Profoto B2 AirTTL Hands On

Yesterday Profoto introduced Profoto B2 AirTTL – a compact battery-powered high end TTL flash. Pye from slrlounge did a first look on the pre production unit and has some

Profoto B2 is the little brother to the Profoto B1 we have looked at last year. What seems really nice (which you can see in the video below) are the new lighting accessories which are smaller and lighter so you don’t need to carry large heavy accessories with you.

The real advantage here is having a very small set of units with lots of power that you can take with you for shooting events, on location fashion shoots or mix with your existing studio lighting if you want to. The only possible drawback is going to be the cost – these units are not exactly cheap, however for pro users the investment in this sort of gear might end up returning itself pretty quickly.

The new Profoto B2 and some of it’s accessories

Here are some of the general specs of the new Profoto B2 AirTTL:

Max power: 250Ws
Power range: 9 f-stops.
Recycling time: 0.03-1.35s (fast burst up to 20 flashes).
Flash duration Normal mode (t0.5): 1/9300 s (1Ws) – 1/1,000 s (250Ws).
Flash duration Freeze mode (t0.5): 1/15,000 s (1Ws) – 1/1,000 s (250Ws).
Guide number @ 2m / 100 ISO with Magnum Reflector: 32 2/10.
Battery capacity: up to 215 full power flashes.
Max modeling light: LED 9W (Equivalent to 50W Halogen).
Pricing: Just under $2200 for a basic kit.

Below is another hands on (a bit more extensive) of the Profoto B2 AirTTL by Daniel Norton from Adorama

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQlkd0fOkMc[/youtube]

Finally Michael Gray from Profoto talks about the inspiration for developing the B2 and some of it’s unique features:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKMIW1C_pVY[/youtube]

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.