Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Does this look normal to any of you? https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bzwqrsg2tbib ... 7Wv3WCwwVa

Run through the images and see how the output is pretty all over the place. The images are all out of camera. Just bought it used and wondering if I should go after the guy for my money back. It has streaks of being fairly consistent, and its very usable at 1/4 power and up but other than that I find it pretty unacceptable.

Anybody had this experience? I've heard they can be inconsistent but I need to know if they can be THIS inconsistent without being considered defective.

Thanks!

How fast are you firing? At low powers, the unit has to overcharge, then discharge some power. When the unit discharges, the red DUMP light comes on. When the unit has achieved the proper charge, the green READY light will come on.

If you are shooting in continuous, you may not be giving the light time to "settle".

Thanks for your reply. I spent a good while on the phone with Joe in repairs (super nice guy, btw) and we checked for that. After firing a good thirty shots every 2 seconds at 1/32 power I only saw the dump light go on once, whereas the output was inconsistent regardless. In addition to this, I checked the metadata on the shots I posted above and saw that on average I was shooting 2-6 seconds apart, with no noticeable correlation between rests between shots and output consistency. One of the biggest jumps in power came after a 9 second gap between shots, for example.

The unit is 9 years old I discovered after giving the serial no. to you guys, so there's that. There's also a labouring of the fan inside that comes and goes that's making me nervous, but is obviously a separate issue, just something I guess I'd like to hear your opinion on. I'm leaning towards asking for my money back, except for the fact that I'd be more or less lightless until I find another b400 used.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks again!

It is possible it could be a bad flash capacitor. 9 years and unknown storage/use conditions can lead to this. The testing conditions you describe should yield a stable flash output from shot to shot. These lights can be repaired, typically about $40, but can be re-estimated and shipping may or may not be included, depending on locale.