E640s

=ReBeL=

=ReBeL=

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Just curious, is there any way of getting Paul C Buff Einstein E640's (and modifiers) in UK without paying double or more for what they sell for in US?
 
Probably not, PCB pulled the plug on their UK importers so there are now no distributors within the UK. I don't think that PCB is too keen on those foreign folks...

And even if you do get them, what are you going to do when/if they go wrong?

There is a way round it, as long as you have the contacts. I know someone who bought a couple, getting a friend in The States to buy them and then getting them picked us from the friend by courier, because this guy was interested in the technology and wanted to know what it was all about, and whether it could be improved upon - which it could. As of now, the real question should perhaps be not "How can I?" but "Why would I want to when there is much better technology already available?"
 
I do have a family living in US but we are not really close enough for me to ask them to buy those lights for me and ship them to UK. I could try to chase it this way, but would prefer to find another way first if I can.

I am just surprised that they are not interested in EU market, but I am sure it is down to money (ie profit)... or lack of it in their case. Maybe they were just not selling enough on this side of Atlantic to worry about EU (and outside of EU), ie different rules and regulations, different languages and currencies, etc.
 
=ReBeL= said:
Apparently freeze motion stopping power of E640s is hard to match.
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Looking at the specifications of both the Lencarta is faster isn't it?

One thing I don't understand about the Superfast are the listed power ranges, the 600 is listed as 7.4 stops for 600 to 1.875 but shouldn't it be something like 9.4?
 
=ReBeL= said:
Apparently freeze motion stopping power of E640s is hard to match.
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Einstein 640 was the first powerful studio-style head to use IGBT technology, giving very short flash durations. There are a few now, including the Lencarta Superfasts and also the rather wonderful battery powered Profoto B1 if you're feeling flush, though you can rent those from Calumet.

I'd say the Superfasts were a good match for Enstein 640, at the very least. I wrote the review for Advanced Photographer magazine and the flash durations are given in the Lencarta blog.
 
simonbarker said:
Looking at the specifications of both the Lencarta is faster isn't it?

One thing I don't understand about the Superfast are the listed power ranges, the 600 is listed as 7.4 stops for 600 to 1.875 but shouldn't it be something like 9.4?
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You're almost right and I was very wrong:) The correct figure is 11.72Ws at min power and I've now corrected it on the webpage, thanks for pointing it out.
 
There is one reviewer who wasn't impressed with flash duration on these heads.

SFs would be ideal in my case as I already have UltraPro's and bunch of modifiers for them so switching over to SFs would be relatively painless (just sell the heads and replace them with SFs), but I am still unsure whether they can really match E640s in freezing motion (especially fast flowing liquid). Spec sheets are one thing and practical experience is another. Shots on Lencarta website in which they freeze liquids are low res and it is hard to judge the performance but I think I can see motion blur there (or maybe it's just my eyes).

A lot of people shooting liquids recommend E640s and I can see good examples of that everywhere. SF's are still relatively new so it is a bit harder to find real life experience reviews around.
 
=ReBeL= said:
There is one reviewer who wasn't impressed with flash duration on these heads.

SFs would be ideal in my case as I already have UltraPro's and bunch of modifiers for them so switching over to SFs would be relatively painless (just sell the heads and replace them with SFs), but I am still unsure whether they can really match E640s in freezing motion (especially fast flowing liquid). Spec sheets are one thing and practical experience is another. Shots on Lencarta website in which they freeze liquids are low res and it is hard to judge the performance but I think I can see motion blur there (or maybe it's just my eyes).

A lot of people shooting liquids recommend E640s and I can see good examples of that everywhere. SF's are still relatively new so it is a bit harder to find real life experience reviews around.
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There was one reviewer who calculated the t.1 flash duration at just 1/5400th, but that was with a very old oscilloscope...
It's virtually impossible to measure the flash duration with an oscilloscope, so as the flash duration change is directly related to the flash power dialled in, and is linear, it isn't hard to calculate that the flash duration at minimum power is 1/36,000th second. We tend to under promise and over perform, so we quote the figure as 1/20,000th. That beats the older technology of the Einstein by a considerable margin, from memory.

The original shots that we took using the SuperFast do show a bit of movement blur, that's because the product was brand new, we only had a couple of heads and had to include a couple of non- SuperFast heads to add rimlighting, and obviously even though they contributed relatively little light, the light that they did contribute did cause a bit of blur. If you want to see those shots at full res you only have to ask, I will happily send them to you via Dropbox.

In this video, the SuperFasts were set to 1/4 power, which resulted in a t.1 flash duration of about 1/3000th sec - enough for the movement involved.
Liquids may or may not require a lower power setting, which produces much shorter flash durations, it all depends on direction of travel and magnification of course.
Bear in mind though that even the SuperFast can't match the flash durations of a hotshoe flash at the very lowest power setting, so a hotshoe flash will always do a better job in that sense, that is, it will if it has enough power.

And bear in mind too that most if not all of the images floating around the web have been heavily photoshopped and may not have started out as sharp as they appear to be in the final image.

And another thing to bear in mind is that there is a 30 day no-quibble returns policy with the SuperFast, so if you buy it and find that it doesn't do what you need it to do you will only have lost the delivery cost.
 
=ReBeL= said:
A lot of people shooting liquids recommend E640s and I can see good examples of that everywhere. SF's are still relatively new so it is a bit harder to find real life experience reviews around.
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I think it's a much more straightforward choice if you're in North America, PCB were years ahead and the pricing along with what appears to be excellent customer service would make it an easy recommendation. Without being in North America though...
 
From what you've said, I doubt that you would be disappointed with the flash durations of the Superfasts. Garry has explained the secondary blurring in some of the blog pics. The method I used for measuring flash durations is as real world as you can get, but as pointed out in the Lencarta blog, it's not totally reliable above 1/8000sec. Scroll down here http://www.lencarta.com/studio-ligh...rfast-flash-heads-from-lencarta/#.U-Ngo00g_FR There are some similar tests on the Einstein done by Rob Galbraith http://www.robgalbraith.com/multi_pagebc37.html?cid=7-10053-10715

If you really need to get into the detail of flash durations, t.5 and t.1 etc and what they actually mean in picture-taking terms, then it can get quite technical and confusing. But if you can try the Lencartas on no-quibble 30-day return, then that's your answer :)
 
Well, I'll have a think about it all. Maybe I'll just buy two SF's first and another two later on. I still need to think about 300 vs 600 problem, 300s might be enough for my needs, but I'd futureproof myself with 600s. Maybe 2 x 300s and 2 x 600s? There is a lot to think about.

Thanks for the replies.

BTW, PCB confirmed that they won't ship outside of US in an email I received today. Pitty
 
=ReBeL= said:
Well, I'll have a think about it all. Maybe I'll just buy two SF's first and another two later on. I still need to think about 300 vs 600 problem, 300s might be enough for my needs, but I'd futureproof myself with 600s. Maybe 2 x 300s and 2 x 600s? There is a lot to think about.

Thanks for the replies.

BTW, PCB confirmed that they won't ship outside of US in an email I received today. Pitty
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The main advantage of the SF600 over the SF300 is it has twice the light output at full power. But when you turn them down, the two heads quickly pull into line and for a given light output the flash durations are the same.
 
HoppyUK said:
The main advantage of the SF600 over the SF300 is it has twice the light output at full power. But when you turn them down, the two heads quickly pull into line and for a given light output the flash durations are the same.
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Yes, the only advantage of the 600 is that it has twice the power when it's at full power, but at full power it doesn't have the benefits of the really short flash durations.
The 600 is very popular because the price difference between the 600 and the 300 is pretty modest, but in reality, very few people really need that much power in a studio anyway.
 
Will there be any problems when using SuperFasts and UltraPros alongside in the same shoot (not action freezing, but normal still shoot)?
 
The UltraPro is the only flash head in our current range that doesn't have a USB connector for our Wavesync remote control/radio trigger system. It can still be used, but you will either have to set the UltraPro to slave or plug an ordinary flash receiver into each of the flash heads.
 
That's should be OK as I can use my YN set of triggers to fire both sets (I take that it should work that way). One thing I also noticed is the difference in colour temperature while going down the power scale. From Lencarta website:

Superfast: 5000 - 5500
UltraPro: 5310-5490

Would this cause problems in product photography where colour temperature accuracy is very important? It could cause some unwanted colour casts if I'm not mistaken.
 
=ReBeL= said:
That's should be OK as I can use my YN set of triggers to fire both sets (I take that it should work that way). One thing I also noticed is the difference in colour temperature while going down the power scale. From Lencarta website:

Superfast: 5000 - 5500
UltraPro: 5310-5490

Would this cause problems in product photography where colour temperature accuracy is very important? It could cause some unwanted colour casts if I'm not mistaken.
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I wouldn't worry about it. Most flash heads vary by at least that much, even the most expensive. It's not serious, and you'll probably get a greater variance using softboxes of different brands.

The SuperFasts are actually very good for colour, while you can't say the same for some other IGBT controlled heads. Does the Einstein still have two modes, one for good colour and the other for fast durations?
 
HoppyUK said:
I wouldn't worry about it. Most flash heads vary by at least that much, even the most expensive. It's not serious, and you'll probably get a greater variance using softboxes of different brands.

The SuperFasts are actually very good for colour, while you can't say the same for some other IGBT controlled heads. Does the Einstein still have two modes, one for good colour and the other for fast durations?
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I believe the E640s do have 2 modes - fast action freeze mode and colour accuracy mode.
 
They do, or at least the early models that we aquired did, don't know whether that has changed or not.

In fast mode, there was a very substantial colour shift, it became increasingly blue as the power was reduced, as you would expect.
In colour mode, the otherwise inevitable shift in colour temperature was balanced by progressively reducing the input voltage, but this created its own problems with flash energy consistency at low power settings, and my guess is that this is the reason why the flash duration figures in colour mode were nothing special.

The SuperFast uses a similar technology to maintain the colour temperature consistency, but without the downsides. AFAIK, and despite some ridiculous claims, other IGBT lights that I've tested have pretty unbelivable colour temperature shift.

Back to the Superfast, there is some fluctuation in flash energy, but only at the very lowest power setting, and it isn't significant. At all other power settings, both my flash meter and my colour temperature meter struggle to record any measurable inconsistency, and if a meter can't record anything then you certainly won't see anything.
 
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