Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I know this is kind of an off-beat question, but I was just wondering if the various Alien Bees were the best selling series of lights over the last several years, or whether PCB sells more of the white lightnings or more of the Einsteins nowadays.

And if the AB's ARE best sellers, are they far and away more popular? Or just a bit more popular than the others?

Just still figuring which new light to get. I guess that popularity does matter to me, for some strange reason.

AlienBees are still the most popular of all - way more than White Lightnings. But Einstein is second, by a wide margin. AlienBees alone have about 50% of the entire US market, and have had for many years.

AB800 is our best seller. White lightning is an older design and doesn't offer any real performance margin over AB.

A view from a customer: When I decided to buy lights I combed the internet to see what was being bought, dropped, and lusted after. Everyone lusts after Broncolor, Ferraris, Lambos, ... Lots of people (including me) lusted after Profoto. I found that people moved from other brands more often into PCB. Dug into what would make them want to go that way and found myself wondering why Einsteins were not the default choice across the board. Wider power range, better color consistency, support that received rave reviews, more rational prices, less expensive modifiers (Price a Profoto mount...), did I mention support?, Cybersync, etc.

I personally went with a pair of Einsteins, a pair of VMLs (I like the idea of a self contained light "stick"), modifiers, stands, and the Cybersync system. I found I could configure a "stick" for the price of one Profoto light.

I have found PCB support to be excellent and focused on making sure that a working photographer can work.

Thank you, Paul!

Please have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

And please, post MORE VIDEO DEMONSTRATIONS!!! Looking for a demo of the Omni Reflector!!!

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On second thought, the ONLY thing that can make someone REGRET owning a VML is watching the video and seeing how awesome the VMX is. Hard to imagine that something even better than the VML exists.

@ alp:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.

I am a long-time PCB customer myself (bought my White Lightning WL10,000 lights back in 1996). So, as you know, their legendary customer satisfaction is probably the worst-kept secret in photography.

Actually, that's the dilemma; My WL10,000s STILL WORK FINE!!! so I am having a hard time justifying spending money on Bee's to replace them. (Plus I am cheap. Did I mention that yet? I mean, I am REAL cheap.)

But I was out on a shoot outdoors and trying to shoot at f/2 and I couldn't get the power down low enough on my WL10,000s. They work great if I am going to shoot at f/8 in a softbox at 5 to 7 feet, but I needed to open wide to blur the background and I ran out of room to move the lights further back.

So right now, I am just trying to rationalize replacing my WL10,000s with a Bee (or 2). Either that, or I have to find a way to siphon off extra power from the WL10,000 when using a softbox or an umbrella / PLM

I really want to do more videos, but finding the time is really hard. I do plan to do more though.

Understood about the time. We wouldn't want to distract you from making the next great product!

Thanks again for fighting the good fight, and thanks again for having such great customer service over the years.

A view from another customer: In my case it was the PLMs that drew me in. I wanted some big white shoot-through/convertible umbrellas for my initial lighting setup, and my internet seach found the PLMs and not much else (there weren't yet so many knockoffs, back then). And since I liked the idea of a cage mount vs the standard umbrella rod mount, and since the alien bee lights looked good as basic studio lights, I decided to get those, as well.

No regrets. The Bees are a very good match for the kind of amateur/enthusiast photographer I am. (And I've become something of a PLM fanboy.)

Thank you, EKB:

I am assuming PROFESSIONALS still use Alien Bees as well though, right?

I understand that if your are working with a professional model, she might be able to pose faster than the recycle time of ABs, but most of the models I work with need a LOT of direction between poses.

Not sure of the environment, and so you may already know this, but shooting outside with ambient light alone, you often cannot get to f/2 (at ISO 100 and at your x-sync speed). If this is the case, then a light with a broader power range will not help. You would have to use a neutral density filter (on lens) or wait until the light level gets lower.