Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I've done a quick search but could not quite figure this out. On occasion, I need to shoot at 10fps, and am trying to figure out what the max settings of the Einstein, Alien Bee 800, and White Lightings can be so that will avoid overheating with the most light. How long can this rate be maintained (1 sec, 2 sec, etc). I don't use modeling lights when in this mode. Thanks!

Info on Einstein from another post. http://www.paulcbuff-techforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4276

RMS

For 10fps, you are looking at about 40Ws with Einstein. Probably 20-30Ws with AlienBees and WhiteLightning.

This also assumes you are using an AC mains outlet. The power settings would be significantly lower with a VML.

Tech support: Thanks for the info....any idea on the duration, i.e. more than 2 seconds? If I slightly exceed the parameters will the units trip before any damage is done?

RMS956:

Thanks! I did see this post and noticed the part:

"At 1/16 power, Einstein™ can fire with a motor drive camera at 8 frames per second, 4fps at 1/8 power, 2fps at 1/4 power, etc. "

Anyway to verify these rates and for how long and is there a formula based on watt seconds recycle rates?

Thanks!

As long as you are not trying to exceed the recycle rate greatly, you can shoot for a couple of minutes without damage.

As for what the recycle rate is, a loose way to determine that is by the 1.7s recycle time to 640Ws.

640/1.7=376Ws per second. Divide this by the number of shots per second you will be shooting, and that will roughly be your power setting.

So, 376Ws/s divided by 10FPS= 37.6Ws.

Or, if you know what power you need (in Ws), you can figure out how many (roughly) frames per second you can shoot. Lets say you need 1/8 power, this is 80Ws.

So, 376Ws/s divided by 80Ws=4.7.

Again, these are rough numbers and probably a little conservative. So, you can eek out a little faster frame rate than the math shows.

Perfect...just what I was looking for. Thanks!