Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

This is an interesting thread, as I have previously discussed consistent color temperature with Luap before, and am in the process of adding quite a bit of PCB Einstein gear to my extensive Profoto and hot-light equipment.

I haven't read anything at Fred Miranda for years. It seemed to me that there wasn't that much valuable information there to learn, with only their sales forums being very helpful to many people.

My Profoto (AC only) Acute gear has measured with a higher color variance than Paul claims for Einsteins. However, my Acute gear is still considerably above average for studio units in this regard. (Note: I didn't keep and can't remember the exact data, but, from my admittedly faulty memory, I seem to recall something like about a 200 to 300 degree Kelvin spread, from max to min power) From what I've gathered on this forum, in one third party test, the new D1 units seem to be much worse than either the Einsteins or my Acute units in color consistency over their maximum power variation settings. Do I believe this? Well, without measuring this myself, I would rather believe someone independent of the manufacturer who has actually tested the gear properly than some marketing fluff on a spec sheet, and especially on one that's been translated from another language. So, I'm ready to believe that Paul is correct.

Remember that, as Paul and anyone else who is in business for himself certainly already knows, you are only as good, or as believable, to your potential clients, as your most recent work and/or representation of that same work. So, Profoto's reputation, built from years of good will generated by making solid, efficient and reliable products, could be undermined by simply representing one of their products in a way so as to mislead people. I will say that I believe that we will have to look to a future independent test to find out the particulars, but, at this point, it seems that Paul has been treated rather shabbily, and Fred Miranda has given himself a black eye and unnecessarily sullied his reputation for objectivity.

I remain very interested in many of PCB's new products and look forward to getting my new Einstein II's and judging the color spread for myself.

So let's bring back the old AB consumer forums, I loved them, only reason to go to FM the AB forums are gone.

I believe the Acute largely uses capacitor switching, which would result in a smaller color shift. I assume it's like Dynalite - cap switching plus a small variator (voltage control) range. This would result in a small color shift in the 100-200° range.

I spent $1100 specifically to get a D1 500WS delivered tomorrow, then I'll find out the exact color shift. Rob Galbraith sent me some scope traces he did, showing D1 indeed is purely voltage controlled - like AB, so I expect to see a 500° or so color shift. Approximately 80° shift per f-stop is engraved in stone in a voltage controlled flash.

As for our old forum, I loved having it, but we were spending all our time dealing with haters and spammers that kept getting on it and screwing it up.

I received an email today from Fred Miranda that he had decided to "unban" me from his forum. This was voluntary on his part and I had made no request to this effect.

Paul ... it is a credit to you that many others certainly went to battle for you. You bring a value to others that is both recognizable and defendable.

Thank you & welcome back ... you do us proud. :D

I noticed that someone posted a 'let's bash Paul' thread ... Fred got it pulled pretty quickly.

Props to Fred for restoring you to FM and being on alert to troublemakers coming out of the woodwork.

Paul I'm glad that Fred let you back there.
But please be over cautious for a while before posting. You know that all your posts will be over scrutinized by all your detractors. Any minor personal comment will start a sterile bashing again. Don't give them the pleasure of sucking you in their scheme, be smarter and bite your tongue sometime. Try to continue to excel in what your posts are recognized for: your technical expertise.

I can't bring myself to offering pablum for the sake of not stirring haters up. I rarely provoke serious confrontations, but don't run a and hide when I am attacked. I never say my products are better than XYZ, but defend them when they are misrepresented. In this case, a free commercial was posted for Profoto (something I'm not allowed to do and don't). From there, misleading performance specs were offered for the D1 and I corrected the record and was banned as a result.

I'll be measuring my new D1 tonight and will post the results here and there.

I'll be happy to post a review of the Li Vagabond when I'll receive one. The same way I posted review of other products from other brands. If I'm happy with a product, I say it. If I'm unhappy, I say it too. That's what user's reviews are for. However I hate infomercial with paid reviews that are obviously tainted.

This is exactly what you or anybody else should do, whether posted here or FM or anyplace else. The problem with the FM "review" was that what was posted was a link to Profoto's website and thus was approved and endorsed by Profoto and was, in effect, a Profoto commercial. Were you to do a positive commercial for my product, which I then put on my website, and you then linked my website with the commercial and called it an independent review we would both be crucified for disguising adverting as a legitimate review.

Basically what the "review" said was "Gee, it takes pictures . . . great product." The thread proceeded to claim the Profoto D1 color consistency was specified as 5600° +/- 30° and was therefore better than Einstein. I argued this was based on a misleading spec on the part of Profoto and that I suspected the color shift was over 500° from Full to minimum power, while Einstein maintains +/-50° over it's entire nine f stop power variability range, and challenged an independent member to test a D1. One came forward and did this testing and came up with a 750° color shift for the Profoto D1. Then I was banned for arguing the misleading info and exposing the fraud.

I received my $1100 D1 this morning and did a quick test with Sekonic Color Meter. It indicated 6200°K at Full Power and 5200° at minimum power (-6f) . . . a 1000° color shift. The same meter in the same test measured the color shift of Einstein at being within the +/- 50° spec from full to -8f. I also found a single 500WS Profoto D1 won't operate from Vagabond Mini Lithium (crashed) while the Mini had no problem powering an Elinchrom RX600 and a AB1600 together (total of 1240WS).

I've learned not to trust color meter readings completely, so will do a series of RAW test shots comparing color shift VS power of D1 500, RX600, AB1600 and Einstein. I will publish them side by side here as soon as I complete this.