Sort of a comparison….
I have two battery systems in house. Profoto Acute B and Elinchrom Ranger Quadra. I started with the Acute B a decade ago and still love it though I bought into Elinchrom looking for fast and light digital with lots of heads. Though the Acute B has been discontinued, additional reasoning for sticking with it, it’s compatible with AC powered packs.
| Profoto D4 | Elinchrom ECO | |
| Internal Dia | 4” | ”3.93 |
| Weight | 4.85lbs 2.2kg | 2.2lbs 1kg |
| W/S max | 2400W/S or 9600 Joules/min |
400W/S |
| Accessories | Profoto reflectors/diffusers | Diffuser |
| Casing | Metal | Plastic |
| Bracket | Beefy aluminum | Lighter aluminum |
| Mount |
3/8″ |
3/8″ |
| Cable | 4M fixed | 2M swap up to 10M plug-in |
The qualitative:
Sure, I love my D4, had it for years, it’s solid. A power cable you could anchor the Titanic with. It puts out enough light to overcome sunlight yet can dial down low enough for just a little fill. I was about to put my Acute B out to pasture due to battery issues but as written a few posts back have given it LiFe or LiFePO4 for a future!
The profoto Acute replacement Li battery cost more than the ECO ringflash and I rarely used ringflash above 150W/S so along the way I grabbed an ECO. I have used the D4 at higher powers though in the rare case, I may be renting higher output packs as well as diffuser/reflectors for it.
First impressions of the ECO. It’s lightweight, will make shooting 2lbs easier. It’s a little deeper, maybe 1/4″, makes manual focus tougher with some lenses.
The diffusion cap.. ugh. I’m going to modify it with black paint… if you don’t have your lens stick out the front of the diffuser cap it causes flare! Bit of a drag, not sure how that was released in the wild. To use it the focus ring on a Canon 24-70 f2.8 has to be completely witin the confines of the ring making autofuckus mandatory. Check back in a few days, maybe I’ll post the hack.
The tripod mount… I put a 1/4-20 adapter in it and it protrudes from the bottom too far to tighten, needs some chamfer. I found this out on set and had to insert it from the top to make it work, not an easy thing as you may be able to see from the bottom view. It has to be inserted between the rear support rails and screwed in using… anything but a screwdriver which won’t fit in there.