Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I am curious, is there any advantage the White Lightning X1600 has over the Einstein E640's besides the extra 20ws? It seems like the Einstein is a superior flash in all aspects and only costing $60 more. I feel like I'm missing something...

The White Lightnings come with a 5 year warranty and a 7" reflector. Einstein has a 2 yr warranty and no included reflector. Otherwise, Einstein is a better flash unit in every way. If you want to add Cyber Commander, or even standard CyberSyncs, the price difference draws even closer.

Even though the WS are similar, do they put out the same amount of light? I know some times there can be variations depending on reflectors and such. Also, is there any use case you would say the White Lightenings are better than the Einsteins?

Honestly there is no contest unless you intend to drive a truck over them, in which case the WL wins. The only other possible advantage for the WL is it is a much less complex design, and lower complexity always results in greater overall reliability because there are fewer parts. By this standard, a Flashpoint probably has a better MTBF than a $15,000 Scoro system, though I don't have statistics.

20Ws of light added to 640Ws is only 3% more energy. Assuming equal effeciency, that is still 1/3 of 1/10 of a stop, so they are identical in output. Any variations in reflectors would be the same, as each use the same reflector choices.

Thanks for the info guys!

The WL definitely wins in two categories

1) fingers /accessory mount - large modifiers won't fall off
2) more vertical rotation with modifiers, particularly a beauty dish