Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I was reading up on a stock photographer's blog and saw that he used broncolor which had a feature for deliberately longer flash duration: 1/85s or the option of shooting at 1/12000 (t.5) and was fascinated by the concept. Are einsteins able to do this too? Does one have to use a script to access this or is this more of a software development process?

The longest flash duration is that which is full power. There are three aspects to a flash discharge. Voltage (intensity), Flash duration, and color. Pick two. If you start meddling with one component, another suffers. If you were to extend your duration to 1/85 of a second the color would go rather warm, probably to the point of unusable. The number of users that would require this ability would be low, and slow flash durations are the fundamental opposite of Einstein's design philosophy. So, no, you cannot currently lengthen the flash duration to anything slower than that that is full power, nor would I expect this to change.

Just out of curiousity, then, what is the longest flash duration that can be achieved with a standard AB unit? It might be worth having one on hand just for those occasions where one wants some motion blur :-)

B1600 at minimum power: 1/325 t.1 a.k.a 1/975 t.5. Even a Z2500 single tube head at -5f is still 1/150 t.1.

Why not use continuous lights or continuous + low power flash?

No worries--just wondering. If I spontaneously wanted to try something in the studio, it could be good information.

When I did the series here http://www.flickr.com/photos/36229312@N04/5227673265/ the Einstein was GREAT at freezing the hair movement even at the outer edges. It occurred to me then that if I had wanted motion blur, I could not do it using the Einsteins as the light source.

So, yes, mixing in ambient or a continuous light source, dragging the shutter would work.

Not a complaint or knock against the AB or Einstein, mind you. I wouldn't want the Einstein changed!

I have detected some motion blur when using ABs in certain circumstances, but it wasn't intentional. Until this thread, it just hadn't occurred to me that there were lights specifically adjustable to a long duration like that. Started me thinking, wondering, and speculating (a dangerous combination in my case! :mrgreen: )

I just realized that the 1/85 was the broncolor at full power? 3200 w/s? I'm a little confused as I was reading that it was a controlled flash duration setting on the pack.

oh well, nevermind.

Controlled flash duration on Bron . . . yes, but not at Full Power. The 1/85 t.1 is correct and cannot be shortened without lowering the power. Lots of user confusion with Bron on this point . . . people think they can dial in any flash duration at any power setting . . . wrong!!!