Ever since I bought my studio kit I’ve been kicking myself. It’s nice, does the job, is significantly better than the older heads owned by the club, but
- It came with nice long sync cords rather than wireless triggers
- Adjusting the power output requires one to have ready access to the back of the head
An after-market wireless trigger was easily obtained online, and the units do have photo-triggers, so one can use a speedlite at minimum power as well, but the power settings, that was a serious PITA.
Nor did it help that every training video I watched had the presenter clicking up or down the lighting with their Elinchrom SkyPorts. Obviously the Elinchrom SkyPort system is the way to go.
Then I noticed the next generation of the Elinchrom system I have the D-Lite IT 2 Go, comes complete with built-in SkyPort wireless trigger for just £200 more. I didn’t notice what wasn’t being said, but I hope you have yes, you’re right this SkyPort eco is just a trigger, with no power control, and I very very nearly bought it.
Beware the D-Lite IT kits. They may not do what you might reasonably expect.
Given that my after-market wireless trigger was under £40, where is the other £160 of value in the new kit? It has a 16cm metal hood for one light, so possibly £20 retail there — the other visible extra is the hot shoe trigger, but we’ve already discounted that against the after-market kit. That leaves £140 for the completely redundant ‘ignore pre-flash’ functionality in the optical trigger which we’re not going to use because we’re using the SkyPort anyway?
Someone had to work really hard not to attach 3 wires to the microcontroller’s ports, and not to put the switches on the transmitter. The BXRi system I now understand I want is more like £800 but with much the same cost to manufacture. That additional £300 difference (£500 vs the original D-Lite 2) is a lot for 1/4 stop more power, and the three internal wires to control that power remotely.