Prophoto B1 Air TTL or Prolite MBX500?

[hulk2012]

I'm a portraiture and wedding shooter mainly shooting on location but sometimes do have bookings at the studio. I'm planning to buy Profoto B1 Air TTL or Prolite MBX500 but wonder which one would you recommend and why for indoor as well as outdoor? Thanks.

 

[tirediron]

I've never heard of Priolite before; they're certainly priced at the upper end of the market. I know you can't go wrong with Profoto, but I also don't think most people need to spend that much money on gear. Have you looked at Elinchrom?

 

[Derrel]

Priolite MBX500 500W/s Monolight (115-230VAC) 01-0500-02 B&H

Priolite Leipzig MBX500 2-Light Kit Review - Terry White's Tech Blog

Video snippet, 3 minutes or so:

In order to do really high-level pro shooting, you'd probably want to have five flashes at your disposal...so be prepared to shell out $7,500 just for lights...not counting modifiers, stands, and miscellaneous stuff.

Priolite seems like a very expensive, primarily BATTERY-powered option; it DOES have high-level specifications as far as recycle time.

 

[hulk2012]

Priolite MBX500 500W/s Monolight (115-230VAC) 01-0500-02 B&H

Priolite Leipzig MBX500 2-Light Kit Review - Terry White's Tech Blog

Video snippet, 3 minutes or so:

In order to do really high-level pro shooting, you'd probably want to have five flashes at your disposal...so be prepared to shell out $7,500 just for lights...not counting modifiers, stands, and miscellaneous stuff.

Priolite seems like a very expensive, primarily BATTERY-powered option; it DOES have high-level specifications as far as recycle time.

Was thinking more about 2 - fill and side/kicker/background one to be honest.

 

[tirediron]

Was thinking more about 2 - fill and side/kicker/background one to be honest.

Just out of curiosity, how much work have you done with this sort of lighting?

 

[hulk2012]

Was thinking more about 2 - fill and side/kicker/background one to be honest.

Just out of curiosity, how much work have you done with this sort of lighting?

I own 5 sb910 and two qflashes. Been shooting for over a 2 years using them. My clients demanding a quality upgrade therefore profoto or Prolite is a must at this point..

 

[tirediron]

.... My clients demanding a quality upgrade therefore profoto or Prolite is a must at this point..

Sorry... what? What do clients get to say about the gear? SB910s are excellent lights, and if you do want to upgrade, why bypass all of the very good (Bowens, Elinchrom, Speedotron,...) brands that give you excellent quality at a much more reasonable price?

 

[hulk2012]

.... My clients demanding a quality upgrade therefore profoto or Prolite is a must at this point..

Sorry... what? What do clients get to say about the gear? SB910s are excellent lights, and if you do want to upgrade, why bypass all of the very good (Bowens, Elinchrom, Speedotron,...) brands that give you excellent quality at a much more reasonable price?

Sorry but to lit large ceremony by bouncing of the church ceiling requires something stronger then qflash and only use sb910 as a complimentary light at this point. Unless I want something creative than yes shadows are my friends so are speedlights. Other than that I go all lit

And to answer your question why bypass? Well profoto is industry standard with great c1 tether integration, TTL if needed and more. Prolite is in other hand more future rich. Wanted to hear an opinion of real users of them both really...

 

[Derrel]

The Priolite's big draw is the built-in battery pack concept and "cordless" nature. The specifications seem decent, speed-wise. Priolite MBX500 500W/s Monolight (115-230VAC) 01-0500-02 B&H

I guess it depends on priorities and desires. You could buy MANY more monolights of lower-spec for $3,000, but then you would not own the pair of Priolites. Studio flash is one of those areas where individuals can choose between HIGH-end, medium, medium-high, low-end, and ultra-economy....there's a monolight for EVERY budget.

I personally would rather own FIVE, or SIX 150 Watt-second flashes than TWO, high-specification, expensive, $1,500 lights...I am used to having as many lights as I need...four,five,or six lights, with two 2,400 W-s packs and one 1600 W-s and a trio of 400 W-s packs, plus a 200 W-s, and not worrying about cost because I bought Speedotron, and it's low-cost used and has been around so long it's not trendy at all...

But that idea has passed; it's now much more-fashionable to go with monolights. It's all a matter of cash, priorities, needs, wants, impression, image; I'm more concerned with having 4,5,or 6 lights because I often WANT to have five separate lights, but if a guy needs or wants only TWO, then I suppose it makes sense to look at a two-light system. Studio and location flash is a difficult thing to generalize about...it depends on what YOU WANT. I don't really know about your needs; is 220 full-power flashes per battery charge enough? As I read it, after 220 shots at full, the battery will need to be charged, but it seems like you CAN SHOOT when it's connected to the charger, and on active charging.

 

[Derrel]

I looked around a bit more...Testing the Priolite MBX500 ? LensProToGo Labs

Priolite MBX 500 Review | Wex Photographic

THIS is an interesting review; the inventor of the Priolite line is a former Hensel engineer; Priolite uses BOTH Bowens S-type AND Hensel mounting accessories, and also can use the economy-priced WexPro type accessories...the 500 model's modeling liught, and LED system has ONE,single level: ALL ON, no tracking, no dimming, it;s either ON, full, or off.

What I find troubling though is this user comment: "Steve Fouquaert. on May 31, 2013 at 2:00 pm said:I have both the M500, MB500 and the MBX500 since six months, so far I have had nothing else then trouble.
One of the M500′s had a fatal error with no Flash after one month and has been in repair since 4 months.
One MB500 when received had lose parts inside and had to be returned, still not back
One MB500 had intermittend faults with a permanent beep as the result. I could only power off and on to clear the problem. However the problem returned. The unit was returned for repair 4 weeks ago."

 

[tirediron]

Sorry but to lit large ceremony by bouncing of the church ceiling requires something stronger then qflash and only use sb910 as a complimentary light at this point. Unless I want something creative than yes shadows are my friends so are speedlights. Other than that I go all lit

Fair enough; I don't do a lot of wedding work, and those few churches I do shoot in do NOT allow flash!

And to answer your question why bypass? Well profoto is industry standard

I would dispute that; of all the photographers I know, both directly and indirectly, exactly NONE of them shoot with Profoto gear.

Wanted to hear an opinion of real users of them both really...

Apologies for intruding where I am apparently not wanted.

 

[hulk2012]

Sorry but to lit large ceremony by bouncing of the church ceiling requires something stronger then qflash and only use sb910 as a complimentary light at this point. Unless I want something creative than yes shadows are my friends so are speedlights. Other than that I go all lit

Fair enough; I don't do a lot of wedding work, and those few churches I do shoot in do NOT allow flash!

And to answer your question why bypass? Well profoto is industry standard

I would dispute that; of all the photographers I know, both directly and indirectly, exactly NONE of them shoot with Profoto gear.

Wanted to hear an opinion of real users of them both really...

Apologies for intruding where I am apparently not wanted.

It's all good mate. Thanks for an effort anyway. Appreciate it.

 

[Derrel]

Profoto Pro Globe and Ring for Profoto Heads 100673 B&H Photo $675 [see http://www.soap.com/p/vaseline-petroleum-jelly-44893 ]

vs

Profoto globe + DIY - Google Search vs $9.99 at Home Depot

 

[hulk2012]

The Priolite's big draw is the built-in battery pack concept and "cordless" nature. The specifications seem decent, speed-wise. Priolite MBX500 500W/s Monolight (115-230VAC) 01-0500-02 B&H

I guess it depends on priorities and desires. You could buy MANY more monolights of lower-spec for $3,000, but then you would not own the pair of Priolites. Studio flash is one of those areas where individuals can choose between HIGH-end, medium, medium-high, low-end, and ultra-economy....there's a monolight for EVERY budget.

I personally would rather own FIVE, or SIX 150 Watt-second flashes than TWO, high-specification, expensive, $1,500 lights...I am used to having as many lights as I need...four,five,or six lights, with two 2,400 W-s packs and one 1600 W-s and a trio of 400 W-s packs, plus a 200 W-s, and not worrying about cost because I bought Speedotron, and it's low-cost used and has been around so long it's not trendy at all...

But that idea has passed; it's now much more-fashionable to go with monolights. It's all a matter of cash, priorities, needs, wants, impression, image; I'm more concerned with having 4,5,or 6 lights because I often WANT to have five separate lights, but if a guy needs or wants only TWO, then I suppose it makes sense to look at a two-light system. Studio and location flash is a difficult thing to generalize about...it depends on what YOU WANT. I don't really know about your needs; is 220 full-power flashes per battery charge enough? As I read it, after 220 shots at full, the battery will need to be charged, but it seems like you CAN SHOOT when it's connected to the charger, and on active charging.

I think I said that I own already 5 sb910 and two qflashes. That's for my creative work. Now I'm looking for a professional "true & full lit" type of think. Basically studio lightening on the go. That's why I'm debating about these two..

 

[Scatterbrained]

From Qflash and speedlights to those? That's a huge jump, both in price and outright size. If you've got the budget for it then why not? The tech is enough to make just about anyone geek out, but it just doesn't seem practical from a cost standpoint relative to the vast array of other lights on the market. For the cost of two 500ws Priolites and the remote you can get 4 Einsteins (assuming you're in N.America), 4 Vagabond Mini Lithium battery packs, 4 CyberSync Transeivers, and a CyberCommander. It really would make me stop and think a bit.