Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I've been using mono blocks that must fully discharge then recharge to keep their consistency, which of course means full recycle time for each flash regardless of power.
If it takes 1 second to recycle at 1/4 power, I need to wait that full second until my next shot.

I like the Alien Bees and Einstein strobes because if I fire at 1/4 power, there is plenty of power remaining to fire again right away. I do not need to wait that full recycle time.
In fact, I can pretty much keep firing continously at 5-7 fps at 1/16 power on the Einsteins.

In the scenario where I fire multiple shots in a row without waiting for the recycle beep, should the color and brightness be expected to shift?
I'd certainly rather get the shot with 0.25 stop less light, than miss the shot altogether. Just wondering if this is normal and expected?
On the extreme end, I also notice the Einstein light will fire as fast as I can even at full power. Obviously the second and subsequent shots are much lower than full power.

I am wondering if it is expected that the strobe should be allowed to fire if there is not sufficient power to hit anywhere near the mark for brightness.

Yes, the Einstein is designed to do that if you trigger it before the full recharge.

Thanks. Its sort of a double edged sword.
I guess its something I'll get used to. It will certainly add more fun to my shoots without being forced to wait for full recycle and completely missing those precious shots. 8-)

Yes, it was designed to be able to fire so you can catch something rather than nothing. You can adjust output so that it keeps up with the frame rate. 10 fps will be about 40Ws, 5 fps will be about 80Ws (test on your own equipment). This way you know light levels will be fairly close to the same.