Zach Sutton Photography

Announced years ago, was a product entitled “Einsteins” which was designed to be the future of Paul C Buff Studio strobes. They have been delayed, renamed to AB Max’s, and back to Einsteins. Well the future is here folks, preorders were taken, and are now being delivered. I’m proud to say, I was among the first on that pre-order list, and have received my Einstein studio strobes. Vaporware no more, they’re here, they’re real, and they’re impressive.

Let me start this review by saying I probably have the most love hate relationship with Paul C Buff products. If you follow me on twitter (@ZSuttonPhoto) you’ll know the issues I’ve had with their products in the past. I’m sworn off Alien Bee equipment, I’ve praised Alien Bee equipment, and all in all, decided to continue using Alien Bee equipment.

Features

This first thing I noticed about the Einstein lights is that they are actually slightly larger than a standard AlienBees light. The build feels better than the AlienBees lights, but still not as study as a Profoto, or even a White Lighting unit. The nicest feature cosmetically is the name plates. They are no longer stickers, that fall off after moderate use, but rather plastic plates recessed into the body themselves. I often grabbed my AB400 previously, when trying to grab a AB800, only because they both were the same color, and missing the stickers on the side noting their power rating. A small issue, but an issue nonetheless, and its great to see them fix that.

The one awful feature that Alien Bee strobes have had was putting the slave “eye” in the back of the unit. It has caused me to virtually kick and scream, cry, and sell lights in the past (sorry ringflash, I just couldn’t take it anymore). They have now put the slave feature on the top of the unit, which should provide a more sensitive trigger when firing the strobe optically.

Another difference you’ll notice about the new Einstein lights is the front elements, particularly the bulb itself and the mounting brackets. Not only do they have a new switch design, but the brackets themselves are beefier, and seem to hold up alot better when attaching a larger modifier. Often I would have even just a beauty dish on an AlienBee strobe and actually seeing the stress applied on the brackets of an AlienBee light. Well, I’ve already attached a Beauty dish to the Einstein lighting system, and I can say that the beauty dish fit securely, snugly and without and issues whatsoever. Just a little added comfort when playing with heavy modifiers.

The light is now protected by a frosted glass dome. Though its glass, so still fragile, its actual design it to block UV ray from being transmitted from the light itself. So not only will this dome protect your lights, but it’ll protect your subject from getting a nice tan too (har har har).

The other changes include of course, a 250 watt modeling lamp, digital display, plug in play feature for CyberSync Receivers, 120v/240v support, color correction mode/action mode, and slave feature toggle functions.

The backside of this light surely isn’t lacking features either.  They have removed many of the ports on the back, allowing the 1/8″ plug to be used to sync, aswell as ofcourse the CSXCV Transceiver port on the top.  The display is very bright, and very easy to use. Many Cyber Commander users (myself included) often complained on the complexity of setting up the lights on it. I’m happy to say that Paul C Buff has fixed that issue with these lights. The buttons are large, the menu is simple, and changing settings is a breeze.

By far, my favorite feature is the diagnostics screen. Not only does this screen show you your temperature levels of both the flash bulb and the unit itself , but it also shows you the total amount of flashes your unit has had in its life. Not only is this helpful when checking to see if you’ll need new bulbs soon, but it’s also helpful in the used market, as knowing the usage of a light was virtually impossible until now.

Another great feature is the global plug and play outlet.  This allows the same lights to be used anywhere in the world, without having to buy a converter plug for them.  Prior to now, you’d have to either run your light off of a converter box, or use a Vagabond if outside of the states.  This will be very handy for when Vogue finds me and decides to fly me out to shoot in Paris for a weekend or two.

Testing

Afterall, this is what matters, right? The nice feature of this light is that they come with two different settings, Color Mode, and Action Mode. Color mode, is designed to put out the most consistent lighting possible, providing an accurate depiction of whats going on, flash after flash. Action mode, enables your recycle times to improve for the unit, while losing some of the consistency of the power and color. As many know, AlienBees have always had an issue of casting a “pinkish” tint when shooting at lower power settings. I decided to do a test with the strobes, an AB800, an Einstein in Color mode, and an Einstein in Action Mode.

The biggest difference between the AB800 and the Einstein was not the color contrast, but rather, the light output. I noticed a huge improvement in consistency coming from the Einstein compared to the AB800. The Action mode was able to fire faster, and recycle faster, but I found a blue tint in the images when shooting in Action mode at lower power settings, something a sports photographer would be able to quickly fix in post processing.  All images posted below are shot with a Canon 5dmkII in manual mode, with a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lens and a white balance setting of Flash.

CSXCV Transceiver

The first thing I noticed about these were how small they were. AlienBees CyberSync system is already one of the smallest trigger systems available (especially compared to a PocketWizard system) and they’ve managed to make them even smaller. My biggest concern with these are ofcourse the male connection part. There is no protection to them whatsoever, and I can see myself breaking a couple of these, even during casual use. On the flip side though, when plugged into the top of the unit, they feel very secure. I’ve fired a hundred or so shots with them using my Cyber Commander with no misfires whatsoever. They seem to be a very well built alternative to the CSR system already made by Paul C Buff. A quarter was used in the picture on the right to show perspective.

Results

Am I satisfied? Absolutely. At a price point under 500 dollars (439.95 USD), these lights cannot be beat! They function well, and Paul C Buff has seemed to improve on the already great design of the AlienBee system. I highly recommend the upgrade to anyone who is currently using an AlienBee system and looking for a nice little upgrade. The digital display makes using these lights even easier, and the added support in the mounting brackets will only help you rest easy when using a larger modifier.

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