Today marks the third time in 2010 that we at Bron Imaging Group got the following type of phone call:

Rental Shop Manager: Hey, I’ve got a huge problem. Joe Photographer is out on a shoot with a bunch of Profoto 8a packs and he can’t get a sharp image.

Bron Imaging Group Customer Support: What’s the problem? What are they trying to shoot?

Rental Shop Manager: Nothing special, just an environmental portrait, but the wind is blowing and the wardrobe is getting blurred. They thought it was their lens or digital back, but we swapped that out and tested the cameras without the strobes and the camera is good. It is definitely the lights.

BIG Customer Support: Yes, it’s the lights. Profoto 8a packs use a technology that they call PiPE. PiPE stands for Pre ignition Plasma Establishing. What it means is that they use a preflash to warm up the gasses in the flash tube so that they can get a short flash duration…but the problem is that the pre-flash actually affects the exposure and causes the “blur” which normally shows itself as a ghost second image.

Rental Shop Manager: “So if we bring in broncolor Scoro or Grafit packs can you guarantee me that the same thing won’t happen?”

BIG Customer Support: “Of course, we guarantee that you won’t have that problem with our packs. We don’t use any technology like that – our flash curve is clean – straight up and straight down – one flash.”

This is the third time that we got a call like this…so I have to write about it. The first call that came in was for someone shooting an ad campaign of athletes running on a field. Imagine the scenario, 20 athletes, 4 art directors, grip, assistants, digital tech, and a photographer all standing on a field with a bunch of Pro 8a packs scattered about. The lighting isn’t getting them usable images. Nightmare. The second call came from photographer on a fashion shoot where a model’s hair and wardrobe was being blown by a fan. The 8a was leaving artifacts and shadows that were noticeable. Profoto 8a packs simply could not freeze the motion – broncolor can.

We did some testing in our studio and want to share the results with you. We feel that everyone should have all the information that they need about how products work. We also welcome anyone who wants to try this test themselves. We tried to make the test as simple as possible and make sure that it replicates a very common shooting scenario.

The following pictures were taken at ISO 100 and f 22. Both power packs were working at 100 watt seconds total output with approx 25 ws on the fan and 75 ws on the background. The light modifiers applied were also similar (broncolor P70 reflector and Profoto Zoom reflector). Each picture had one standard reflector directed at the subject and one at the background. The picture that was made with the broncolor Scoro A4S is very sharp while the picture made with the Profoto Pro 8-a 2400 Air shows blurred contours, transparent rotor blades (from a longer flash duration on the head on the background), and double contours (resulting from Profoto PiPE technology). Broncolor takes the time in R&D to make sure that your images come out clean.

Image above Shot with Profoto 8a: Undesired effects due to long flash durations and Pre-ignition Plasma Establishing of the Profoto Pro 8-a 2400 Air (see picture above).

Here in direct comparison a picture made under the same conditions with broncolor Scoro A4S (see above picture).
Broncolor published a pretty easy to read description of how flash duration works. Check it out: http://www.bron.ch/_data/bc_nw_pr_blitzdauer1_en.pdf.

For years, the market has perceived broncolor as a specialized niche product that was used by photographers with extremely demanding requirements for color consistency or photographers who shot liquid splash shots and needed to freeze motion. It was also (and still is) known as the equipment that you buy once and keep forever. The accessories are built to last a lifetime. In recent history, a lot has changed at broncolor. The long term investment that broncolor Switzerland puts into R&D has really paid off. The path of the products is evolutionary because they were built-right the first time with the best components available. This means that over time the cost for broncolor to manufacture its products has come down. The prices of major components are comparably priced with Profoto if not actually less expensive.

The shoots referenced above that could not be done with the 8a packs were not some special technical high speed action stopping images. This is pretty normal stuff we are talking about here. So if you are getting ghost images and phantom blurs you now know what the problem is. You can do it with broncolor, but not with Profoto.

If you are not using broncolor then you are cheating yourself. So stop cheating yourself.