Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

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Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:55 am

Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2011 4:23 pm
Posts: 3

I am really getting upset at the number of times I am having my Einstein's due to the fingers failing and dropping the softbox. I've purchased 3 Einstein's and on every single one of them the fingers have failed and they have had to be returned MULTIPLE TIMES. Please fix this problem, otherwise after my warranty expires these lights will be totally useless because they will not be unable to hold any modifier. Once the fingers go that it, it will not hold anything.




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Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:16 am

Site Admin
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:43 am
Posts: 5266

spoke with via phone.




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Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:24 pm

Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:17 pm
Posts: 48
Location: Bend, OR

I feel your pain. Anything over 2” x 3” is falling off the Einstein, sooner, rather than later. I finally had to resort to this. I fabricated a few of these for myself and a couple of other folks. Works great. But really, why should we have to resort to this?

I don't know why Buff, Elinchrom, et al insist on making modifier attachment so backassward. The most sane and simple method is used by Profoto.

I can't imagine how much time and expense Paul has used to address the problem, substantial I would guess, but the problem has not been solved. I'm sure variances in 3rd party AB speed rings are not helping the situation.

Image




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Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:24 pm

Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:50 am
Posts: 306

Ziv wrote:
I don't know why Buff, Elinchrom, et al insist on making modifier attachment so backassward. The most sane and simple method is used by Profoto.
....
I'm sure variances in 3rd party AB speed rings are not helping the situation.


Way back in the WL Ultra days, PCB probably had to choose a non-royalty mount to be compatible with and they chose Balcar. I'm not sure if Profoto's mount existed back then, but they probably would have asked for royalties to claim it's "Profoto compatible". They probably also wanted to be backwards compatible w/ some existing mount so users could buy alternative modifiers. It's unfortunate Balcar croaked...they did have some interesting modifiers that should have been more popular.

AFAIK, there are two reasons for the Einstein dropping softboxes: 80% is probably from 3rd party speedrings w/ an inner diameter that's too small (fstop didn't say what he was using), and the other 20% is from the heat issues weakening the spring which AFAIK, PCB has fixed w/ the 3rd finger fix (the serrated ones that also include strong springs w/ different materials). The symptom for the heat problem is one of the fingers feeling looser than the others.

TS: any comments on the 3rd finger fix and whether it's working for folks like Ziv who are having issues w/ dropping softboxes while using modeling lights at full power all the time?




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Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:22 am

Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2010 3:37 pm
Posts: 52

I have 3 e-640's and they all hold the PCB stuff fine if you make sure that the fingers are properly set. My newest light the latest version does seem to have a better grip but they all work and I use the largest softbox that PCB makes. I also use medium sized PLM's with the speedrings and they all work great.




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Fri Mar 30, 2012 1:14 pm

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Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:43 am
Posts: 5266

What we are currently shipping is proving to hold softboxes. If anyone has a problem with modifier retention, please contact customer service.




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Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:55 pm

Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 5:31 pm
Posts: 38

Is there a difference between the Einstein and Alien Bee mounts? I know they're both "Balcar" mounts, but is there a devil in the details? I see a lot of gripes here about the Einstein fingers failing, but little if anything about similar problems with the Alien Bees.




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Sat Mar 31, 2012 11:58 am

Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:50 am
Posts: 306

Technical Support wrote:
What we are currently shipping is proving to hold softboxes.


Does it also hold the giant softbox overhead w/ modeling lamp on w/o problems now? (that used to be the hardest test for the Einstein fingers and I suggested it as a QC test a while back)

I actually had a quickring 3x4' softbox fall off over the weekend while I pulled the grid off because the einstein only goes 4/5 of the way when locked (it goes all the way with the Kacey ring or any of the foldable AB softboxes). I suspect the serrations would have helped a little, but I'm just more careful about how I pull the grid off now :)

EKB: yes, the Einstein finger design is different from the AB/WL one...




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Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:06 pm

Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:50 am
Posts: 37

Kenyee (or anyone else)...

Do you know if the Kacey insert for the Einstein will work with Bowens QuickRing? I've been using the SP insert but haven't used it with anything too large yet and some of these posts are getting me a bit concerned.




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Sat Mar 31, 2012 3:09 pm

Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:50 am
Posts: 306

DJP wrote:
Do you know if the Kacey insert for the Einstein will work with Bowens QuickRing? I've been using the SP insert but haven't used it with anything too large yet and some of these posts are getting me a bit concerned.


Nothing to be concerned about really. I just happened to be tugging at the grid pretty hard (not holding the softbox from one hand) from the upper left corner when I had a plume on a quickring and it popped off. It's not something you'd do normally.

The Kacey insert won't fit a quickring (outer diameter is too wide on Kacey insert and the stupid quickring only takes narrower than normal inserts)....yes, it's annoying and I gave them a huge wishlist at the start of the year for a quickring v2 (that will hopefully include a spigot connection so we can use octas with it instead of only rectangular boxes)...




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