Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Yes, they are UV coated, but you may not get 100% UV elemination. I cannot say how much UV is too much for your applications, but using a UV gel won't hurt anything.

The worst UV emission tubes are uncoated quartz tubes. We use borosilicate glass (Pyrex) tubes as glass blocks UV very substantially more than quartz. Next, the Einstein and AB/WL tubes have a UV coating to further reduce UV and to color correct the tubes.

Next the Pyrex dome further reduces UV considerably. Finally, diffusion gels are plastic, and further block UV emission.

So it's safe to say an Einstein™ with glass dome and diffusion produces probably the lowest level of UV, particular the most damaging short wavelengths, tan anything on the market, and should be perfectly safe for shooting fine artwork and for minimizing the fluorescence effect of bleached fabrics (wedding dresses) and white light modifiers that contain brighteners that fluoresce. See http://www.paulcbuff.com/plm-competitor.php for examples.

Put these accessories on uncoated tubes and you are apt to see a while lot more color shift than these examples.

I caught this post by mistake while I was looking for info on the UV pyrex domes, but since there are other questions besides UV, specifically how to use Einstiens for Art Repro, I thought I would through my two cents in as I have done this route coming from Totas.

I came from Totas, made Fluorescent softbanks using Philips CRI 98 bulbs and about a year ago added Einstiens to the mix to allow me shooting in mild daylight situations. My setup for the Totas is the same for the Einstines, though because of the reflector (use the one that lets you put a gel in the front) you will get a little less broad spread. I lamented over this last part for quite some time and even considered linear flash tube designs because of the more even spread - however, after testing this isn't so much of an issue I thought it would be. Yes, the tota spread is more linear, but if you have multiple lights (which I did with the Totas too), you will create a overlapping beam spread and lessen this to an extent.

The dilemma you will face with polarizers and flash is the amount of units necessary to shoot at f8, or f11 (if medium format). To achieve this you will need at least 4 units, though 6 is preferable as it will give you better spread and you won't have to run them at full power (I think mine are usually about 1 stop under full at f8). Anyways, this is dependant also on how far you keep your lights back, mine are usually 8-12ft away to facilitate beam spread.

So for those looking to do Art Repro and upgrade out of Totas but not go broke on Bron I highly recommend them. I have found the color accuracy to be excellent, and I prefer them to softbanks other than the time it takes to setup 3 lights per pole!