Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Does anyone else have the problem of the largest OCTA and the largest softbox coming off your bee when you move or adjust the position? I have a newer B1600 and a B800 and if I sometimes move the light stand the modifier will fall off the bee, very disruptive to my shoot. Tech support had mee send in the B800 to check the mount, but I don't think that is the issue since it happens on my newer B1600. Thank you, Tom Winter

Are you 100% positive all four fingers are within the speedring?

yes, I should have included that in the post. I just mounted the two together after I posted, of course the grip seems tight, but with a little effort or a bump of the octa against something, it comes off. The real life situation is if I pick up my c-stand and move the whole unit, it tends to shake a bit, it's at that time it may come off. Of if you bump the box against something it can come off. It seems to bee the vertical axis that is the week spot, specifically if you one was to raise the softbox and it bumped something, that force on the top fingers would cause it to come off.

If all four fingers were within the speedring, and the ring was seated properly, then it sounds like the springs may be out of spec. In which case, following the suggestions given on the phone for repair would again be reccommended.

Thank you, the B800 I sent in for repair already, the B1600 is new, which was the one I was using yesterday during a job when the octa fell off. I will wait until I get the B800 back after repair to see if the problem persists.

Tom

Tom.
Hello. Are the speedrings made by PCB? if you are using PCB speedrings then I don't know what the problem is. Sorry. If they are not made by PCB this might help.

The reason I ask is I have a 5ft Octabox that fits and stays put on the Einstein only when I use a PCB made speedring. I have 3 other speedrings (2 are Balcar, don't know who made the other) that won't hold the 5 footer with any certainty. It will fall off if it gets moved around much.

The PCB speedring fits over and outside the screws that sit on the front of the Einstein. On the others the screws interfere with the speedring so that it doesn't sit flat against the front of the strobe. This doesn't let the "fingers" get their full grip. If the Alien Bees are the same this might be the problem.

I only have Einstein units. I don't think I've ever seen an Alien Bee so I don't know if they are identical up front or not.

The Einstein v2 is said to correct this.

Bill F

Bill,
The Bees do not have these screws, as they are for the glass dome holders, and yes teh version 2 will correct this.

However, should the softboxes not be ours, they could exceed our 25 inch pound overhung tourque limit.

Any idea how a user could easily measure this? I have several large modifiers I wish to put on my V2 Einsteins.

If you wanted to take a swag at it you could weigh the modifier to get the pounds part. Then guesstimate where the modifier's center of mass is and the distance from the center of mass to the flash face plate. Then multiple this distance (inches) by the weight (pounds) to get the inch-pounds. There are other, more accurate ways to actually measure it but this would give you the ballpark number pretty quickly.

Thanks, I'll use the method you suggested. :)