Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hello,
First of all, I am a big fan of the Einstein unit. I own four, and I tell every photographer I know that there is no better bang for the buck on the market.

My one complaint, if I had to come up with one, is the lack of a handle in the rear/upper portion of the unit. It can be somewhat difficult to get enough of a grip on the unit to raise the angle, especially when there is a large light modifier on the front. the tendency is then to support the underside of the front of the unit, where there can be very hot components. A handle, even a small, low-profile one would make it much easier. Lights which have a handle that is flat across the back, are also useful when the light is positioned on the ground, pointed up. It supports the unit and protects the buttons from contact.

It would also be great if the e640 units had a physical toggle switch (or even a dedicated button) to turn the modelling lights on and off. Many light heads have this feature, and it is very helpful. sometimes flipping a modelling switch on and off is the easiest way to figure out which light is responsible for some unwanted highlight. the software based control of the modelling lights on the e640 is nice, but it requires clicking through several options in order to simply turn them on and off. a separate physical control that would turn them on and off would be great in addition to the software controls that determine how they behave when on.

I would also like to request the development of a "flashbox" as a modifier. these are usually solid boxes with a plexiglass front. the light is diffused internally so there is perfectly even illumination accross the front. The even lighting and crisp edges are an important part of still life photography, and It should be possible to bring one to the market for a reasonable price. The design isn't terribly complicated, and it should be possibly to make it workable as an attachment to existing lights, rather than requiring a built in flash tube and modelling light. Although some exist as a dedicated light head.

Here are some examples of what I have found on the market now:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/8 ... _12_x.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... Stand.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/6 ... phead.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/3 ... ftbox.html

Thanks for the great lighting!
-Russ Heller

The boxes you linked are for pack and head systems, and are hugely over priced and have no mounting means that I can see,

For a simply box like this to work, it takes more than just a box with a plexiglass front. Evenness of the face comes for either well designed light-directing mechanism in the box, or from a white interior and opaques white plexiglass so dense it only transmits about 1/8 of the light out the front (inefficient).

If you want a box like this, I suggest - well - building a box out of plywood, with a 1/8" inch thick masonite back with a 3 1/2 hole in the middle (to hold an AB or Einstein), paint it all white inside, and get a sheet of 12.5% transmission white plexiglass on the front, and fire away.

And it won't cost $1000+

Or - buy an OMNI 18" reflector with its triple diffuser and put a square black mask in front of it. I designed the OMNI with extreme care to evenly direct the light rays very evenly across the face. If you want the gloss look of plexi, use a sheet of the same white plexi in place of the triple diffuser and you'll have it.

We couldn't make money manufacturing something like this, and shipping would cost a fortune.

Thanks for the reply, Luap.

I agree that they are overpriced, but they are not nearly as complicated as you suggest. I have personally disassembled and inspected the design of all but the hensel model.

Both the Broncolor Picobox and the Profoto Probox are designed to receive a head via their standard mount. You could put a probox on a pack-based head, or a monolight just as easily.

The design of all of them is essentially a box made of 1/8" white acrylic, with some internal piece of metal to block direct light on the face (similar to a beauty dish). The probox also has 4 triangular pieces of white plexi in the rear corners to bounce the light forward around the metal disc. The entire unit is held together by a very thin sheet of metal. It is quite simple, and much lighter than anything made of plywood could be.

The Broncolor Boxlight is similar in overall construction, but it has two internal linear flashtubes, spaced at 1/3 intervals with a small strip of thin metal in front of each one so the light is directed every way except forward. I imagine Hensel use a similar design for their model.

The Omni solution you suggest would not work for how these lights are used. It isn't just an even square (actually rectangular) face that is desired, it is the small size so it can be placed near a tabletop set to produce specular highlights in the product. Since the goal is creating specular highlight quality and not diffuse illumination, there is room for a little inefficiency. In my experience though, the power lost is not significantly worse than other popular modifiers. It helps that they are small. The round edges of an Omni would also be obstructive because these lights are sometimes placed right on the table surface. You can see an example of that in the video here: http://bit.ly/XU87lb

As for the cost of shipping... The profoto unit weighs only 5.6 lbs, including the bulky light mount. The Picobox, which is physically a little smaller, weighs only 1.87 lbs. Neither one is particularly fragile.

Speaking on behalf of product photographers, there is quite a market for these. I have assisted in many studios who have bought a whole broncolor pack, pico head and a picobox, just to have access to this essential type of modifier.

That said, I would be much happier to see attention devoted to a handle and/or a modelling light switch on the e640, so I don't want to derail that conversation. I just figured if there is any company that can produce a well-engineered, simple modifier for far less that the overpriced competitors, it is you guys.

-Russ

Weight isn't the determinant of shipping cost - it's "dimensional weight". determined by the size of the shipping box. I've thought of this type of light source for years, and get the advantages of the seamless shape.

Guess it might be made foldable. What size do you envision?

I have used a few. the Probox, which is 8"x12" on the face and about 8" deep. The Picobox is about 6"x10"x7"deep. Both are useful sizes. The Hensel and Bron ones with internal flashtubes are larger, and IMO, those sizes are less practical. I'm not sure if one of these could be made foldable and still retain the stability when in use. But maybe you can find a way.

Also, I realized I took some photos when I was looking at the insides of these things a while back. I had hoped to be able to build one myself but I eventually decided that it was a little beyond my engineering skills. I won't post them here, but if you would be interested in having a look, feel free to send me an email and I'll pass them on.

i second the request for a hard-stop on the modeling light. In my case, when I shoot on location I'm always very careful to set my cybercommander so that the modeling light is "off" since I'm running off a VML mini. However, my CC is merely a remote control. I use the regular transmitter on the camera to do the triggering.

What happened on a recent shoot is that one of my assistants accidentally turned an einstein's modeling lamp on. I was shooting for about an hour without having touched the cyber. Had I touched the cyber, it would have turned the lamp back off but because I wasn't using the cyber, the current draw from the modeling light overheated the battery and it's thermal circuit kicked in, turning off the light and leaving me with minimal power left in the battery.

I have since started pulling the modeling light prior to location shooting but I'd much rather just engage a hard-switch.

Sure . . . send them to <paul>info @ paulcbuff.com

Note - I broke the email link to keep spam bots away - take out the spaces around "@"

Hey Rush, I would like to see the photos, I might build one. :)

First of all let me say I have not personally worked with a ProBox, but I have worked with many other light modifiers over my 50+ years as a pro photographer.

With that said, what is the real working difference between a ProBox and a small softbox from a company such as Chimera, Paul Buff or other quality manufacturers?

It would seem to me if a small folding softbox had two layers of diffusion (one internally and one on the face) that the effect would be the same as a ProBox. This would be especially true if the softbox had a lip around the face so the front diffuser is set a bit inside by 1/2 inch or so.

The reason I ask is because I just read the manufacturer's description of the ProBox and they say the illumination is even across the face of the unit and the edge is sharply defined. Well, if a softbox had an inset front would the edge not also be sharply defined?

Another advantage of having a recessed face is one could attach an eggcrate (grid) to the front thereby creating a very directional light. (I own an eggcrate for my 60x60 inch Chimera softbox.)

So, since PCB already offers a 24x36" folding softbox that offers double diffusion and the ability to accept grids, why not simply use that?

Terry Thomas...
the photographer
Atlanta, Georgia USA