Elinchrom ONE - Your Questions Answered

Fresh off the back of the exciting Elinchrom ONE announcement (Elinchrom's first battery powered monolight!), and with questions coming in about it thick and fast, we thought it might be useful to summarise your most frequently asked questions in one place. 

If you don't find the answer to your question below, please get in contact. We’ll be sure to respond ASAP, and update this FAQ so that everyone can benefit from the answers.

Without further ado...

Why an integrated battery?

There are a couple of key benefits to having the battery integrated. The first is at the heart of Elinchrom’s brand ethos… durability. The sealed battery of the ONE ensures the unit is protected against even the unpredictable English weather.

“I took [Elinchrom ONE to] the beach today…. Heavy rain, waves, wind, and still up for the second part! It’s veeeeery reliable, even wet” – Antony Passant

The second benefit comes in the portability of the unit. By making the battery integrated, the capacity has been increased without also having to increase the size of the unit. At 725 full power flashes from a single charge, this battery will last even the most demanding shoots without the need for a recharge. For a full charge, the recharging time is about 90 min.

Can the mains charger or a Powerbank be used whilst the unit is in use? 

Yes! If you find yourself low on battery with a shoot in full swing, you can charge the unit whilst it’s in action. In fact the Elinchrom 20,000 mAh Powerbank adds an additional 1100 full power flashes to your arsenal. At only £55.00, we highly recommend having one of these in your back pocket to compliment the Elinchrom ONE.

“The battery life with Elinchrom ONE is actually really amazing, we did the entire shoot today and we photographed  ten or eleven healthcare workers, and we only used 10 to 15% of the battery life”– Aaron Jay Young

What about battery lifetime, and what do I do when the battery eventually expires?

Fortunately, the engineering team at Elinchrom have taken these concerns into consideration. The Li-Ion battery in the Elinchrom ONE features an advanced cell with no memory effect, and is rated for 400,000 full power flashes! In addition to this the unit has been designed to make swapping out the cell a very fast process, that can be completed at any Elinchrom service centre, including TFC. In short, the battery will serve you well for many a years, but when the time comes, the battery can replaced quickly and cheaply.

How powerful is the Elinchrom ONE?

The unit is 131Ws, which equates to 2-stops less powerful than the ELB 500 TTL. According to  Elinchrom, the ONE “generates a light output usually seen in 200+ Ws units”.

 “Such a fun light! I didn’t expect it to deal with the sun! But it did!” – Richard Terborg

When talking measurable F-stops, at 1 meter (3.3ft) and 100 ISO, the ONE can achieve F-11.9, with the OCF Diffusion Dome (included) attached, and when combined with the optional 26cm High Performance Reflector, the achievable F-Stop climbs to F-45.2.

“With the magnum reflector on both lights (Elinchrom ONE and Profoto B10), the Profoto light will produce about 50% more light coming out the front, even though given the Ws rating you would expect it to be about double, and on top of all of that the Elinchrom light comes in at about half the price” – John Gress

Can I control the Elinchrom ONE from my device?

Yes, you can! In fact one of our favourite features of the ONE is the built-in Skyport Bridge module. Not only does this mean you can control your ONE from your Mac, PC or iPhone via the Elinchrom Studio software (android compatibility to follow), but you can use it as a bridge to communicate with all modern (built-in Skyport) Elinchrom units, so that they too can be used with the software.

Is the ONE approved for air travel? 

Yes, it is. Simply make sure the device is turned off and that you carry it with you as carry-on luggage.

How powerful is the LED modelling light? 

The Elinchrom ONE LED modelling lamp is equivalent to a 120W halogen lamp and has a light output of 3000 lumens. With a CRI rating of 95 and colour temperature scale ranging from 2700 to 6500K, the ONE can also be used for video production in low ambient light.

“It’s fan cooled… I’m putting the microphone right over the top of it, that is how quiet this is! Really, really good for video” – Mark Cleghorn, The Photographer Academy.

Why the switch to an OCF mount? Why not Q-Mount?

A very good question, and one that personally we can see the upside and downside to. On the one hand Q-Mount has been around for over 10 years now, if it isn’t broken why fix it? On the other hand we know a large number of Elinchrom shooters have Profoto gear, and vice versa. Incorporating native compatibility with any Profoto modifier, and an Elinchrom OCF Adapter in the box, opens up a much wider range of accessories without the need to purchase an additional adapter or speedring.

“[The Elinchrom ONE] can produce a beam spread of around 160 degrees, whereas the Profoto mononights only produce a beam spread that’s around 70 degrees. In fact this is a big reason why I switched from Profoto to Elinchrom” – John Gress

How strong is the included Elinchrom adapter? 

The Elinchrom OCF Adapter is designed to hold modifiers up to 1kg, and we’ve attached as large as the Rotalux 100cm Octabox (1.22kg) with no issues. For larger Elinchrom Rotalux softboxes the ONE can be mounted inside the softbox via the Elinchrom Rotalux Indirect Octa Speedring (sold separeatley), and for other large Elinchrom accessories you can pick up an optional Elinchrom Profoto Adapter V2.

“We used the 135cm Rotalux for most of the photos… and despite it being a huge modifier, it was so easy to just squeeze into little places” – Brenda Bazan

Will there be dedicated Elinchrom OCF accessories? 

Yes, Elinchrom will be releasing their own range of OCF accessories. Starting with the OCF Barndors (26002) and OCF Wide Reflector 16cm 90° (26090), but more are coming.

Which Skyport do I need to trigger the Elinchrom ONE, and is it backwards compatible with my existing Elinchrom gear?

We recommend using an Skyport Pro Transmitter to unlock the full range of features, including TTL & HSS. You can also use the Skyport Transmitter Plus if you only want to shoot in manual mode and sync at the x-sync of your camera.

This unit can be used in conjunction with every other Elinchrom unit with built Skyport, and non Elinchrom units using any generation of the Skyport receiver / transceiver. You can even use the Elinchrom ONE in HSS mode in tandem with any Elinchrom product featuring the HS (Hi-Sync) system such as ELB 400 and ELB 1200.

It is important to note that the Elinchrom ONE does not feature Phottix Odin II compatibility. 

Does the Elinchrom ONE use IGBT or Full Flash Curve technology?

The Elinchrom ONE uses IGBT technology, like the ELB 500 TTL and ELC TTL range. As a by-product it uses HSS (High-Speed Sync) as opposed to HS (Hi-Sync) and features it’s fastest flash duration (1/7000s t.01) at minimum power.

Is the Elinchrom ONE compatible with my camera?

More than likely, yes. The Elinchrom ONE is compatible with a very wide range of cameras, when used in conjunction with the appropriate Skyport Pro Transmitter. For an up to date compatibility list, visit Elinchrom’s website here: https://www.elinchrom.com/compatibility/

What about the Elinchrom FIVE?? I saw a teaser for a bigger Elinchrom battery powered light on Youtube. Can you tell me everything you know about it please?

We saw this teaser too, and just like you, we’re super excited. Unfortunatley though, we don’t have any more information than was shown in the teaser. It’s coming out in Spring 2022, it’s fair to assume it’s around 500Ws, and that’s the extent of our knowledge. For more information on this product as soon as we have it, please sign up to our newsletter, or follow us on one of our social channels.

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If you have any further questions at all about the Elinchrom ONE, please don’t hesitate to get in contact. We’ll be sure to respond ASAP, and update this FAQ so that everyone can benefit from the answers.

Thanks for reading,
TFC