What’s Changed. The Profoto A1X AirTTL-S Studio Light for Sony offers some notable improvements over the A1 (though this is the first model compatible with Sony.) First up, a more powerful battery provides 450 full-power pops instead of the 350 on the A1. Said battery also drops the max recycle time from 1.2 down to 1 second flat. While the original A1 had a paltry 8 wireless channels, the A1X steps up to 20 channels. Finally, the user interface has been updated to match the B10’s new hotness. Looking for an updated version of the A1X? We also carry the A10 here.

Professional-Quality Compact Flash. Don’t let the A1X AirTTL-S Studio Light’s compact build fool you—it’s a Profoto light through and through. Its round 2.75-inch tilting and rotating head produces stunning, natural-looking light with soft, gradual fall-off. It boasts an LED modeling light to help you set up your shots, and a built-in magnetic mount that lets you easily install, uninstall, and stack the included dome diffuser and bounce card. The head’s auto-zoom covers focal lengths from 32 to 105mm.

Fast, Powerful Performance. The A1 gives you an array of flash durations from 1/800 to 1/20,000 second, while using High-Speed Sync lets you shoot at shutter speeds as fast as 1/8,000 second for great background blur when using a wide aperture. Its 0.05- to 1-second recycle time is markedly faster than most other flashes in its class, so you won’t have to worry about missing your shot.

The A1X is a superlative on-camera flash, but it also excels in off-camera applications. Its built-in transceiver means you can use it with A1, A1X, B1, B1X, and B10 strobes. Any Air Remote wireless controller can trigger the A1X at up to 1,000 feet, and the Air Sync will let you wirelessly trigger the A1X, and adjust its power, grouping, channel-selection, and modeling-light settings. Better yet, the built-in AirTTL lets you use the A1X to easily connect to and control other Profoto flashes.

High-Capacity Battery with Fast Recharge. The lithium-ion battery provides about 450 full-power flashes per charge with no performance fade, or up to thousands of flashes when you lower the power output, up from 350 over the previous A1. You can’t use an AC adapter to power this strobe—it’s battery-powered only. Once its battery is depleted, you’ll have to swap or recharge it before you can continue shooting.

Intuitive Design. In true Profoto fashion, the A1X’s simple interface and large, white-on-black LED combine to make it easy to use right out of the box. The updated interface is similar to the B10’s newer menu system.