Photography News Issue 60

Photography News | Issue 60 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

flash output and the LED colour temperature remotely via Bluetooth. The app automatically detects the unit and this worked reliably in this test. You can also use your device to take shots or shoot video with the B10’s LED lamp. Just adjust output and colour temperature to suit your device. The unit’s LED and flashtube is protected behind non user-removable frosted protection glass. This does mean the tube is effectively slightly recessed into the unit’s body shell, but not to an extent where you’d get a hotspot. The Profoto modifier mount is the best around. Modifiers just slide into the unit’s body and lock on. The design of the modifier mount does mean that softboxes and beauty dishes lock on very firmly and you can fine- tune its position on the head. This is where the numbers on the side of the unit come in handy, so you can repeat the looks of your shots really easily. Once securely locked in position you are not going to have modifiers slipping off from not being properly locked on or dealing with bent bayonet flanges (usually with third party modifiers) that can happen with other brands. In this test I checked out power, flash duration, colour temperature consistency and battery capacity. The B10’s light output was measured at all full power settings using a Gossen flash meter set to ISO 100 at 1m and 2m – the basic head was used with no modifier fitted. At 1m full power (10 on the power scale) was metered at f/32.1 while minimum power was f/1.4.3 For comparison’s sake, a Nikon SB-900 in full manual was metered too and that gave f/32.1 too. At 2m, the B10 at full power was metered at f/16.1 with minimum power resulting in a reading of f/1.0.2. Such an output range gives plenty of potential when it comes to creative use of depth-of-field with fast aperture lenses. In normal mode, colour temperature from output levels 1 to 10 were commendably consistent with no variation when power level was adjusted – this can be done in 0.1EV steps. Themanual quotes 6400Kat all power settings in normal mode. There was more colour variation with the freeze mode where you can get flashbursts as brief as 1/15,000sec at output level 1. Settings from1 to 6were noticeably cool- lookingbut thiswent fromlevel 7upwards. The cooler output can be readily cured in editing or by taking a custom white-balance reading. See the accompanying panels for more on colour temperature stability. With AirTTL Remotes there is the

Pros Power, size, build quality, Profoto modifier mount, short duration in freeze mode, LED light with colour temperature output control, app Cons Nothing of note Profoto has hit it on the head – again! – with its B10. It’s not a cheap unit, but it is very fairly priced if you look at what you get and the tremendous creative opportunities it offers. It’s a portable flash with power, control and versatility, offering the options of manual, TTL and HSS and Profoto’s comprehensive range of modifiers. And you get an LEDmodelling light with colour temperature control and a great many flash bursts per charge, and overall performance is excellent. What’s not to like? option of HSS (high speed sync) flash up to shutter speeds of 1/8000sec and first or second curtain sync. With HSS at 1/8000sec there was enough output to allow an aperture of f/2.8 at ISO 400 with the B10 2m from the subject. If you need smaller apertures, dropping down to 1/2000sec allows a setting of f/4 while you can get f/8 at 1/1000sec and f/11 at 1/500sec. With the ISO performance of the latest cameras so good at ISO 800 and even higher, the B10 has plenty of potential with aperture choice and shooting distance with HSSmode. Recycling was quick. At full power, recharge took just over one second which is respectably quick. If it’s fast continuous shooting you need then dropping output to level power 7 was good enough for 50 consecutive shots at 5fps using a Nikon D810 set to continuous high JPEG shooting. The B10 did not miss a single shot. Up to power level 8 and the B10 did less well and could only keep up for a few frames. Switching to a Fujifilm X-T2 I got 32 frames at 8fps at power level 7 before the B10 missed a frame. For a portable battery unit, the ability for fast recycling with a decent level of power output is very handy. In terms of battery capacity, the manual quotes 400 full-power flash bursts. On the days testing I had with the B10 which included burst shooting, using the LED modelling lamp and plenty of full power shots, the battery was still showing three out of four bars so plenty of capacity left in the tank. WC Verdict

Performance: Flash duration

The B10 has normal and freeze modes, which we tested with a set-up with a domestic fan. Normal mode gives flash bursts as brief as 1/4900sec at power output 1, which lengthens to 1/400sec at full power. Colour temperature stability – a quoted 6400K throughout – in normal mode is impressive as you can see in the test shots shown below. For even shorter flash durations, there is freeze mode which is selected via the menu. Here, 1/15,000sec is the shortest flash burst possible at power level 2 (t0.1s) which gives an output of 1Ws. That’s not a great deal of power so working range and f/stop options are limited but fine for close-ups and table-top shooting. In this mode there is a colour shift – 8200K at power level 1 and 8600K at level 2 so shots are

noticeably blue – a customWB reading gets round this, or in post-processing. See the panel on colour temperature stability for more on this.

Fan off

Normal mode, power level 1, fan on

Freeze mode, power level 1, fan on

Performance: Colour temperature stability

The B10 in normal mode show shows impressive colour temperature stability throughout its power range – themanual quotes 6400K at all power levels. In freezemode, where very brief flash durations are possible at the lower power settings, ie. 1/15,000sec at level 2 with an output of

1Ws. Output is low at the high speed flash speeds but still useful for table-top set-ups, for example. The lowest output settings give a blue cast – the manual quotes 8600K at power level 2.. As output increases, the blueness goes and even at output level 6 results are near neutral..

Minimumpower, normal mode

Full power, normal mode

Minimumpower, freeze mode

Output level 6, freeze mode

Left To check for any gradation effects in HSS mode, this shot of an A1 sheet of white card was taken at 1/8000sec and f/2.8 at ISO 400. The Rawwas processed in Lightroom but no sign of any unevenness was seen.

Above Create an account on the Profoto and you have access to the free app. Turn on the flash and open the app; the app automatically recognises the flash and now you can remotely set menu items, alter flash power output and adjust the colour temperature. You can even take shots on your phone camera with the LED lamp.