Pixiq

Disclaimer: In an effort to be up front with my readers about my relationships with photo equipment suppliers I wanted to let you know that while I do have a relationship with the folks at Elinchrom and give them feedback on their gear to help improve it, here I will call it like I see it. If I thought a piece of gear was not up to snuff then I simply wouldn’t choose to review it. In terms of the Quadra, my first hands on experience with this product was at the Manfrotto Distribution annual sales meeting for their reps, where I was brought in to do a mini workshop and presentation in January 2010. As soon as I saw it, I knew this was going to be a product that would be perfect for my style of work.

Ever since I got the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed 1,100 Watt/second battery powered strobe a few years ago I have wanted to get a similar setup that was lighter for those times when I didn’t need quite so much power and had to lug lighting gear way back into the wilderness. Well, Elinchrom must have been reading my mind because they made a smaller version of the venerable Rangers called the Ranger Quadra that pumps out 400 W/s,  weighs only 7.94 pounds (3.6 kg) and recycles in 2.2 seconds at full power. At lower power settings the recycle time is almost instantaneous, down to a quarter of a second. Compared to the old battery-powered DynaLite’s I used to use that took upwards of five seconds to recycle at full power this is a huge upgrade. 

The strobe head itself is tiny and weighs less than a Nikon SB900 speedlight! In fact the strobe head without the reflector is smaller than an SB900. Of course you’ll need a reflector or more likely a few other light shaping odds and ends but these are similarly lightweight. My Elinchrom softboxes, standard mount reflectors and grid spots can be used with the addition of a Quadra Reflector Adapter (sold separately) which just attaches to the Quadra head and allows you to mount any Elinchrom light modifier as usual. For my work, I usually have a soft box or a beauty dish on the strobes at a minimum so all of my heads are set up with the adapter on them all the time. The adapters add just a bit more weight but it isn’t that big of a deal. 

One thing I would caution though, and which was an oversight on the part of Elinchrom, is that the heads don’t ship with a protective cap. The bulb is just hanging out there waiting to be nicked. Talking with the guys at Manfrotto I was assured there is a diffuser plate they are going to be shipping soon that would act as a protective cap for the strobe head. But, after thinking about it, I realized my Ranger heads have a plastic snap on cap that works just fine on the Quadras if you have the reflector adapter in place all the time as I do so I ordered a few of those and the problem was solved. 

As far as I can tell there is no other strobe system out there that is this small and compact for the power it puts out - and especially when considering the great recycle times. Some other little nice features that may not grab you at first are the sweet shoulder strap that ships with the battery pack, the built-in Elinchrom Skyport wireless Transceivers, the same 1/10th stop control of the light and easy to use digital interface as with the bigger Ranger packs, a slow and fast recycle mode and a custom mode where you can trigger the strobe using a speedlight - which also allows you to use rear curtain synch. As you would expect, having the Skyports built into the battery pack makes it super simple to trigger the strobes. And with the Skyport transmitter on top of your camera, you can also adjust the power on all of your Quadras just by pushing the plus and minus buttons on the top of the transmitter. For me this is a huge selling point as outdoors I am not always right next to the power pack. I hope that someday Elinchrom makes a version of the Rangers with the Skyport transceivers built in - that would be sweet (and I am sure they are working on it). I really do have to hand it to the engineers, they were thinking ahead when they built the Skyports and made them so small and lightweight. It creates a super portable and lightweight setup that is very well integrated. 

The slow and fast recycle modes allow you to control just how fast you burn through a battery. For my part I am always looking for the fastest recycle rates I can get - especially for shooting portraits so you can fire away when needed. Hence, I have all of my battery packs set to Fast mode all the time. If I drain a battery I’ll just switch it out - or if I am near a plug I’ll tap into the AC current and start recharging. Speaking of which, it only takes 1.5 hours to fully recharge the unit and it only takes 45 minutes to get to 80% charge. 

One of the coolest features that I have not seen on any strobe out there is the ability to synch these puppies with your speedlights and the ability to use them in combination with these strobes to augment your lighting. I shoot a lot of motion blurs with strobes and speedlights and it has always been a struggle, nigh impossible, to make a strobe rear curtain synch like my Nikon speedlights do. Now, with the Quadras all I have to do is synch the power pack with my speedlights and trigger them with the speedlight on the hot-shoe mount (as if I am triggering other speedlights) and voila, rear-curtain synch achieved. That alone is worth the price of admission if you ask me. 

There are a lot of other features that I have totally left out at this point like super fast flash durations with the A-heads (up to 1/6000th sec.), smart battery technology, a sweet LED modeling lamp and a built in slave cell, but sadly I don’t have room here to go into every feature. Now, I do have to say this is not the set up for anyone who really punishes their gear.  The heads are mostly plastic and won’t take much abuse, think of them like you would a speedlight. The battery seems pretty tough but the plastic clips on the side are exposed and fragile. It would be nice to see these heads made out of metal but I understand why they went with plastic - because it saves weight and this system is all about lightweight.

So, what’s the verdict? For my part, this is a great set up for shooting adventure sports. It saves my back a lot of stress and fits nicely into my Lowepro Vertex 300 AW along with two camera bodies and a few lenses. Sure, there are other options out there like the Profoto AcuteB 600R, the DynaLite Uni400jr and a few others but none of them are as light and portable as the Quadra system or have such an extensive range of customizable features. In tandem with my Nikon speedlights and the larger Elinchrom Ranger battery powered strobe I can see this kit getting used a lot! For more info go to www.elinchrom.com.