Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have the 86" along with the black rear (Lantern effect or Blocking.) cover. I am going to guess it takes two stands to set up: One to hold the flash onto the ring stand out of the PLM tube, and another to hold the PLM up too so it doesn't bend? I'm hesitant to put the PLM and rear cover hanging off just the chrome attaching ring alone as the entire assembly seems too front heavy.

Putting the flash in the middle of the assembly leaves the hole on the back of the spill fabric cover. Maybe a pie pan for the back over the chrome mounting ring to cover the hole?

Ideas?

Mack

I find that don't need two stands. Just the one 13' stand with a big footprint. I sometimes use the "baby boomer" arm as well.

The wing-bolt connection of the hollow PLM shaft to the cage is always a PITA - it always sags, even with the smaller PLMs, and not just with the 86". That's why I've long since modified all my cages in a way similar to this except that I have the Buff cage instead of the Elinchrom version.

The mod uses a 1 inch long 5/16-24 bolt plus matching nut, plus the lock washer that came with the PLM cage. The bolt is attached to the cage as a permanent fixture. Then to use it, I screw on the appropriate hollow aluminum rod for the size of PLM I want, and I only need to hand tighten it. No sagging.

I usually use a white PLM in bounce mode with a black "convertible" cover and no front diffusion panel. Most recently, I used the 64 inch PLM this way - not because the 86" would have been too heavy, but only because it would have been too BIG for the limited space I had.

With an 86" PLM, you will likely get sagging. This is pretty much inherent, and should not cause any major problems.

Thanks to our top mount umbrella positioning, the PLM and other umbrella sagging is actually an advantage because it brings the PLM pretty much on axis with the flash tube. I use straight 8mm shaft PLMs all the time and find no compromise over the speed ring mount PLMs.