Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hello everyone, anyone experiencing the same issue with their Einstein?

1- I was shooting a photobooth yesterday and 2 weeks ago.

As I am shooting many people in front of a white background using my PcB medium format Softbox at almost full power and after maybe 30 shots.... the Model LAMP was turning itself OFF and the flash wouldn't pop for maybe 15-20 secondes.

It seems as if it was overheating... After a few seconds it was coming back to life.

I mean, I haven't used my Einstein too much since I've purchased it last February but I find it odd that it seems to overheat. I've been using my 2 AB800 like crazy, shooting at full power for hundreds and hundreds of shot during weddings and they never overheated AT ALL...

So I am surprised that a brand new Einstein would overheat so easily after 30-40 shots at Full power or almost full power.

Thank you so much for your support everyone and have a great day!

The Einstein does have a thermal shut-off feature. It's twice as bright as an AB800 which may contribute. And its modeling lamp is also brighter and hotter. Softboxes don't allow heat to dissipate as quickly as other modifiers either.

You could try opening the back of the softbox to vent it better or you could try a PLM or regular umbrella to help avoid overheating. You could turn most or all of your modeling lamps off or just reduce them to a lower (thus cooler) power setting.

There is a lot more going on in Einstein vs. the Bees, which translates into more heat.

However, 30-40 full power shots does not tell us much. How bright was the model lamp and how long was it running? what was the time it took to fire off 30-40 shots? what modifier were you using and how warm was the ambient temperture?

If the model lamps were set to full, then opening the back vents on a softbox would help allieviate heat buld up, and would not adversely affect the image.

The modeling lamps on the einstein have been the Achilles heel to the product due to the fact that they emit a great deal of heat. If you are using the strobes in softboxes with the modeling lamps at full power, then you will trip the overheat safety mechanism. I'm still hoping that there will be a new bulb in development that outputs the same amount of light but with less heat since heat is what is triggering the thermal shutdown.

next time, try using the modeling lamps at 1/4 or 1/2 power at most. you'll only need them for focusing if you are using it for a photobooth.

Set the model lamps to go out during recycle. If you don't and are shooting fast, particularly in a closed soft box, you are dissipating over 250W from the model lamps and another 300W from the flashtube. If model lamps dim during recycle, you cut the heat in half.

The ambiant temperature was about 25-26 degree
I was in a dark room so Because I was shooting lots of pictures, I didn't want to struggle too much with my autofocus so I put the Model lamps to full and then to half power because I didn't want to have any over heating problem.

I'll be honest, I was touching the Einstein and it didn't seem hot at all.

about the question of what modifier were you using, I don't understand.... must be my english but I didn't put anything on my flash beside the medium format Softbox from PcB.


I have another photoshoot this week-end, I'll try to open the back of the softbox. I will also try to look in the menu and set the model lamps to go out during recycle.... I don't really like this feature because when shooting in dark rooms, people feel uncomfortable when after a shoot, it's dark... This setting was easy to set on AB800 but I couldn't set it up on my last shoot on my Einstein :) I'll check this out today...

For others' benefit, I should clarify this is Celcius and is about 77F


This is my mistake. I missed the softbox statement, and that was what I was looking for.



If you have multiple lights, you can leave some on during recycle, but have others go off. If you are not using CyberCommander, you can scroll to the READY window on the back, and use the adjust up and down arrows until the light bulb icon appears (the music note is optional). In the CC, you can go to SETUP>LIGHT SETTINGS>RECYCLE INDICATOR=MODEL (or BOTH).