I went with Elinchrom for a lot of reason’s, and so far I am not disappointed.

The BX500Ri monolight is considered one of Elinchrom’s “Entry Pro Compacts”. The biggest differences are variance and build. I didn’t need a particularly wide power range for these lights since I only intend to use them when I need more power than a speedlight or in combination with a 2400 pack. If I ever need less power out of a head for any reason, I keep ND’s with me on location anyway, and paper towels work if I forget to bring ND’s.

My biggest concern with these particular heads was build quality. I had read a few reviews complaining about the handle and the mounting hardware. After using them for the past few months though, I would have to say that they are pretty durable. If you treat your gear with ANY respect you shouldn’t have to worry about the casings, they are pretty tough.

The bulbs however scare me. There is no option to put a protective dome over the flash tube and modeling light. So every time you change modifiers you risk hitting and breaking the tube. This is a pretty big risk, but if I had to do it over I would still go with these lights.

The interface is incredibly easy. The power is adjusted with the push of a button. Your power level is displayed digitally and can be controlled in 1/10th of a stop increments. The increment can be adjusted to your needs and the same control is applied to the modeling light settings, push button on/off and power control.

The system comes with Elinchrom’s amazing Skyport system built in or accepts a mono jack sync cord. If you don’t have the Skyport system and run out of wireless receivers, each head has a built in optical slave that is far more consistent than any other optic I have worked with.

The ready chirps can be turned off easily or adjusted to be less annoying. Each head goes up to 500ws and can be adjusted as low as 31ws. This is a problem for some, 31ws just isn’t low enough in a small working space, but two sheets of .9 ND and the power is dropped below 8ws. Of course you could just use a speedlight if you need to drop that low.

Overall I am very happy with these lights. If I had it to do over I would make the same choice and I guess that says enough.