Profoto A2: Living Up to the Legacy

As digital cameras, raw processing programs, and stand-alone noise processing apps improve our ability to capture clean images at higher ISOs, the need for high-power electronic flash units has decreased. 

Flash manufacturers noticed and started designing low-power, battery-powered monolights, blurring three distinctions between monolights and hot shoe mount speedlights: power range, power source, and portability. Small and versatile, these new monolights are about the same size and weight as a 105mm f/2.8 lens and deliver a power band broad enough to go from filling a medium-sized soft box at comfortable working distances for f/8 portraits to closeup lighting for still lifes.

The Profoto A2 is a high-end example of this class of light. Made in Sweden, it continues in the company’s nearly 60-year tradition of delivering high-quality light with clean design, instantly intuitive user interfaces, and versatile modifier mounts. The A2 is the smallest monolight in Profoto’s AirX system of wirelessly triggered, TTL-controlled lights and packs a 100- to 0.1-watt-second punch. The same removable A-Series battery used by the A10 Speedlight powers the A2 and, at full charge, delivers up to 400 full-power (100 watt-seconds) flashes with short recycle times between flashes, ranging from 0.1 sec (minimum power) to 1.6 seconds (full power). A measure of the period a flash emits all photographically significant light at a given power setting, t0.1 flash duration for the A2 ranges from 1/350 second (100Ws) to 1/26,000 second (0.1Ws). Like every modern TTL-capable speedlight and monolight, the Profoto A2 is HSS-capable. 
 

Color temperature is consistent across the power range. In my testing, color temperatures at all output levels were well within the claimed 5,800K +/-100K range, hovering around 5,850K, with zero bias toward green or magenta tint. The result is clean whites and beautiful, natural skin tones. Built into the face of the light is a 180-lux 3,500K LED. It doesn’t drain much from the battery, but that also means it’s not powerful enough to be used as a modeling light unless you’re in the dark.

The rear control screen displays white-on-black, dominated by a large power level scale along with the battery level, AirX group, and channel information. Below this screen are three controls: a small, dedicated modeling light on/off button, a central push-type mode selector inside a dial selector, and a combination on/off and test button. The 2.0 ampere-hour, 7.2V Profoto A-series battery clips into the top of the light. The removable stand adapter screws into a 1/4"-20 threaded receiver in the body and arcs smoothly over a 180-degree range, locking the desired angle securely. Removing the stand mount allows the light to dock inside the Clic Adapter II mount. The Clic Adapter II gives users access to the array of full-size Profoto light modifiers.

Like the Profoto A10 speedlight, the A2 natively uses Profoto’s magnetic Clic light modifiers. Magnets under the surface surround the round-faced head. These mate with magnets on the modifiers. Profoto Clic mount modifiers include 2-, 2.3-, and 2.7-foot diameter octagonal soft boxes; the Magnum Reflector, which tightens the beam angle from 65 degrees to 37 degrees and increases output by 1.8 stops; and a nearly flat Fresnel spotlight lens that increases output by 1.7 stops over its 34-degree beam angle and creates Golden Age Hollywood portrait effects. Other Clic modifiers include a 4-leaf barndoor set, a hemispheric dome diffuser, color effect and CTO (warming) gel kits, grids, and a snoot. 

The A2 lacks a sync port, which means a Profoto remote is mandatory, though the FusionTLC Raven is an alternative for Canon and Nikon users. The company makes three remotes for the Air system: Connect Pro, Connect (TTL and manual control), and the Air Remote Universal (manual). Using an on-camera A10 as a controller is also an option. The Profoto Control Pro App for iOS, Google, and Huawei mobile devices offers a method for remotely controlling, but not triggering, Bluetooth-enabled Profoto lights. 

Connect Pro and Connect remotes are available for Canon, Fujifilm, Leica, Nikon, Olympus/Panasonic, and Sony cameras. Like Profoto lights, the Control Pro is a sleek device with design in service of functionality. The backlit 1.75x1.5-inch white-on-black display is easily readable from behind the camera in bright sunlight from a wide angle. The 2.4 GHz Air X system offers an unprecedented range of choices in radio-saturated environments, with 100 Air channels and six groups per channel, with the first three (A, B, and C) for TTL or manual control. The only thing that could make it better would be a pivoting mount for it to remain upright when the camera body is vertical.  

The Profoto A2 measures 4.96 inches long by 3.11 inches in diameter and weighs 1.09 pounds with the stand mount and battery. The top-tier quality of materials and construction are worth noting. Years of experience have led me to believe it’s better to weep once over price than cry twice over equipment failure due to inferior parts.  

Profoto’s Clic and OCF soft boxes’ engineering shines when it comes to ease and speed of use. They’re the most practical and fastest to set up and strike soft boxes I’ve ever used. Rather than a traditional flat speed ring, these Profoto models use captive wands in a folding speed ring. As you flatten the two speed ring halves into a disk, the captive wands slide into place, tensioning the soft box. With the installed internal baffle and diffuser, you can go from storage case to setup in under a minute. When it’s time to go home, reverse the procedure.

Because the A2 uses the magnetic Clic mount (also compatible with Rogue modifiers), using it with Profoto OCF-mount modifiers and reflectors requires the Adapter II, a combination magnetic docking collar and stand/umbrella mount. Between the Clic mount and OCF mount, Profoto’s compatible modifiers include 29 soft boxes, four soft-sided and four metal beauty dishes, three Fresnel spotlights, 13 hard reflectors, two large soft focusable reflectors, and two snoots.  

I consider Profoto’s standard OCF locking collar mount system the best that any light manufacturer has invented. The design makes it supremely secure. The sliding collar design allows for focusing beam angle and adjusting center-to-edge falloff when used with hard reflectors. The flat-face design and recessed flashtube of Profoto A, B, and D series lights slightly compromise a photographer’s ability to tune the light when using metal reflectors, but it doesn’t affect the security of the mount. 

Profoto has consistently been one of my favorite brands of electronic flash lighting equipment. The quality of the light is, along with Broncolor, the gold standard for portraits and commercial photography. Profoto’s attention to clean, well-thought-out design results from the company’s adherence to the philosophy that “form must follow function” in architectural and industrial design. This attention to detail is evident in their gear’s physical shape and appearance and the controls’ simplicity, clarity, and readability. This approach not only makes these lighting tools look good, but it also makes the work a straightforward process that’s easier and faster. And Profoto’s rugged construction is an asset on location, even in some of the grimiest industrial settings. 

The Profoto A2 inherits a legacy of superior engineering mated to beautiful, functional design. There are cheaper lights on the market than the $895 A2, but the long-term logic of going with quality tools makes sense, especially if you have the budget. 

Ellis Vener is a commercial and portrait photographer based in Atlanta.