Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I agree, if you use the right people in China, you can get a reliable, and quality product. That said, it may take some time to get things on track when first setting up a vendor like that. There is nothing like someone that is local, and within one to 3 hours time difference. We eventually got good product out of China, you just have to be very good at communicating, and not drawing an explanation out. If you can say something in as few words as possible, the better.

We felt that the turn around time was not that great on PC boards, and did a lot of them locally, until the China CM could get up to speed. We used Maverick Technologies out of Oklahoma City (they would even hand deliver our orders, from over 100 miles away). We were also impressed with S&Y, but I think at the time, we wanted the closest company to us.

Our boards were also a mixture of SMT and TH parts, which presented a challenge in China, but it seems to be working out well now, even though I am no longer with that company.

Russell made a great point too, dealing with China holidays is difficult, because they are almost never during US holidays, so you have twice the number of days that people are not working. Along with the high turnover rate that he mentioned. Most of the professional people are still around, but a lot of the labor force just quits for some reason, so you have to retrain people...

Good news on Einstein. I used to be a PCB designer in my other life (low and high volume) and I have never seen a production unit ship at "Rev. A," so you are not alone on this.

Luap, this product should blow people's minds for sure and maintain your industry status as the most brilliant (no pun intended) designer in the photo industry in the last quarter century.

In looking at the rendering, the protection cap appears as translucent plastic. If that's the case, the ability to use it as a bare bulb, hemispherical diffuser out of the box would be very cool indeed!!

The diffuser is real frosted Pyrex. Between it and the absolute same position of modeling and flash it's a joy - the patterns are always identical and it irons out any anomalies in reflectors, etc. and makes putting accessories on a joy. Plus it doesn't eat a bit of light and acts as a secondary UV filter so the color balance comes out really clean on the RG axis.

I've been using pre-production Einstein for a few days and I love it. The power supply is great - I took it down to -7.5f stops with no IGBT action (mimicking an AB with 2.5 more stops) and it didn't budge from f1.4 +1/10 shot after shot after shot. Solid as granite.

Keep the updates coming Paul.

Sorry you had to spend your Christmas testing but I would be willing to be you are having a lot more fun than most of us :)

Thanks
Russell

"the patterns are always identical and it irons out any anomalies in reflectors, etc. and makes putting accessories on a joy"

Although I cant say that I ever had an issue with modeling light and flash not jiving, sometimes I worries I could snag the flash tube with speed ring.... all these little details are really starting to ad up to what sounds like a great light.

Being the nice guy that I am I worry you are working to hard, so feel free to send me a set and I will test them for the next 5 years or so... and at no charge!

+1 on that. I'll send you an email with my address. Got a nice background support system from the wife for Christmas, waiting on a white muslin from Denny Mfg (why does white still have a waiting period, I'm confused-2 weeks!), and then I will just be waiting to buy a couple of these guys and a Cyber Commander, and I'll be ready to start trying my hand at studio work. Can't wait.

That is amazing. Shooting at f1.4. Do you have all the lights off in the studio as well (except for modeling lights)? That is impressive, because there are often times I would want to shoot at something other than f5.6 or f8, to get the proper DOF I am after, especially on product shots.

This was at 4WS with high output reflector at 7'. It goes down to 2.5WS, with no color shift and very fast flash durations.

I called your sales people today, thier only suggestion was to buy 1600's and just return them soon as the einstiens are orderable, not the greatest problem solving skills.

Having a slight bit of integrity, I can't do this. So in the end very hard to spend money with your company.

OH well,

Dear Gary

That's interesting. I've never thought about using a studio strobe for photographing hummers.

--Jaddie