Photo answers review
Photo answers rating 
The Genesis kits have been introduced to offer a high quality budget option for those that are looking to get started in home studio. Elemental has a tradition of packing a great deal into its lighting kits, and this is no exception. You have the two 250W lighting heads with stands, but you also get a silver/black umbrella and a 90cm octagonal softbox along with a reflector, a transmitter/receiver and a bag to carry the whole lot around in. This is exceptional value for £329, and will give you the tools to accomplish a great deal.
AccessoriesThe two lighting head accessories that come with this kit are versatile offerings that can be combined on two lights or used individually on one light for more moody lighting. The umbrella is a bounce light accessory that gives a diffused yet bright light. Ideal for fashion portraits and more direct diffused lighting, the umbrella is a great tool. The 90cm octagonal softbox is perfect for still life and beauty portraits. Its octagonal shape gives an even light distribution and at 90cm it’s a great size too. With either lighting accessory in use, the fold-up 80cm 5-in-1 reflector can be used to fill in shadows and the choice of cover sleeves enables you to add colour tones to an image.
Also included in the Genesis package are an 8-channel flash trigger and receiver. This comes in two parts, with the transmitter fitting neatly onto your camera’s hotshoe and the other part being attached to one of the lighting heads. This is used to fire the lights, but a pair of sync cables are also supplied with the kit if you prefer the more traditional method of connecting flash heads to your camera.
Ease of useThe controls on the back of the lighting heads are nice and simple. To vary the output power, there’s a rotating control that ranges the power from 1/32 to full power. Other than that, you have the modelling light controls (full or proportional), test fire button and the audio flash ready on/off selector, so nothing is overly complicated.
The flash radio trigger is very easy to fit and set up. It comes with batteries already installed, so you can literally put the transmitter onto your camera, connect the receiver to the flash head and start shooting. There are eight available radio channels that you can select on the trigger, just in case you find the default conflicts with other devices. The accessories are a Bowens S type connector, so they are simple to attach and remove. The softbox is quite challenging to erect, with tight fitting spokes, but it becomes easier the more times you put it together.
PerformanceSmall, compact and well made, these lights are a pleasure to use. The output power at 250W is not the most powerful you can buy, but for the price it’s acceptable. This does mean that you need to place the lights quite close to your subject or use a wider aperture. This can restrict the variety of images you can achieve with the two heads, especially if you are looking to get a white background, as you don’t really have enough power from the two heads. For moody lighting it’s far easier to get results using these lights, and the umbrella or softbox come into their own here. The lights recycle at around 3 seconds on full power, which isn’t slow but then it’s not exactly fast either. If you like to fire off a number of images in quick succession then you may find these units a tad slow. The light quality is very even and the temperature is consistent. This means that you can trust the lights to deliver a good all-round result, with no hotspots.
Final verdictThe phrase ‘you get what you pay for’ doesn’t apply here. Now that’s not a negative comment but a positive one, because if you buy the Elemental Genesis 2 kit you’ll actually get more than you pay for. Invest in more powerful lights though, and you’ll enjoy an even better and more versatile performance. This is the balancing act you need to weigh up before buying lights. This kit is a superb value starter kit, and you would be hard pushed to find anything better for the money. However, you may well find (as with any other budget kit) that the limitations leave you wanting more. If budget is a constraint, then the Elemental kit ticks a lot of the right boxes and will give you the tools to shoot home portraits very easily.