【Product teardown】Profoto A1 circular flash head teardown

The long-awaited Protofo A1 was delivered to our office. We immediately opened the box for research. We are most interested in how the zoom head and modeling light actually do zoom.

The Profoto A1 come with a circular flash head. We are going to open the flash head to find out how it produce a circular light. (c1x2)

Profoto A1 circular flash head teardown

Let's take a closer look at the beautiful Fresnel lens of the flash head. Two high-power LEDs for modeling lights are integrated on the underside of the Fresnel lens. As a smallest studio flash, the LED modeling light is one of the amazing feature of the Profoto A1.

The BEAM ANGLE and intensity of the LED modeling lamp can be adjusted through the menu setting.

Beam angle set to smallest.

Beam angle set to widest.

Modeling light set at Minimum intensity.

Modeling light set at Maximum intensity.

Before removing the Fresnel lens for further research, I tried to zoom the flash lamp back and forth manually by turning the zoom adjustment ring.

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The working principle of the zoom ring is the same as the zoom ring on the camera.

The zoom ring can realize motorized zoom, allowing you to change the BEAM ANGLE of the flash in real time. The flash lamp can zoom continuously and smoothly through the zoom ring.

The Flash Lamp inside the flash head is moving backward.

The Flash Lamp inside the flash head is moving forward.

Teardown of Flash Head

By removing the 4 screws on the metal ring. The Fresnel lens can be removed. The flash and LED modeling light can be seen in the white Lampshade.

Although the flash head is round, the flash tube used in the flash head is straight.

The optical design pattern on the back of the Fresnel lens is so beautiful and complicated like an art. It is used to convert and spread the straight light into circular light.

The high-gloss polished lens of the LED modeling lamp is molded on the Fresnel lens. It requires advanced molding technology to achieve such a high optical and injection quality.

Flash lamp of Profoto A1

The flash lamp unit in the white Lampshade. We found that Profoto A1 uses an olive-shaped reflector, which is very special. The color and transparency of the quartz glass windows also look unusual.

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It seems that Profoto engineers have spent a lot of time and effort to design and realize this extraordinary round flash head.

Hot shoe of Profoto A1

Finally, I want to share some photos of the die-cast metal hot shoe used by Profoto A1 for Canon systems.

Most flashes face the problem of loose hot shoe after use. Profoto A1 provides a permanent solution to this problem by implementing a die-cast metal hot shoe. The thickness of the hot shoe is thicker, so more thread engagement of the screw can be achieved. You can't even see the screw holes under the hotshoe. The die-cast hot shoe is made from a single piece of metal.

I didn't study the hot shoe design further because I do not want to dismantle the control unit.

Thank you for watching.

Author:     holidaydriver

Issued on: 2021-10-11

Updated on: 2023-09-22