Elinchrom has announced the Elinchrom FIVE. It’s a 522Ws battery-powered moonlight that offers up to 450 full-power pops on a single charge. It also features active charging, so you can keep it topped up all the time while using it when you’re near power. And we’re not just talking AC power, either. You can charge it up from any USB-C source without any proprietary chargers or spare batteries required.
It features a built-in continuous running 26W bi-colour LED modelling light, which should also be bright enough for some video uses. It syncs up to 1/8000 with High Speed Sync (yeah, we’re not talking about that tail sync nonsense), as well as TTL with a manual lock and built-in Bluetooth for remote control from the Elinchrom Studio App without the need for Elinchrom Bridge.
Despite the fact that spare batteries aren’t really needed, given that you can charge it up from a USB power bank while you’re using it, they are available. Each battery gets to 450 full power flashes on a full charge. And each battery has a USB-C socket so even if you are swapping them out to remain untethered, you can have your spares charging from a 65W USB-PD battery or charger when they’re not in use.
Elinchrom says that at 1 metre and ISO 100 with the 26cm reflector fixed to the end, it metres f/90.4 and at 2 metres, f/32.8 – side note: I’m really glad manufacturers are starting to useful meter readings rather than guide numbers! – with recycle times from 0.01 seconds at minimum power to 1.6 seconds at full power. It has three operating modes. Standard, Action and HSS, with the flash colour temp being at 5600K, 5900K and 5500K respectively for each.
Naturally, it uses Elinchrom mount modifiers, so if you’re a Bowens mount person, you’re going to need some kind of adapter to get them to work. But if you’ve already bought into the Elinchrom ecosystem, this’ll work with all of the Elinchrom mount modifiers you already own. If you don’t have any modifiers, it comes supplied with the Elinchrom Wide Reflector 16cm. It also comes with a 65W USB-PD charger, so you don’t have to go out and buy some generic one on Amazon.
It’s another impressive looking light from Elinchrom and the ability to charge the batteries over USB-PD is a feature that I really hope we start to see from other manufacturers. Dedicated chargers is great and all, but if I don’t have to have five different chargers because I have five different models of light from the same manufacturer, that would be excellent!
The Elinchrom Five is available to buy now for $1,849.99 as a single light kit that includes the Elinchrom FIVE light, battery, reflector, 65W USB-C charger and a hard case to store it all in. There’s also a dual kit available to buy now for $3,659.99 which contains two lights, two batteries, two reflectors, two 65W chargers and an Elinchrom Storage back that holds both sets. You can find out more about the Elinchrom Five on the Elinchrom website.
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