Photography News Issue 67

Photography News | Issue 67 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

ProfotoB10PlusAir TTL £1795

Specs

Launched last September, the Profoto B10 is a battery powered flash with a compelling feature set that included an output of 250Ws making it ideal for location shooting. Now, Profoto has taken the B10 concept further with the B10 Plus Air TTL which is a slightly longer body than the B10 but has twice the output of 500Ws. This is controllable in 0.1EV steps across a 10EV range and can be controlled via Bluetooth and the free iOS Profoto app. A fully charged battery gives up to 200 full power flash bursts and of course you’ll get many more at lower power settings. You also get 75minutes running time with the built-in 2500 lumens LED light for modelling or video shooting and this can be colour temperature controlled within a 3000-6500K range. A flat battery can be recharged in 90 minutes. The B10 Plus is fully compatible with Profoto’s Air Remote triggers. Add the Air Remote TTL (£349) or use the Profoto A1 or A1X and you have the option of TTL and HSS flash features with a wireless working range of up to 100m. For this test I tried the B10 Plus with an A1X (Nikon) and Connect TTL-F (Fujifilm) and went through tests for output, duration and colour stability in normal and freeze modes. The B10 Plus is an elegant looking unit and well built too. The rechargeable battery locks in securely as does the removable lighting stand adapter which has a hole for an umbrella stem. There is a series of numbers on the body which come in handy if you find you like a specific position for a particular light modifier so repeating an effect is made easy. Speaking of modifiers, the Profoto OCF (Off Camera Flash) system has over 120 available, including a comprehensive selection of softboxes, reflectors and beauty dishes. The Profoto modifier mount is not as widely supported by third parties as the popular S-bayonet or Elinchrom, but it’s probably the best to use and very secure too. The unit’s control centre is on the back of the unit and here you find

Prices Single B10 Plus £1795 includes carry case, stand mount, USB A to USB C lead, battery and charger. B10 Plus Duo kit £3595 includes two heads, stand mounts, batteries and chargers, and one USB A to USB C lead plus a Profoto Core Backpack S Max power 500Ws Energy range 10 f/stops (1.0-10) Recycling time 0.05-2.5secs Energy stability 0.2 f/stops Power output (2m /ISO 100) F/32.7 with OCF Magnum reflector, f/16.7 without reflector TTL Yes HSS Yes Flash duration Normal mode – energy level 10 1/390sec, level 1 1/4100sec Freeze mode – energy level 10 1/390sec, level 1 1/14,000sec Lamp type LED, 2500 lumens output Dimming range (%) 100-10% Colour temp Adjustable 3000-6500K (+-500K) Colour rendering (CRI) 90-96 Operating range Sync and remote control 0.5-300m HSS and TTL: 0.5-100m Supported Air features Flash sync, remote control, TTL, High Speed Sync Bluetooth Yes Supported Bluetooth features Profoto app Sync socket No Firmware upgrade USB-C port for firmware upgrades Power supply Li-Ion battery Battery capacity Up to 200 full-power flashes Up to 75 minutes full continuous light Battery charges in less than 90 minutes User upgradable firmware Yes Photocell/IR-slave and switch Yes Umbrella mount Yes Dimensions (wxlxh) 11xx23.5x10cm Weight 1.9kg (including battery and lighting stand adapter) Contact profoto.com

Left The B10 Plus is not that much bigger than a fast telephoto lens Above The B10 Plus’ readout is nice and big, and the simple menu system is really easy to navigate

Verdict

There’s plenty of potential in HSS to mix daylight and flash in bright light with good amounts of power too

A single Profoto B10 Plus head costs £1795 and a Duo kit is £3595 so it is true that lower priced, similar powered units are available. But of course it is not always about money; it is about having quality kit that is great to use and reliably delivers what you want, time after time. I really rate the B10 Plus because it is so good to use, has plenty of power on tap and is really portable. Factor in the options of HSS and TTL flash and Profoto’s light shaping system, and you have a compelling proposition. So if you are in the market for a battery flash system par excellence, no point looking any further. Pros Power, light quality, controllability, TTL and HSS (with optional Air Remote TTL trigger) Cons Not much, perhaps relative lack of third party Profoto-fit lighting modifiers speed to 1/1000sec and 1/500sec I got acceptable HSS exposures of f/11 and f/16 respectively so there is plenty of power. Bear in mind that I was testing at ISO 100 at full power and with the excellent image quality achievable even at ISO 800, there’s plenty of potential in HSS to mix daylight and flash in bright light with good amounts of power too. Lastly on HSS, I shot images of a plain sheet of white card to see if there were any significant gradation issues, and I got a plain background even at 1/4000sec so all good here. Finally, I tested battery capacity with a fully charged battery and using power level 10. I fired the B10 Plus 25 times at full power and then switched off for ten minutes. I repeated the process until the battery was spent. In this fashion I got 226 full bursts. WC

a large output readout along with indicators for battery level, Bluetooth on/off and group settings. In terms of controls you have an LED control and a power knob that lets you make adjustments in 0.1 or 1EV steps – push and rotate for the latter. To assess power, I fixed the B10 Plus without any modifier attached on a lighting stand and then took flash meter readings from one and two metres, from full power settings from 1.0 to 10. With a Gossen flash meter set to ISO 100 I got a reading of f/1.4.8 at energy level 1.0 at 1m so there is plenty of potential for wide aperture

shooting and lovely bokeh effects here. As power was increased by 1EV, the output increased correspondingly and accurately so by the time I got to power level 9 and 10 I was getting f/22.8 and f/32.8 respectively. At two metres, power level 10 I recorded an aperture of f/22, which became f/4 at level 5.0 and f/1.4 at level 2.0. Power control was impressively accurate through the entire range. Just to confirm colour consistency through the B10 Plus’s range I set the light up a metre from a colour test chart and, performing a custom white-balance first, took a series of images at full power values. There was no colour shift in my test. So far I was in normal flash mode, and the B10 Plus offers a freeze mode with short flash durations although with the very briefest times there’s not much power. Set energy level 2, for example, and output is 1W/s with a t0.1(s) time of 1/14,000sec. At the lower power settings in freeze mode there is a noticeable colour shift with the images looking much cooler. You can’t meter output in high speed sync mode so to give an idea of power availability I took shots using a Fujifilm GFX 50R fitted with a 32-64mm f/4 lens at shutter speeds from 1/4000sec down to the camera’s 1/250sec sync speed – the camera’s sync speed is 1/125sec. I took shots from 2m and used ISO 100. At 1/4000sec the B10 Plus allowed an aperture of f/5.6 at energy level 10 and that increased to f/8 at 1/2000sec. That is impressive and certainly has potential for depth-of- field control. Dropping the shutter

Normal mode, energy level 1

Normal mode, energy level 10

Freeze mode, energy level 2

Freeze mode, energy level 10

Images All four pictures takenwith a FujifilmGFX 50Rwith a custom white-balance setting and resultingRaws processedwith the same settings