As of right now, the ERQ does not have any lighting modifiers other than the included reflector, an umbrella with a 7mm shaft, and an 18cm reflector which lets it take the standard 18cm Elinchrom grid spots. Eventually there will be a 40x40cm softbox which mounts directly onto it, but for all else, you must purchase their adaptor, which has it's own light stand mount, so that the weight of the light mod is held by the adaptor, and the flash just sticks out the back. It's a good design for larger mods, but it means you have to purchase their adaptor (80 euro MSRP) PLUS an Elinchrom speedring. The other downside is that it doesn't appear to keep the flash tube entirely inside the mod. You can see a photo of it here, on Isker's flickr. He is the only person with a version yet, because it's not available to purchase from Elinchrom. (he purchased the demo unit from the Moscow Photo show).
So, in order to mount the new ERQ to a softbox, you need the 80 euro adaptor which won't be available for another 2 weeks, AND an Elinchrom speedring (20-30 euro), AND you have to lose some light by having the tube in a slightly recessed reflector. I was unwilling to wait, and didn't want the tube recessed. I want it fully inside the softbox. My softbox is also quite small, I have the XX Small Chimera, so I know the ERQ head can hold the weight of the softbox. Thus, I fabricated my own. You can see more shots of it in the previous blog post.
You can see how it keeps the tube fully exposed and inside the softbox in true bare bulb style.
It's all aluminum, so it's quite lightweight. The biggest problem was grinding down enough of the bolt heads to get it to attach, but not so much they slip out. I epoxy'ed every surface before attaching, for extra strength.
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteInterest post. Just a word of caution. Elinchrom didn't design the Q head to support allot of weight. The largest current offering is 15.75" softbox. To put larger Elinchrom modifiers on the Q heads they offer an Adapter ring EL 26339. The adaptor ring has a stand mount and you attach it to the modiferier, put it on a stand and then attach the Q head to this. The bennefit is that you can then use all but two of Elinchrom's terrific modifiers (can't use the 53" and 60" Rotalux Octa's). The Q head flash tube is exactly 25mm from the back plane. The back plane has the exact same curvature as all Elinchrom heads which have been optimized for Elinchrom modifiers.
At PhotoKina we were operating the Q heads with Elinchrom's 27" beauty dish and inside the infamous OctaBank and getting really great results.
Mark Astmann
Lighting Product Manager
Bogen Imaging, Inc.
One last thing. Elinchrom is known for their light-weight modifiers. Their recommendation when using the adaptor ring is no Elinchrom Rotalux bigger then 39". Bear this in mind when using other manufacturers modifiers to ensure you don't break your stand mount or damage the Q head casing.
ReplyDeleteMark Astmann
Lighting Product Manager
Bogen Imaging, Inc.
Thanks for the info Mark! Good stuff. I'm actually only using this with a 30x40cm softbox, so it's very little weight. I imagine it's the same, or less than the softbox Elinchrom will be putting out. I knew that the adaptor had it's own stand mount. It just seems designed for the larger mods, and overkill for my little softbox.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to hear about the adaptor reflector. I'd be interested to try it inside this same softbox and see the difference, if any. I do like having the bulb fully inside the softbox.
That's very nice job! Unfortunately, I already bought the Elinchrom softbox (which is pretty small for fashion photography, but it is just right size for many product photography and food photography).
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