Lencarta Safari 600 ringflash

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Many portrait photographers love the effect you get from a ringflash. However, the majority cost well over £1000. You can buy a variety of adaptors to fake the effect, but none offers anything like the same results as the real thing.

The product designers at German company Lencarta have produced this interesting solution – the Safari 600 ringflash. Admittedly, at near-on £600, it’s still far from cheap, but is a significant saving on other models from the big studio lighting brands.

This kit includes a portable power pack, ringflash unit, bracket and radio trigger, sync cable and power cord to recharge the battery pack – all supplied in a plastic case. The battery pack is very compact, and relatively lightweight, with sockets for two flash heads, so you can buy additional Safari heads to use alongside or instead of the ringflash.

With 600W output, the ringflash is very powerful. You can control its output on the battery pack, but the lowest power setting is still quite high even at small apertures, so you’ll have to stand back from your subject and use the long end of your standard zoom.

Build quality of the battery is very good, but the ringflash isn't quite as tough. The case isn't nearly as tough as a Peli case but it will protect the kit. The ringflash can be attached to any DSLR thanks to its adjustable bracket. You can also move the flash closer or further away from the camera, to suit the lens in use.

Recycling time isn’t bad, and the battery doesn’t run out of power in a hurry (Lencarta claims 1150 flashes per charge), so you needn’t hold back when shooting on location. Besides, there’s a handy battery power indicator too. In the studio, you can simply attach the pack to the mains. Other features include a selectable slave trigger and audio beep to confirm the flash is ready to fire.

Designed for portability, we took the ringflash into the woods to see how it worked on location. With the model posing against the sunlight, the ringflash provided very balanced lighting with none of the harsh shadows you’d normally get from a single-point light source. The power pack was light and fitted neatly into a rucksack, making it a very practical outdoor lighting solution for shoots where you need lots of power. For outdoor fashion/portrait work, it’s great value, too. The cheaper build quality and lack of low power settings are out-weighed by the keen price, which brings the unit within reach of many more photographers than the pro alternatives.