In an interesting move, Adorama has introduced a new in-house lighting brand: Orlit, which includes the first monolight to include Canon’s RT radio system built-in. The first products out of the gate will be a 600 watt second, battery powered, TTL and HSS capable monolight called the Rovelight RT 610, a Canon-friendly speedlight called the Orlit RT-600C, and Canon and Nikon compatible transceivers to fire them.
[REWIND: What’s Your Go-To Wedding Photography Lens: 24-70mm or 70-200mm?]
The Canon versions of the two lights will have Canon’s proprietary RT radio system built in, so that they can be immediately incorporated into a setup with Canon branded flashes, and take advantage of full TTL capabilities. The Rovelight is adjustable in 1/10th stop increments, and features an LED modeling light. The recycle time at full power is listed at 2.3 seconds, and the battery capacity at “up to 450” full power flashes.
The RT-600C speedlight, like many recent third party flashes, seems strikingly similar to Canon’s 600EX II-RT. In fact, the design is nearly identical, and it features the same set of features, albeit with a slightly lower advertised guide number, at, of course, a fraction of the price. Build quality, remains to be seen, but it seems like an attractive alternative to Canon’s offering.
After some quick internet research, these lights seem to be rebranded versions of a Chinese company called Jinbei. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I actually own a Chinese-made battery-powered monolight, and have found it to be a solid performer, which segues nicely into the reason I find this announcement so interesting.
Adorama already has an ‘in-house’ lighting brand called Flashpoint. Flashpoint already makes a battery-powered, TTL and HSS capable monolight. It’s called the XPLOR 600, and you can read our review here. Flashpoint also already makes speedlights, the R2 Zoom series. The spec sheets of the two brands are so similar that it seems redundant to carry them both. Perhaps they’re simply laying claim to the Orlit products so that no one else can.
The Orlit Rovelight RT 610 is available for preorder for about $700, and the Orlit RT-600C is available for preorder for $180.
