Just a few days after announcing the Profoto Connect Pro, the Swedish photographic light company has announced the Profoto A2, its smallest studio light. This is an interesting turn of events as Profoto has previously referred to the A1-series lights, the latest incarnation being the Profoto A10, as being a small studio light but to the rest of the world they are flashguns.
The Profoto A2, however, has a monoblock design which means that it looks much more like a studio light – albeit a very small one as it measures just 12.6×7.9cm. With the battery and stand adaptor, it also weighs just 773g, so it’s highly portable.
With a maximum output of 100Ws, the A2 is more powerful than the A10 (76Ws), but has less than half the power of the B10 and B10X (250Ws) and B10X Plus (500Ws), but it uses the same technology, has AirX built-in and can be used in combination with them or by itself.
The A2 can be triggered by any of Profoto’s wireless triggers, including the new Connect Pro and the simpler Profoto Connect, as well as the trigger that are in lights such as the A10 and B10X. The A2 is also compatible with the free Profoto app for making remote adjustments or facilitating firmware updates.
There’s a 10-stop adjustment range for the A2’s power and it adopts the same simple interface of Profot’s other recent lights. The recycling time is 0.1-1.6sec.
There is an LED modelling light which has a maximum power of 2.1W and can be dimmed from 100 to 10%. It has a fixed colour temperature of 3500K.
Profoto supplies the A2 with an A-series Mark II battery, which takes less than 2 hours to charge but will give up to 400 full flashes. It’s also possible to use the A2 with the original A-series battery but it will deliver fewer flashes.
While the A2 can be used with Profoto’s OCF Light Shaping Tools mounted via the new OCF Adapter II (see below), it’s designed to be used with the 75mm-diameter Clic range of accessories that mount using magnets. These include the recently announced Click Softbox Octa.
Profoto OCF Adapter II announced
Profoto has also announced a new version of its OCF (Off Camera Flash) adapter. The Profoto OCF Adapter II is designed to be used with the A10 and A2 flash units with powerful magnets holding the lights in place. It enables Profoto OCF Light Shaping Tools (modifiers) to be mounted on the small lights. These tools can be used with up to three Clic gels.
Profoto A2 price and availability
The Profoto A2 is available to order now and has a price of £849.