Gear

Profoto B1 500 and Air Remote TTL

Cordless Off-Camera Flash with TTL

Our lighting-geek prayers have been answered. Through-the-lens metering (TTL) has finally made its way to a powerful pro-series strobe: the Profoto B1 500 and Air Remote TTL (sold separately). It's a game changer! Long favored by off-camera flash shooters for its ability to maintain a connection between the flash and the camera's metering system (in many cases wirelessly), TTL allows users to create rock-solid exposures on the fly, without taking meter readings. TTL takes care of all the distance and exposure calculations, which means you're able to work quickly, intuitively, and without worrying about mixed light exposures.

At 500 W/s, the Profoto B1 500 has the juice to overpower the sun, all in a compact, lightweight, wirelessly controlled, and completely battery-operated head that delivers 220 pops at full power, and thousands at lower power. You'd need approximately 10 small external flashes to match the output of one B1 head (and monolights don't have TTL). Using either TTL or Manual mode, the Air Remote TTL provides wireless control remotely from the camera's position of up to three lights, or three zones of light containing an infinite number of lights. (Note: As of this writing, the Air Remote TTL is available only for Canon cameras. A Nikon version will be available this year.)

With action-stopping flash durations of between 1/11,000-1/1,000 in Normal mode, and 1/19,000-1/1,000 in Freeze mode, and up to an impressive 20 flashes per second, the B1 is robust and flexible. Add to that Profoto's world-renowned quality of light; 120 available light-shaping tools; 9 f-stop power range; built-in LED modeling light equivalent to a 70-W halogen bulb; lightweight and hot-swappable lithium-ion battery packs that charge in about two hours (optional quick charger and car charger also available); and TTL metering, and you can see why our lighting prayers have been answered.

Company: Profoto AB
Price: $1,995; Air Remote TTL: $395
Web: www.profoto.com
Rating: 4
Hot: TTL; battery-operated; lightweight; action-stopping flash duration
Not: High-speed sync firmware update to come

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