, 6 on the RX4)

This is the AD360ii-C:



and this is the RX4:



While I am really enjoying the TTL capabilities of the AD360, if I really need to deal with overpowering the sun I will bring out the RX4. elinchrom's use of HS is superior to HSS from the AD360 (and way more than the 40ws difference in the unit's power). Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.



--
Ben Boozer
Disagree without being disagreeable

What camera do you shoot with? Do you find the lack of TTL a problem with eli? Do you have the need to mix the rx4 with speedlites?

 

[Abrak]

You could shoot the ad360ii-C HS instead of HSS and you are likely to get an additional stop of light out of it. I havent tried shooting an ad360 HS but I did a while back compare the ad600 at 1/1 1/8000 HSS and 1/1 1/8000 HS. HS provided about 1 stop more power.

 

[sts2]

Thanks for the test! I've read the 'common wisdom' that also for HS you lose about 1 stop of light for every stop in shutter speed (like with HSS), but In theory it should be more efficient depending on how the flash energy is concentrated in the peak of the flash curve.

Looks like your test confirms that. Now if only we can find someone who could test Elinchrom HS vs a Profoto B1 vs a Siros L with broncolor HS side by side! ;-)

 

[SwissSwiss]

You could shoot the ad360ii-C HS instead of HSS and you are likely to get an additional stop of light out of it. I havent tried shooting an ad360 HS but I did a while back compare the ad600 at 1/1 1/8000 HSS and 1/1 1/8000 HS. HS provided about 1 stop more power.

 

[Abrak]

You could shoot the ad360ii-C HS instead of HSS and you are likely to get an additional stop of light out of it. I havent tried shooting an ad360 HS but I did a while back compare the ad600 at 1/1 1/8000 HSS and 1/1 1/8000 HS. HS provided about 1 stop more power.

 

[elliotn]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

 

[sts2]

In simple terms:

With HSS, the flash output pattern changes from one regular big pulse to a series of short, overlapping pulses (akin to a continuous light that's on for a brief duration)

With HS, the flash discharges normally, but the timing of the discharge is changed (generally it fires a few ms before opening the shutter instead of when the shutter is fully open)

For HSS the flash does something different. For HS the trigger does the work. So technically speaking, you can use an HS trigger on any flash. Results vary greatly between flashes though.

 

[Don89]

You could shoot the ad360ii-C HS instead of HSS and you are likely to get an additional stop of light out of it. I havent tried shooting an ad360 HS but I did a while back compare the ad600 at 1/1 1/8000 HSS and 1/1 1/8000 HS. HS provided about 1 stop more power.

 

[Don89]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

I find myself using in studio at maybe 1/1000 or so. At that speed I can't detect a gradient. However, that depends on your camera and light and/or head being used. Nikon users seem to have better results.

 

[Don89]

You could shoot the ad360ii-C HS instead of HSS and you are likely to get an additional stop of light out of it. I havent tried shooting an ad360 HS but I did a while back compare the ad600 at 1/1 1/8000 HSS and 1/1 1/8000 HS. HS provided about 1 stop more power.

 

[Boomanbb]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

I find myself using in studio at maybe 1/1000 or so. At that speed I can't detect a gradient. However, that depends on your camera and light and/or head being used. Nikon users seem to have better results.

I'm going to test in studio tonight at 1/8000 sec and post results. What I like is that the RX4 is elinchrom's budget 400ws flash and it works perfectly in HS. With the elinchrom HS trigger, it is an amazing deal.

 

[elliotn]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

I find myself using in studio at maybe 1/1000 or so. At that speed I can't detect a gradient. However, that depends on your camera and light and/or head being used. Nikon users seem to have better results.

I'm going to test in studio tonight at 1/8000 sec and post results. What I like is that the RX4 is elinchrom's budget 400ws flash and it works perfectly in HS. With the elinchrom HS trigger, it is an amazing deal.

 

[Boomanbb]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

I find myself using in studio at maybe 1/1000 or so. At that speed I can't detect a gradient. However, that depends on your camera and light and/or head being used. Nikon users seem to have better results.

I'm going to test in studio tonight at 1/8000 sec and post results. What I like is that the RX4 is elinchrom's budget 400ws flash and it works perfectly in HS. With the elinchrom HS trigger, it is an amazing deal.

 

[elliotn]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

I find myself using in studio at maybe 1/1000 or so. At that speed I can't detect a gradient. However, that depends on your camera and light and/or head being used. Nikon users seem to have better results.

I'm going to test in studio tonight at 1/8000 sec and post results. What I like is that the RX4 is elinchrom's budget 400ws flash and it works perfectly in HS. With the elinchrom HS trigger, it is an amazing deal.

--
Ben Boozer
Disagree without being disagreeable

Thanks. I'm very interested to hear your results. I'd also like to know if it's possible to work with a multi light set-up, with the lights at different power settings (e.g. one D-Lite4 at max power, with a second D-Lite4 at min power).

I can answer your second question now. Yes, you can work at different power settings which is another really cool thing about the elinchrom trigger and HS capable strobes. Unlike some solutions where you have to power the strobe at full power, I can fully use HS on my RX4s (I have two of them, one D-Lite4 and 2 RX ONEs) at any power setting from minimum to max.

What you MUST do however is figure out what ODS setting you need to set. Out of the box with the default 0.0us setting, I have very visible banding when shooting over the sync speed. Basically, I set up the strobe and took a series of photos (white backdrop) at 1 stop increasing power settings at 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, etc. After each sequence I upped the ODS setting by .5us and compared the entire set of shot in Lightroom for the least gradient. Once I found it, I repeated the tests stepping the ODS setting by .1us until I found the best one. For my RX4s, I settled on a setting of 2.8us (trusting my rusty memory of course).

--
Ben Boozer
Disagree without being disagreeable

Cool. So once you've got the ODS figured out, you can use the D-Lite4 at all of its power settings. Is that for a specific shutter speed? Or can the camera shutter speed be varied?

 

[Boomanbb]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

I find myself using in studio at maybe 1/1000 or so. At that speed I can't detect a gradient. However, that depends on your camera and light and/or head being used. Nikon users seem to have better results.

I'm going to test in studio tonight at 1/8000 sec and post results. What I like is that the RX4 is elinchrom's budget 400ws flash and it works perfectly in HS. With the elinchrom HS trigger, it is an amazing deal.

 

[elliotn]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

I find myself using in studio at maybe 1/1000 or so. At that speed I can't detect a gradient. However, that depends on your camera and light and/or head being used. Nikon users seem to have better results.

I'm going to test in studio tonight at 1/8000 sec and post results. What I like is that the RX4 is elinchrom's budget 400ws flash and it works perfectly in HS. With the elinchrom HS trigger, it is an amazing deal.

 

[Boomanbb]

Outdoors, the mild gradient of HS is not even visible.

And indoors? Is Elinchrom HS usable in a studio set-up? Or does it require a lot of post production (correcting gradients)? Is the gradient visible in the image you have posted here?

I find myself using in studio at maybe 1/1000 or so. At that speed I can't detect a gradient. However, that depends on your camera and light and/or head being used. Nikon users seem to have better results.

I'm going to test in studio tonight at 1/8000 sec and post results. What I like is that the RX4 is elinchrom's budget 400ws flash and it works perfectly in HS. With the elinchrom HS trigger, it is an amazing deal.

 

[ozgti]

So considering these results, how useful is the ad 360 HSS in overpowering the sun?