Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Looking to buy some more gear. I have an AB800 and AB1600. I shoot rodeos. Just saw the new laser. Would you get The laser or the 11" long reflector. I am also looking at either the einstine or another AB1600 plus commander and recievers. What are my best choises.

The Retro Laser will give you considerably more output, focusability and sharp cutoff of light outside the pattern. For rodeos, this may not necessarily be the most versatile choice though because I imagine those critters move around a whole lot and may be hard to keep in the light field. So I might suggest the 11RLT for that particular task.

Retro Lasers are really suited for long distance tasks where the action area is pretty defined . . . like basketball or the finish line at races, etc.

So it would work nice for barrel racing but not so much for other events. Any idea what the spead on the light would be over 200 or so feet? Also it will fit on the other AB's? Would I be better off adding the einstin or a AB1600 to my gear?

Regarding Retro Laser: At the most focused position of 11° the beam circle will spread at about 2' per 10' of distance, so at 200' the beam will cover about a 40' circle. With 640WS, the GN is about 640 at ISO100 so the exposure would be about f3.2 at ISO100 (f2.8+ 1/3f). Each doubling of ISO will increase the exposure by one f stop. So at ISO400 you could expect about f5.6 + 1/3f (f6.4) at 200'

At the wide 30° focus setting the spread is about 5.4' in 10' so at 200' the beam will cover about 108' circle.I don't have exact Guide Number yet for 30° angle, but you can expect around 1 1/2f less output at 30° than at 11°.

200 feet is a lot of distance to cover with flash. At 100' the coverage circle would be 1/2 that at 200', but the exposure would be two f stops higher.

An AB1600 will provide identical Full power output to Einstein 640, but Einstein would offer way better action freezing in situations where you are closer to the subject and can afford to drop the power to say 1/2 power and use Action Mode. Einstein also recycles faster than AB1600.

Hope this helps.