Photography News Issue 56

Photography News | Issue 56 | photographynews.co.uk

43

First tests

Rotolight Anova Pro 2 Bi-Colour 110° £1550

Specs

The Rotolight Anova Pro 2 is an innovative LED professional quality light source that offers high output levels and great versatility. With the use of LEDs of two colours, it is possible tovary the colour temperature of the output within the range of 3150 to 6300K (daylight is around 5600K). Power output is impressive with an output of 10,700 lux at three feet and that is 70% more than its predecessor, and it can be battery ormains powered. Build quality is solid and it is designed to withstand serious use, indoors and out. The standard light comes with a mains adapter and yoke mount so it can be fitted to any lighting stand and large locking nuts alloweasy angle adjustment. If you want barn doors or modifiers to control light you need to factor in extra budget, and if youwant to fully exploit the Pro 2 with its potential of wireless control and flash including instant recycling and high speed flash sync up to 1/8000sec you need to add the Rotolight HSS transmitter priced at £228. Two large red knobs on the unit’s rear handle power and colour temperature adjustment and pushing the two knobs in simultaneously brings up the unit’smenu and access to more features. The menu has the flash option and has features like Cinesfx mode where for movie shooting you can simulate lightning or a flashing police light. Adjusting colour temperature can be done within a range of 3150 to 6300K in 10K steps up to 5100K and at 20K steps above this – and 100K steps too. This feature is made possible by the unit’s mix of white and orange LEDs so does make mixing light from the unit and ambient light very easy – and this adjustability applies to flash as well continuous output. To check accuracy of colour temperature I did a set of pictures – using a Nikon D810 in manual white- balance mode – with the Kelvin value set on the light to match (as close as possible) what was set on the camera. Therewas some variance but generally performance was good. To assess continuous light output, I used a Gossen Digipro F light meter set to ISO 200 taking incident light readings with the Anova at a range of power settings at distances of 1m and 2m. At 100% output (with the light

Verdict

Prices £1550. A single fixed colour

version of this light is available for £1500, and a 50° model available at £1550 Accessory prices Barn doors £189.99; Rotolight 95Wh V-mount lithium battery £289.99; D-Tap travel charger £59.99; Honeycomb louver grid £131.99; Snap grid £347.99; Rotolight HSS transmitter £228.39; Pro Master kit £444.99 (includes barn doors and flight case) In the box Anova Pro 2 light with yoke, gel filter holder, power adaptor and mains cable and six-piece gel filter pack – full diffuser (1EV), medium/ half white diffuser (0.75EV), cosmetic peach diffusion and minus green Output 10,700 lux at 3ft Cinesfx mode Special effects include gunshot, paparazzi, police etc for filmmakers Colour temperature 3150-6300K Colour accuracy CRI>96, TLCI 91 Flash duration Adjustable from 1/50sec to 1/2500sec Flash recycling time Instant, 150,000 bursts from a full battery High speed flash sync Up to 1/8000sec Wireless control Elinchrom Skyport built-in so available with optional Rotolight HSS transmitter. Brightness and colour temperature can be controlled from up to 200m range Contact Rotolight.com

The Rotolight Anova Pro 2 Bi-Colour is a professional quality lighting unit with a matching robust build and performance – and price. It is without doubt a first-rate continuous light source for video and stills photography. It is very controllable with decent levels of output so ideal for those who focus on video with the occasional foray into flash for stills shooting. On the other hand, for those who are predominantly still photographers who are looking at the Anova Pro 2 Bi-Colour as a dual purpose light, its potential as a flash is more limited. There is huge capacity and instant recycling but if you want action- stopping flash and output – in normal and HSS modes – you might be better off buying a good dedicated flash system and run it alongside the Anova Pro 2, so you have both lighting options covered.

Pros Wireless control potential, colour temperature control, powerful continuous light Cons Limited flash potential

Above left The chart was shot with the test camera (a Nikon D810) and the Anova set to 3230K – the result is on the slightly cool side. Above right The same again but this time to 5880K – here the result was marginally warm.

set to 4100K) I got a meter reading of f/2.8.8 at 2m and f/4.0.4 at 1m while at 50% output this fell to f/2.0.8 and f/2.8.6 respectively, so nothing wrong here with the accuracy of power control. To give the flash effect, power is delivered in a very short burst to the LEDs. Flash duration can be set from 1/50sec to 1/2500sec and high speed sync up to shutter speed of 1/8000sec. I had a Nikon compatible trigger on a Nikon D810 and used the same Gossen meter to measure output. At 2m and ISO 200, the output was measured at f/5.6.5 at 1/50sec and 1/60sec (as set on the lighting unit) and setting 1/125sec, 1/250sec and 1/500sec caused a drop to f/4, f/2.0.7 and f/2.0.5 respectively. At 1/1000sec

and faster the meter could not give a reading, so I moved the light to within one metre of the lightmeter. Now at 1/1000sec I got a reading of f/2.8.9 and f/2.8.7 at 1/2000sec. So you get decent levels of output at the longer flash durations and if you want more depth-of-field, with modern cameras setting ISO speeds up to ISO 800 can give great image quality so there is that option. I then took some shots at the various flash duration settings (1/50sec to 1/2500sec) with a domestic fan switched on to its lowest setting to look at the unit’s action-stopping potential. The camera’s shutter speed was set to 1/160sec and ambient was too low to be recorded at that speed. You can see from the test shot below with the unit

set to 1/2000sec that action-stopping ability is not its forte. Finally on the unit’s flash skills, I tried HSS with the light 2m from the test scene with the D810 (fitted with a 85mm f/1.8 lens) at shutter speeds from 1/500sec up to 1/8000sec. At 1/2000sec at ISO 200, an aperture of f/2 gave a good exposure and at 1/4000sec, ISO needed to be set to 400 for same aperture value. The same amount of ISO increase was needed to give enough light for f/1.8 at 1/8000sec. So, the Anova as a flash unit is usable but within limits and you may have to jugglewith ISOand shoot fairly close to the subject to get practical apertures. It all depends on your needs and expectations. WC

Belowleft High speed sync with the camera set to 1/8000sec gives an action-stopping effect. Belowright The light set to 1/2000sec with a flash sync speed of 1/125sec is not so good at stoppingmovement.

High speed sync 1/8000sec

Light set to 1/2000sec

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