Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

It seems inevitable, every time someone asks about AlienBees you get so-called experts chiming in with remarks like "they get a magenta cast below 1/8 power", "they have exposure issues when below 1/16th power" or "the white balance shifts from shot to shot when used below (insert power level here)".

Now, I'm well aware that voltage controlled lights like the AlienBees will shift WB as you power them down. This is a normal and expected behavior, and easily controlled if you understand white balance, and balance your key light and fill/accent lights appropriately (like using a 800 as key, 400 as fill so as to keep the power sliders near each other, so to speak).

Is there ANY merit to the statements that an AB below a certain power level will shift WB or vary in exposure from shot to shot at the same power level if nothing has changed? I'm not talking about the difference between full power and 1/32nd power. I'm talking about a series of shots done at the same low power level these people claim an AlienBee has problems with.

I own White Lightning, not AlienBee, but am considering getting some in the future.
If I believe all of the "problems" I have read about on various boards, I should expect an AlienBee to magically get a magenta cast below a certain power level, expect inconsistent white balance from shot to shot when below a certain power level, and expect slight exposure variations from shot to shot when below a certain power level.......which doesn't really seem accurate to me.

Can Paul or someone shed some light onto this? Have you guys done tests to prove or disprove these statements?

In short, you should expect the same performance from the Bee, in this regard, as you get from the White Lightning.

First, you can't get just a white balance shift. Since voltage (power), white balance, and flash duration are all intertwined, a shift in white balance would need to be accompanied by a shift in power. What I usually find when talking to customers who have WB variances is that they are set to Auto White Balance. The images do, in fact, come out as different colors, and for some reason the lights get blamed.

The flaw in this logic is if the camera was perfect in its AWB adjustment, then it would compensate perfectly regardless of what the light did, and the user would be none the wiser. What is actually happening is the camera registers the scene a little differently as composition changes (even minutely). Sometimes it considers more of the yellow back drop, and sometimes more of the red shirt. With consistent or inconsistent color, one will get variances in color cast. To eleminate the camera's shift, you will need to set to a specific white balance. Even if it is wrong, a specific white balance will yeild a consistent color balance, and maintain it from shot to shot.

As for exposure, first, there are those who fire at a pace faster than the lights can recycle. This can happen at pretty much any power setting, but is usually more of a problem as the power increases. Beyond that, a properly functioning light will be quite consistent from shot to shot.

Paul and the staff here have done hundreds of tests on these products as well as competitors, and the results are consistent. You will get color shift as you alter power in the lights (assuming voltage control) at about 80K per stop, regardless of brand. Otherwise our products are consistent in temperature and output.

Also, please visit this link:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1454

Thanks for the info. It's quite sad that this incorrect information is SO dominant out there.

Profoto D1 or Compact shifts color more with power adjustment than AB or WL. Elinchrom RX600 shifts exactly the same as do essentially all other monolights. But these people don't want to talk about that.

If you don't want that power VS color shift, you have two choices Broncolor Scoro/Grafit (about $15,000 with heads) or Einstein. (Or a capacitor switching power pack like Zeus or Dynalite.