Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have 1 V2 and 2 V2.x Einsteins, and the fingers on all three can be compressed by hand from roughly the 1/2 open position. I don't see any difference between V2 and V2.x from that point of view. Fingers are about 1/2 open when out-of-the-box shipping covers are in place, so the fact that they can be compressed from this position explains why the covers can pop off. The holes that I drilled in the cover allow the fingers to expand slightly beyond half-way, at which point they're pretty solid.

The primary intent of V2.x was to keep modifiers in place, and in that regard they seem to perform as expected.

The difference is the "v2.x" fingers will not open only to 1/2 way, they will instead open fully (or nearly so) when modifiers are mounted, while initial v2 lights stopped about 1/2 way when modifiers were mounted. If either are stopped half way, then the fingers will compress.

I got my V2.1's yesterday with the new fingers, and while it looks like I can hold the Einstein by the protective cover, I can pretty easily pry it off.

I would never consider carrying the thing by the protective cover, but I doubt it would be dislodged during transport either.

Dremel tip is interesting. I wonder if this will be an issue with big modifiers. I had the large softbox and the 64" PLM mounted for test yesterday, and it seemed ok, but I didn't stress anything much.

No. The fingers extend to a different point with speedrings than with the shipping cover. With the way the cam is designed, that extra travel makes a big difference.

The shipping cover was designed a very long time ago. The problem is the cam fingers are allow to open less than half way with the cover. We are redesigning the cover to solve this issue, but new molds take time.

Paul, if you're redesigning the covers for the Einstein please consider making them shorter. Space in carrying cases is very limited and the covers currently waste about 2 inches of extra space. This sort of defeats the compact size of the strobes. Making the covers shorter would greatly increase the options for cases that the Einsteins can fit into.

I cut approximately 1-1/2 inches off the end of a spare cover I purchased. It makes the Einstein considerably more packable.

Dave F.

Can you post a picture of the shortened cover?

tetrode: Did you ever buy *anything* which you haven't modified? *g*

Sorry for the delay:







My modified cap is about as short as it can be while still leaving a bit of room between it and the tip of the modeling light bulb.

I'm looking forward to the release of the redesigned caps Paul mentioned as this version doesn't lock securely on the latest version of the Einstein.

Dave F.