Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Been getting hit with a lot of Profoto B1 stuff of late in both snail-mail and email. Webinars too. Interesting setup, and compact too since the battery is built in. Okay, despite some issues like "Can't run off AC in studio."

The current 640 is a bit weak for me in the desert with a modifier. Something around a 1000-1200 would be better. Maybe a "Protect head" like the B1 offers to keep the tubes from getting busted due to wind issues and stuff blowing around. I need to use the old Ultra 1200 or 1800 at times in the bright sunlight with a box.

i-TTL too! Okay, maybe an amber LCD screen or B&W so I can see the CyberCommander screen in the bright sunlight too. Use the Vagabond mini-battery too?

Thx.

Your suggestion has been noted.

However, a 1000Ws light with a built in battery would be massive, especially a VML battery. The X3200 is already 15" long and 7lbs without a battery.

Also, any TTL is unlikely, as it is a moving target as new cameras and new firmware is introduced. Multiply that by at least two companies (with others making waves, if not coming on strong), and even then, with multiple protocols within them.

You're asking for three years of development time and hundreds of thousands of $.

Our experience shows that mono lights over 640Ws don't sell well - too specialized. Most popular lights are 320Ws.

So not likely. Sorry.

What about going the other way? What would the price of a 2.5 to 320 Ws "Einstein Jr" be like?

If it would be something like "half the power for 90% of the price" then well, not worth doing. But half the power for 65% or even 75% of the price would be worth at least thinking about.

We are working on ideas for a lower cost, simplified Einstein™, but product development takes around one year, so nothing imminent.

I'd be very interested in this. i have 5 Einsteins but find them a bit heavy when up on a boom stand above the model. I've considered getting an AB400 or 800 for that purpose but I'd rather get a smaller/lighter einstein.

Einstein E640 is about as small and light weight as a 640WS light can be made. AB 400s are considerably lighter because they have only 1/4 the flash capacitors.

Profoto B500 weighs about twice what an E640 weighs BTW.

While we're wishing, are there any plans in the works for an Einstein in a white lightning housing?

Thanks,
Eric

WHY?

;)

I don't know what size is practical, but I'd love to have a studio strobe with a built-in lithium battery. I carry the VML/Einstein combo and wonder... why convert to AC and back again?

I just tried one of the Godox V850 speedlights with built-in lithium... pretty impressive performance. I don't care for their Quantum-clone 180 and 360 w/s models, they're still a 2-piece system. But if somehow you could get the power of 4 speedlights into a package that was 4 times as big, then it would be a pretty useful tool, especially if it had a real speedring mount.