Using Profoto A1 Studio Lights for a Wedding, Bye-Bye Speedlights

To capture those memorable moments at wedding parties and other events where lighting isn’t always optimal, many of us bring off-camera lights to help light up the scene. In the past, popular choices have been speedlights due to size, portability, and being able to run off batteries. The game has changed in the off-camera flash market with studio strobes and other flashes increasingly getting better across those three concerns.

Rachel Gulotta and Daniel Inskeep over at Mango Street Lab recently were given a pair of the new Profoto A1 AirTTL Studio Lights, aka the "world’s smallest studio light," to which they were able to use for a clients wedding and loved the results. The video focuses on more about what they like about the new A1 studio light and not a technical review. The studio light is also put to the test for a cardboard box wedding bouquet toss versus their Canon Speedlite both with half-full batteries. Of course, with the price tag of $995 that comes with the Profoto name, they do not recommend this for every photographer as there are cheaper alternatives on the market. However, if you already own Profoto gear, are a professional wedding photographer, or shoot a lot of high-pressure, high-end commercial work you might want to check these flashes out. They are currently available for both Canon and Nikon shooters.

What are some other great alternatives to replace speedlights for weddings? List them below in the comments.

Alex Ventura's picture

Staff writer Alex Ventura is a professional photographer based out of the Houston area that specializes in automotive and glamour with the occasional adventures into other genres. He regularly covers automotive related events for Houston Streets & Spekture with some publications in the United States.

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34 Comments

If you have to shoot on camera I suppose these are a great option.... It's just that when you get to this level why wouldn't you be shooting off camera and if you're shooting off camera why would you use these and not something built to be used off camera with all the power and the modifier compatibility that entails? You're giving up a lot for the small package size here.

What makes you think these lights weren't designed to be used off camera? Because they can also mount in a hotshoe? In my opinion, this is the best off camera flash ever created for almost all situations. Personally, I did away with big studio strobes years ago and only rent them if I need a ton of power. Otherwise, a small flash I feel is easily the superior option.

In order to match similar features like this in a big flash (TTL, on camera power control, etc) you need to spend an awful lot more money. You also get a flash that produces far less heat and is much easier/cheaper to attach gels to. Personally I'd take a Nikon or Canon speedlight any day for use as an off camera flash over virtually any big strobe on the market. The A1 is basically just a speedlight on steroids at a higher price point.

Well a couple things work against the A1 being a great off camera option.

The first and most obvious point is that the A1 is somewhat light on power. Depending on how you shoot that may or may not be an issue worth recognizing. If you're a fan of larger modifiers or you shoot during the day you'll probably run into some issues that will limit your options.

I know for example that If I want to shoot into the sun and use it as both a rim light and as an object in the frame of my photo I generally need about 500w/s. A little more if I want to use a softbox and a little less if I can get in really close. With someting less powerful like the 250w/s B2 in order to get a solid image I'd probably start by keying off the sun or sticking with hard light. With something in the under 100w/s range like a speedlight or the A1 I'd be looking at getting really close or I'd be trying to find some open shade. I'd certainly have to avoid using the sun as a rim light for a full body shot. I could always go out and get some more powerful lights but the very fact that it would be difficult to shoot that way would discourage me from shooting like that. The fact of the matter is I can always turn down a more powerful light and I can always ND gel something that has a limited range.

The second major thing that works against the A1 as an off camera flash is that it's not natively compatible with Profoto's famous modifiers. Yeah there will likely be some work arounds that will surface in the coming months but that makes these systems more complicated to work with and if the whole point is speed then... well...

As a fast off camera flash that has everything you're asking for the B2 isn't a terrible option and it's mostly compatible with all the Profoto modifiers even if that compatibility is less than optimal. Personally for a grand I've had pretty good luck with the 1200w/s Broncolor Mobil A2 which can be found used but it's limited in other ways which makes it a pretty good portrait system and not a great event system. If you're willing to go to China for your strobes for about $600 I hear great things about the 600w Godox AD600 which has TTL, HSS, and about 8x the amount of power as the A1 and is compatible with a huge range of Bowens mount modifiers including Profoto's own RFi softboxes with the right speedring. If you're ok with Elinchrom I've seen copies of the 400w Quadra going for less than a grand with the head and transmitter included. There are plenty of powerful, flexible, and cost effective options out there some new and some used.

I don't know about anyone else here but I'd miss having access to the wonderful range of modifiers I've built up over the years. With the right equipment they can be used to make any shoot that much better.

I think the A1 is probably the best speedlight anyone has ever dared to create period. I also think that speedlights aren't anywhere close to optimal as off camera flashes. They're OK but they're simply limited by both power and mounting options and are easily eclipsed by flashes designed from the ground up as off camera units.

If your goal is to shoot with a relatively open aperture at high noon in direct sunlight and overpower the sun, then yes, these lights are probably not for you. But I'd consider that a tremendously narrow use case that requires incredibly high output. Most photographers don't want to be blasting away in mid-day sun.

For me, I'd rather my main system to be what is more robust in the vast majority of shooting situations I find myself in. I can rent for outlier situations. Currently I rock a kit of SB700s and they work perfectly well in any situations other than if I need to light up a massive space, if I want to shoot at 5.6 or brighter in midday sunlight, or if I need to throw light a long way.

As for softbox compatibility, that just comes down to what brand you have currently. My entire collection now is all hotshoe softbox mounts, which means for me, to switch to a big studio head would mean doing away with all my great quality softboxes. But that one is moot. Anyone who has an entire collection in a given system is likely going to want to stay within that system but that isn't really an argument against other systems.

I think what you mean is that most photographers can't effectively blast away in the mid-day sun so they avoid it and they avoid situations where they might have shoot in the mid-day sun.

The world is beautiful at high noon it really is but it takes some power to fully realize photos taken at that time and that means making the leap from speed lights to something made for the task. You might find that there are some pretty amazing hard and semi hard light modifiers too if you join us on the dark side.

You don't always need big lights to overpower the sun, sometimes you need the extra reserve and recycle time they have. I normally shoot weddings with an on camera speedlight and a couple of big strobes to light up the rest of the room -- sometimes in softboxes, sometimes not -- depending on the space. Shooting a wedding venue at ISO 800, f/2.8 is something that could easily be accomplished by speedlights -- but with the big lights, I have instant recycle time. For the aforementioned bouquet toss, I can fire away at 4fps on my D800 and my lights fire every time up to about 10 shots. The on camera speedlight usually makes it to 3 or 4 shots and then goes off every other shot. Part of that is due to the power of that system -- shooting at 1/64th power you're going to have super quick recycle times vs running a speedlight at 1/8-1/4 power.

I guess if you've invested in a Profoto system something like this could make sense. Otherwise go Godox.

I think this is the point. If you're already a Profoto user, I would spend a little more to get everything working together seamlessly without adapters. Granted, I still think it is priced a little too much but considering what Profoto users spend, I guess that is normal for them.

I'm interested in Profoto, my wallet is interested in Godox.

OK fine but they are too expensive. I would rather invest in a Godox system. Also they use the word "game changer" many times but they dont really tell you whats game changing about them?

Can someone tell me exactly how much more power they produce than a top of the line flash from canikon?

More or less the same but they just recycle faster...and can be used seamlessly with their Air system. It's perhaps the only reason that attracts many exciting Profoto users.

That is what I have found as well!

Enjoy your videos.
Just some comments about the presentation. So many videos these days use too much background music which is inappropriate and too loud. Your video is a good example. Softer music and more appropriate would make the watching and listening easier.

May I suggest that you don't end every sentence with the inflection of a question. Hard to change, I know, but hard on the ear.

Otherwise thanks for taking the trouble to inform and teach us

Well, i guess i'll just wait up for the China counterparts. If they are as near as good, i'm sold. Yongnuo has to be reverse engineering these by now lol

They don't really reverse engineer, they pretty much copy it, change the name, and put cheaper buttons and knobs on it. LOL

For off camera flash, what makes these the best thing out there?

- I can buy Three Godox ad200 for the price of One A1
- Ad200 has more full power pops than the A1 (520 vs 350)
- Ad200 has more power (200ws vs 76ws)
- Ad200 has the ability to get 400ws using the twinbracket adapter
- Ad200 has a great ecosystem with its 2.4ghz built in wireless system
- Ad200 I can easily use any amount of modifiers due to the bowens mount bracket adapter
- Ad200 I can change the head for bulb or fresnel flash setup
- Only advantage I can see for A1 is better color consistency but that's never been an issue when you're bouncing off of walls and editing wedding photos.

Ad200s are built tough as I've shot over 20 weddings with them since I got them earlier this year, with tens of thousands of pops and having dropped them multiple times without any problems. My old V850s are still working great after 4 years so Godox has proven their reliability and quality to me. My nikon Sb910 is in my bag as a backup but haven't needed to use it for years now.

For on-camera, I don't see the point of having this much power. I've used my Ad360s with battery pack tethered to my belt before for super powerful on-camera flash (360ws vs A1's 76ws) but I stopped doing that since I was always shooting 1/64th or something low like that. I just stuck with my Godox speedlights which are more than enough for weddings and they have the added bonus of being trigger units for my Ad200s so I can have on-camera and off-camera at the same time.

Can any wedding photographers who plan to be A1 users tell me why they plan to purchase one (other than you're already invested in the prophoto ecosystem)?

What a real joke, Profoto A1 Studio Light watt output 76, while Godox AD200 has 200 @ $300, while Profoto A1 @ $999, is the A1 worth $700 more? And the remote trigger for the A1 @ $320, while the AD200 @ $46 and sometime $42. The A1 will give 350 full pops, while the AD200 will give 520, Godox AD200 is a winner for me every time.

I agree that Godox makes some damn fine lighting, but that AD200 is mean for lightstand use, whereas the incredibly overpriced Profoto is meant more as a high powered speedlight. You can bounce it however way you like on the camera, but you can't do that with the AD200.

I'm more happy that they love a good Game Changer (*gag*)

Can't help but laugh at the title. "Bye bye speedlights." only to replace them with A1 speedlights.

Shot using a 25$ Amazon speedlight(2 of them). I hate when photographers post their own work in comments because it's basically asking for ridicule lol, however I feel like I am taking crazy pills when I keep seeing people trying to justify a $1000 speedlight.

Weddings are irreplaceable events where the critical shots last a couple of seconds. If you miss those, you blow the entire wedding in which someone may have paid thousands of dollars. If you miss the kiss or bouquet toss because your $25 flash was still cycling and they trash in online reviews or worse, $1000 for a rock solid product starts to make sense.

This is true, but how is the Profoto A1 going to be any more or less reliable than a Nikon or Canon speedlight in this case? $1000 for a speedlight does not make sense at all when we have had numerous products for literally half the price that have been used by professionals as rock solid options for decades now. Even if you forget the Chinese brands for a minute, the Profoto A1's are still insanely overpriced compared to brand name speedlights.

The biggest question I would ask is, what meaningful value do the A1's bring over the top end Nikon or Canon speedlights to justify being twice the price?

It's like Adobe products. You're not just buying an image editor, you're buying the workflow, the ecosystem and the support community. If the A1 doesn't seem worth it to you then it wasn't meant for you in the first place.

It's the best kind of advertising. Why would a major brand spend hundreds of thousands on advertising when they can tap into a market of famous Instagram photographers and other bloggers, who already have a large following? These social media tycoons have done all the hard work and built a well-curated audience of follower-consumers. It makes perfect sense from an economic standpoint. You send out your newly released product to these folk, let them review it, rave about it, and maybe even keep it in the end. Nothing like free marketing. Good for Profoto. They've built the sort of brand recognition that most can only dream about.

ooooooor i could give 3 months of my mortgage lol

I see the “game changer” relating to the existing Profoto user who would like to integrate an on camera flash into the Profoto monolight air remote system. Wedding/event photographers who need the spontaneity of having an on camera flash but would also like to be able to tie into some larger lights as they move around a big venue will find value in the same triggering system. People who are not vested into the Profoto system can in most cases find cheaper/more valuable options but for those of use who are, we do see this as a game changer. We’ll have more options now being torn as to what system will use and at what time. I find myself using Profoto B1’s for wedding ceremonies and formals and then switching over to Canon speedlites for on and off camera reception lighting.

Pair this with the Iphone and you'll have the ULTIMATE Fstoppers article!

"Et tu, Brute? Et tu?”

for 1000$ you can buy a truck of YN flashes, that are radio controlled, and I am sure that total added output would be much much higher than those flashes. And even if half of those flashes would end up dead, it's still a better option, more light sources IMO is better than less with more power.

I wouldn't think of buying those, even though the specs are really impressive and I am glad that they landed in 'speedlight' territory finally.

Can't take you serious, if you show those dogballs in my face..

You stopped me at $1000...

Holy pickle pops. For the price of one of these, i could build a really bad ass computer.

Everybody talks about reliability/ eco system blah blah blah one word folks and THE Quality of light that comes out of a profoto light is so beauful on skin tones etc is something special that I always envy from profoto I finally took the plunge and I invested in profoto bought 2 b1x sold my d1 and bought 1 A1 profoto and I just ordered 3 more A1s once I heard that u can trigger the strobes With the A1s I m in love with A1 so easy to use profoto makes it simple and easy knowing I have the best lighting in my palm of my hands is a game changer !! Profoto quality of light is just simply hands down de best !!! I don't care what takes is all about the light !