Canon Flash Questions - EL-5 vs 600EX II-RT

[greyhoundrick]

Hello everyone!

Hope you are doing great!

Im in the process of transitioning from off camera studio strobes to speed lights for outdoor portraiture and group shots.

I have shot Canon professionally for a while but have never used a Canon brand speedlight. Would you mind telling me how the EL-5 compares to the 600EX II-RT in terms of output, functionality and flexibility?

Ideally I would like to have 2 flashes off camera controlled with wireless radio transmission and use a controller on camera. The EL-1 looks amazing but its a little out of my budget. Would 2 EL-5's off camera and a transmitter on camera be sufficient in your opinion?

Also, is there a particular transmitter you would recommend?

Thank you very much for your help!

best always, 

Rick 

[rs-eos · Accepted solution]

Before you dive in to Canon's speedlites, do check the various threads on here about at least the 600 EX series (1st and 2nd gen) dropping their radio connections.  To date, there is no solution.

I recently moved off of using six 600 EX RTs (first-gen) and now am using studio strobes.

If you need radio control, you may need a backup mechanism to trigger them.

In terms of the EL-5 or EL-1, I think the threads mentioned them having the same issues?

Having said all that and to answer your other question about how many lights you'll need...

I also started with two units and the ST-E3-RT transmitter at the time.  Though quickly added a third.  Ultimately, I ended up with six.  Not that I needed six light setups, but instead, I found that I needed to gang up four of them together in order to fill out larger modifiers and/or just to have more power.   So still a three-light setup (ganged-up 4 speedlights in the key light), then two extras as needed for two or three-light setups.

I'm now using Profoto gear (B10X Plus heads).  While heavier compared to a single speedlite, I has much more power (equivalent of eight 600 EX-RTs) and so much more convenient to set up.

Depending upon what you'll be doing outdoors, you may not have the need to gang up multiple speedlites.

[greyhoundrick]

Thank you very much Ricky for your detailed and informative response! Much appreciated!

Ive used many different speed lights and strobes over the years, from Alien Bees to Godox/Flashpoint to Westcott and back to Flashpoint. While Ive had better luck with some than others I can honestly say that Ive never found one to date that I trust 100% on a paid shoot.

Im glad to hear that the Profoto gear is working for you as Ive heard it is top of the line. Its a little too pricy for me although sometimes I wonder with all of the money Ive spent experimenting if I shouldn't just bit the bullet and buy Profoto!

I will continue using my Flashpoint gear until maybe something else comes out with palatable pricing for me that is a bit more reliable than what I have now.

Thanks so much for your help and hope to chat with you again Ricky.

best,

Rick 

[rs-eos]

Glad that it was helpful.

Agreed that Profoto is very expensive.  Same for Broncolor.

It doesn't affect what I do, but I've heard that those two brands are very prevalent at rental shops.  So easier to get additional units from those brands if needed for shoots.

One gotcha with Profoto is that you pretty much need to use their modifiers.  i.e. they don't use a Bowens mount.  Though I don't mind this myself as previously I had quite a mix-and-match of gear from various brands that really wasn't a good long term solution.  Having everything now be one brand is working well.