iLUX RD 300 SERIES FLASH HEAD first impressions
Got the new iLUX RD 300 SERIES FLASH HEAD today, and have a brief report to share.
This is the fella:
http://www.photomart.co.uk/Catalogue…H-HEAD-ILRD300
It is a very competitively priced studio flash head, coming in at £144 all in for a 300W strobe.
This is a Bowen S fit head.
First impression opening the box is it wasn’t really packed that well. It was bubble wrapped but packed with seemingly random pieces of polystyrene, and topped with random cardboard boxes as packing.
The tiny booklet manual, mains lead, and sync cable were just in the box with it. Not causing any harm or damage, but not in your typical polystyrene compartment, etc.
Anyway, beyong that, let’s get it out!!
The head is self is rubber clad aluminium, and smells lovely, LOL. Feels nice too.
Very similar in design to the Lencarta EP300 I have but quite a bit shorter. Doesn’t have the tripod pan handle style tilt handle the Lencarta does, but perfectly fine without it.
The mains cable looks to be about 4metres. I think the Lencarta one is longer, but the one with this is long enough.
Modelling lamp screws in and looks a lot like the Lencarta (only studio lamp I have to compare)
The rear panel is digital, which I like, and has the typical controls. Most buttons have blue LEDs above them. Straight on, these could guide jumbo jets into land. Definitely better not looking at those direct on!
Flash output power adjusts in 0.1 steps from 1.0 to 6.0, So I guess 0.1 stops per 0.1 on the LCD.
The modelling light is interesting. Essentially 4 modes, one being off, one being fully on.
Then you have proportional to the flash, increasing or decreasing the flash output power brightens or dims the modelling lamp proportionately.
This is actually much much better than the Lencarta EP300. On that doing the same varies the modelling lamp from what appears to be max at max flash power, to about 95% at minium flash power, detectable, but hardly any different.
On the iLUX RD 300 the modelling lamp goes from very bright to very dim. Nice.
The 4th modelling lamp mode control the lamp brightness manually. It is a nice function, but in that mode you cannot access the flash power to change it. I probably won’t use that mode.
Has the usual beep on or off, optical slave cell (which works). The beeps beep each time you press any button too. I could live without that, but no biggie.
When I have the light meter handy I will compare the power of the two, which should be pretty similar!.
Overall, for the money, and features, initial impressions are very favourable compared to the more expensive Lencarta EP300.
I MUCH prefer the better proportionate modelling lamp, and the digital flash power will help me repeat setups I am sure.