Elemental Genesis 2 Twin 250 Kit

The Elemental Genesis 2 Twin 250 Kit offers great value for money for those starting out in studio flash.


Including two 250w/s flash heads, light stands, spill kills, a 90cm umbrella, octagonal 100cm softbox, as well as a 5-in-1 reflector, radio triggers and an armoured case, Elemental’s Genesis 2 twin 250 kit offers great value for money. The build quality is excellent at this price, featuring a robust metal casing on the heads that should stand up to the odd bash or bump. What’s more the lighting stands are air-cushioned, and both the umbrella and softbox use heavy material.
The heads themselves feature a stepless power dial for varying the output between 6-250w/s, and there’s an automatic power dump that takes the charge out of the head when reducing power. To trigger the flash there’s a 5m sync cable, but if you want to shoot from further back we were able to fire the flash from over 15m away using the supplied radio triggers. There’s also a built-in photocell so each head can act as a slave unit and will be triggered by another burst of flash.

Performance & Handling
The octagonal softbox creates a more unusual catchlight than the square variety, and it features an internal diffuser if softer light is required. The softbox isn’t difficult to set up but with eight rods to insert it does take a little bit longer than the standard four-rod ones.
Once you’re up and running, the 150w modelling lamp is very usable for setting the angle of the light, and the brightness of the lamp will adjust proportionally with the flash power if required. There’s an override to set its brightness at 100%, although we found when setting the head to trigger as a slave, the flash didn’t always fire with the lamp at 100%.
Elemental list the Guide Number as GN50 but we recorded it at a less powerful GN32 (ISO 100, 1m) which means that extra 50w/s of power doesn’t seem to give you any extra output to play with over the 200w/s heads here. The recycle times were on the slower side too, taking 3secs on average to recharge after a full-power flash, but the head does give you both a visual and audio signal to indicate when it’s ready to be fired again.

AT A GLANCE
Fuse rating: 5 amp
Stated recycle times (full power):  3secs
Recycle confirm: Lamp & beep
Modelling lamp: 150w
Flash duration: 1/800-1/1200 sec
Power range: 6-250 w/s
Colour Temperature: 5600ºk (+/-100ºk)
Mount: Bowens ‘S’ type
Weight: 1.8Kg
Dimensions: 265x135x215mm

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