Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

My Einsteins are a huge upgrade from my old Dynalites in every way except one: I used to be able to shoot all day without a single misfire or overheated strobe. Now, using the same softboxes, my strobes start misfiring and shutting off after the first 60 or 70 pops. Once they're hot, they shut off intermittently from then on.

I need the modeling lights on for my work. I keep the backs of my softboxes open to allow heat to escape.

I'm not surprised this is more of an issue, since Einsteins are monolights. But is there anything else I can do—besides using less power and raising the ISO or just shooting slower—to help mitigate this issue?

You could replace the modeling lamps with 150W (pretty available, including B&H), or lower the modeling lamps about 1f, shoot slower, etc. The overheat protection is there to keep from damaging the units from overheat.

"used to be able to" = with the Einsteins or w/ Dynalites? I.e., your Einsteins have gotten worse? Or do you mean the Dynalites had no issue?

And which version of Einstein do you have (when did you get them)? The V1's had overheat issues if you pointed them downwards...

"Used to" with Dynalites, probably because they had separate power packs. I've never used monolights before, so this may just be a fact of life. I have V2 Einsteins, all purchased this year.

The Einstein has electronics inside the head, so it is indeed more vulnerable to heat. Yours is the first complaint I've heard w/ the V2's though (I never hit the V1 issue because I usually use modeling lights only to aim)...the V2 was specifically to address the heat issue of the V1 :(
What kind of softboxes are they?

First noticed it with the PCB 35" foldable octabox, but I mostly use small and medium Chimera Superpro banks. The Chimeras can be opened a little more in the back, but they still cause overheating.

I shoot dogs. I need lots of depth-of-field. And I often shoot dozens of photos in a few minutes. Guess I'll just have to raise the ISO gradually, till the problem goes away.

phodographer, have you found any solution?
I just picked up a set of Einsteins for my dog shooting as well.

I love the thought of being able to fire two or more shots immediately in a row without being forced to wait for a complete recycle.
But if I can only work for a few minutes at a time, this may have been a bad choice.

I just got them, so I haven't had an actual on-the-job experience with them yet.

I have had similar issues with other lights, but much after longer periods such as an hour or three before the light over-heated. Of course, those only had a 100W modeling light. So as mentioned, perhaps my best solution would be to get a lower wattage modeling lamp before I plan to put them in a soft box for very long.

No. I keep the backs of my softboxes open and shoot at a slightly higher ISO, which helps. But overheating seems to be one of the tradeoffs of moonlights vs. pack lights that I just hadn't anticipated.

I would suggest lowering the model lamp slightly vs. raising ISO and shooting at a lower power. The model lamp is a bigger source of heat than the flash tube, unless you are firing incredibly fast at hight powers for long periods of time.