Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I realise Einstein cannot presently do HSS.
My question is , is the hardware technically capable of it?
In other words is this a software limitation of the present trigger devices available or is it a hardware limitation of the Einstein?

It would require a combination of both to succeed. Also, firmware is not as easy to produce as many think. Especially if you are trying to make a product work with many products made by other companies without thier support. Even if it were limited to Canon and Nikon, each model camera can vary differently (even within the same brand). Once everything was figured out for current models, 10 new models would appear.

Thanks for the reply.
If you'd indulge me, I'd like to develop this thought a bit further.

There is no point in even addressing the firmware detail if the hardware is incapable, so leaving that aside for the time being.

To wit, my understanding of HSS is that the light fires repeatedly at lower power over a longer period of time. In doing so the entire camera sensor area receives some of the benefit of the flash.
This is because the the two shutter gates are not open enough to expose the entire sensor area above the max synch shutter speed.

This is the behaviour regardless of manufacturer. (I think).
My question is the Einstein's IGBT hardware capable of switching speeds and repetition sequence required to do this?
If it isn't HSS is impossible with this hardware.
If it is then there are possibilities, maybe difficult, maybe simple.

You are correct in how HSS works. However, it is my understanding it would take a considerable amount of hardware changes to allow for HSS from Einstein.

Pity, does this also knock any future possibility of TTL on the head?

It is unlikely the Einstein will ever have TTL. I cannot say what the future may or may not hold, but there are no immediate plans for any such head.

Well, if the Einstein can't do it, it'll be a while coming yet.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but while tech support is listening...

How quickly could an Einstein (in action mode) respond to a "set power" command in the Cyber Sync protocol?

I once built something called "Flash Thing" (yeah, big points for originality) and one of the things it could do was monitor Nikon or Canon digital TTL protocols (either wired or by watching the optical message traffic) and fire any number of banked "old fashioned" analog TTL flashes at whatever power level the TTL flash fired at. The way I used it was to set the "digital flashes" at 2 stops under exposed, and then have a bank of three old analog TTL flashes "boost" each digital flash. So, a Nikon SB-800 would get teamed up with three old SB-80 or SB-24 (could be any old TTL flash, that's just what I had). The exposure compensation is necessary, because the old TTL flashes are contributing to the main flash, but not the metering flashes, so the metered flash has to be 2 stops off for a 4 flash "mule team".

I'm thinking one could play the same trick with a digital TTL flash teamed up with an Einstein. The Nikon SB-800, Canon 520, etc. performs the TTL metering, the "black box" says "there was a 'group A to 13% power' message, let's send the channel 1 Einstein a 13% power message", "there goes group B to 25% power, send the channel 2 Einstein a 25% power message". There's about 5ms between messages, and at least 30ms between the last "set power" message and the "fire" pulse.

It could even work with old style Bees and White Lightnings in FEL mode. And with Einsteins in color mode instead of action mode.

Making the change in settings is one thing, having the light respond as quickly and accurately as necessary is another. I am not an engineer, however, I believe Einstein works a little differently than a speedlite. Speedlites have a quench pin/circuit that allows some external device to tell the speedlite to cut power. Einstein's is an internal settings based circuit. Speedlites are designed for rapid power changes for on the fly shooting, while Einstein is designed for slower paced (at least as far as light changes) studio shooting with deliberate setting changes. Different tools for different jobs. To get one tool to do both would be very costly and/or be the lighting equivilent of an El Camino.

I am more than impressed with the Einstein, but it wouldn't exist if conventional boundary's hadn't been questioned. Further, the Einstein's design, with its firmware upgradeability, shows that there was an expectation that its application could be expanded right from the outset.

It appears as if the Einstein's limitations are that it cannot be adjusted on the fly like a speedlite.
It already has to know what is expected of it, and the trigger mechanism is just the tripwire. Fair enough.

This rules out TTL for sure, as that is a variable feast, with the power setting even unknown to the photographer.
On the otherhand changing shutterspeed above sync speed is a conscious decision by the photographer. More importantly it is a decision made in advance, that could be sent minutes ahead of time.
It is analogous to the decision to shoot in action or color mode. In action mode we compromise on color, it color mode we compromise on freezing motion.

So given the capability, that Einstein has firmware that can stretch the light pulse to achieve constant color, perhaps stretching the pulse even further for HSS (compromising something else perhaps) is not such a pipe dream.

The concept being we just have to tell it what we want before the tripwire trigger.