Elinchrom's Ranger Quadra

FWIW: Most of the folks I follow on Twitter are fellow photographers or peeps who represent photographic businesses, e.g., manufacturers, service providers, photo-pundits, etc. so, today, early this morning actually, the photographic Twitterverse, leastwise, many of those I follow, were buzzing about Elinchrom's new Ranger Quadra battery-powered strobe system. (How was that for a long, run-on sentence?)

Anyway, I took the bait and decided to have a look-see at what the buzz was all about.

First thing I checked-out, since someone on Twitter was good enough to link to it, was Scott Kelby's "First Look" at the system.

You can view Kelby's video HERE.

In the vid, Kelby's guest is Bogen Imaging's Mark Astmann. As I recall from the video--I only watched it once and, at the time, hadn't yet been properly caffeinated with my first cup o' Joe--Astmann is a marketing dude with Bogen Imaging. Bogen, from what I further recall from my then, not-quite-awake, state, is the U.S. distributor for Elinchrom's products.

The Ranger Quadra system looks pretty cool altho Kelby's "first look" is a bit short on technical details: I don't remember there being much, if any, info about recycle times and power output and how many pops you can expect between battery charges. The video seemed more focused on the product's form and function which, in truth, is mostly why I think this integrated, portable, lighting system looks fairly cool. The marketing guy hawked mentioned the Ranger's flash duration a couple of times, if I remember right. I guess the product's flash duration is something Elinchrom or Bogen Imaging or both consider a big selling point.

Bogen Imaging should send me a try-it-out demo system and let me put it through its short flash duration paces with some pretty girls. (Hint, hint.)

I then checked out the Ranger's pricing on B&H and, while the Ranger Quadra ain't cheap, it ain't stratospheric either. As a comparison, I took a look at the pricing for a similar product, the Hensel Porty, which does approach the stratosphere in terms of price.

Besides the Ranger Quadra's small size and weight, which are big pluses for anyone who has experience schlepping gear to-and-from and in-and-out of less-accessible, walk-to-only locations, I was kind of taken with the system's LED modeling lights. I'm pretty sure they use LED lights because of their low power consumption. The system is running off a battery, after all.

How come someone doesn't manufacturer a line of LED modeling lights that screw or snap into other manufacturers' strobes? Maybe they do and I'm not aware of it? Those LEDs, if I'm not mistaken, are daylight-balanced instead of the usual tungsten or incandescent you get from most modeling lights. They also don't generate much heat and, at the risk of being redundant, they consume less power.

So there you have it: Elinchrom releases the Ranger Quadra battery-powered strobe system and I get something to write about today. BTW, the Ranger is being just-now released in the U.S. market... they've already been available in Europe.

One thing I have to say about photographic technologies: They're always marching forward with new products offered in the marketplace almost daily. I guess the economic downturn hasn't effected the spending habits of millions of photographers world-wide.

The gratuitous eye-candy at the top is Bella from a recent shoot.