Elinchrome D-LiTE-RX4 - Review

Elinchrom’s new D-Lite-RX 2/4 200/400 ws strobes are excellent low sync speed semi portable studio worthy strobes.  The ”it” designation is for Intelligent Triggering.

Each strobe head is made from a rugged impact resistant plastic that has a rubberized top handle with a holder for a spare fuse.with many new exciting  features. The kit contains two strobes, power cables, two Portalite square soft boxes, with bayonet mounts.  Included is one reflector.

Each head has a built-in Skyport” receiver and a four channel Skyport transmitter is included with the kit.The transmitter is an optional item for single units.  All heads are fan cooled when needed. The kit includes a pair of Manfrotto light stands and all carrying cases.

 The heads are available in 200 and 400 Watt versions. My units are 400 Watts. The control panel is well configured as shown in the image below.

Specifications:

The power switch is illuminated when the head is powered on.  A two position LED indicates the power setting, with two buttons to increase or decrease the power in 1/10 increments. Another button allows you to set the modeling light at full power, minimum power, proportional power or off. There is a strobe trigger button called the Eye-Cell and is programmable for Auto, Manual or Pre-Flash modes.  This is very useful when using a hot-shoe flash to trigger the D-Lites. Finally there is a button to turn on or off the audible beep.  The units have a decent recycling rate recharging in .35 to 1.6 seconds based on the power output setting.  A great feature is "Auto Dumping". When you lower the power output the nut will automatically dump the excess charge and indicates it is ready with a beep.

Set-up

Assembling the Portalite soft boxes takes up most of the time. There is one addition I would like, a secondary diffusion panel inside the Portalite Softbox. The rest is easy.  The units come preconfigured to work with the Skyport set on the Frequency Channel 1 and Group 1.  Changing channels and groups is easy and accomplished pressing the power up and down buttons together, then toggling the function using the modeling lamp mode button and using the individual power up or down buttons to

select the following:

• Groups 1 through 4
• Channels 1 through 8

At any time you can do a Master Reset to factory defaults switching off the unit, holding the power up and down buttons and switching on the unit again.

The unit has two umbrella mounts. one is a centered tube that will accept 7mm diameter umbrella shafts that are on the Elinchrome EL umbrellas. If you do not have EL umbrellas you can mount an off centered umbrella in the secondary mount near the tilt handle.

For most of the work I do in studio I find these to be an excellent choice.  The units work flawlessly. I have two sets in my studio and for the past 8 months these have never missed a beat. The power output and color temperature are consistent and the supplied cases are ideal for transportation to allocation shoots.

I highly recommend these units to anyone looking for an excellent high quality starter system.  My preference is for the 400W units.

These can be purchased for $949 for the 400WS heads and $849 for the 200WS heads.  Individual heads are also available but the best price breaks are when you purchase a kit.