Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

This is mainly a warning to those ordering this item right now or around this time. I believe their manufacturing specifications are off, i.e. the rings I ordered from two separate places (B&H and Adorama) both do not fit my Einsteins (ring is too large). I have ordered this exact same ring about a year ago and it fit perfectly. I have emailed Elinchrom US about this, but I have a feeling I won't be reaching resolution any time soon.

If there are any staff reading this, would it be possible to contact Elinchrom and confirm the manuf. specs with them? Links to photos (via Flickr) of the old and new ring are below. Note the measurements.

Old ring which fits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianpoon/11230987523/

New ring which is too big:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianpoon/11230910736/

Wow. That's over a 1/4" of difference!

We do not really have communications between us and other lighting manufacturers, so I would not expect us to update them on the specifications.

The proper diameter for all BUFF/Balcar lights is 3 1/2", so indeed the new ring is too big.

I don't know that we would have any better luck contacting Elinchrom than you have had.

You might look at Kacey http://www.kaceyenterprises.com/?page_id=481

Thanks for the quick replies. I have sent them another message with a link to this post and hope to update with good news soon.

Today, Tech support confirmed they have a defect in their current line of rings. R&D over in Switzerland and the US Brand manager have been notified. I hope to hear back from them by Monday.

From the email I received...

"I have forwarded your images to R & D in Switzerland, and their conclusion is the same as mine was. That being, the rings you have ordered were not actually designed for Alien bee flashes. They were made for Hensel.

In other words, the packaging for these rings was mislabeled in the factory, so Hensel rings were mismarked as being for Balcar/Whitelightning/Alien Bee.

We now need to pull our inventory of both Hensel & Alien bee adapters to find out what we truly have, and get the packaging marked correctly."

Gee, I guess we're not the only company that makes mistakes now and then. We ship out close to 1000 packages per day.