Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hi there. Just wondering if anyone that uses the new Einstein can help me with a question on the modeling lamp, or if by chance I have one that isn't working quite right.

The manual says there are 4 available settings for the modeling lamp: Off, Full On, Independently Adjustable, and Tracks Flashpower. My question is about the last, Tracks Flashpower. When I have my Einstein on, and the modeling lamp selected to Tracks Flashpower, it's not really tracking the flash's power. When I have the flash set to Full Power 1/1, the modeling lamp bar graph only goes up to one or two dots past -5 or 1/32 of the flash power bar graph. Is that supposed to be that way when it is supposed to be "tracking" the flash power? My simplified way of thinking would say that if I'm "tracking", if my Einstein is set to full power, the modeling lamp should be at full power.

Thanks for any insight. Have a great weekend, everyone.

You can have an offset dialed in. This way you can have a low flash output, but bright lamps for focusing, or vise versa. The model lamp will still track over as much range as it has left. To undo this, click to the right to enter the MODEL screen. Use the left joystick up or down until the red dash is at the top of the blue bar, or until the relative output readings match
(eg. -1.3f for model and flash). This is easiest to do if the blue bar is less than full, but more than minimum, as the extremes can give the false appearance of matching.

Hi TS. I hate to make myself look less than intelligent any more than is absolutely necessary, but I don't understand pretty much anything of what you just said here. What is the "joystick" you are referring to, because my Einstein doesn't have a joystick, just the up and down adjustment arrows? Can you, in really simple terms, tell me how I can get the "tracking" feature of the modeling lamp to do just that, no matter what power the flash is at? If I am going to use a low power state of the strobe, I know how to adjust the modeling lamp to give me more output for focusing, but can't figure out how to make it "track" up to full power if I go that high on the flash output.

Thanks for your time.

Sorry, I was giving you steps to do this via Cyber Commander. Press the function button until highlight the MODEL window. Press the up or down arrows until the lightning bolt appears. You are now in track mode, so the model lamp will follow the flash output, though you may still have that offest.

To identify an offset: If at any flash power below max and above minimum, the model lamp graph does not match the level of the flash graph, you have an offset. To correst this, press function until you get to the model lamp window and raise the model lamp output up or down to match by using the arrow keys.

Also, pressing the easy set button will restore the E640 to factory defaults, which includes tracking with no offset (but may change other custom set parameters).

THANK YOU!!! That makes perfect sense now. Have a great weekend.