<> {{{#!wiki note '''[[/gear| List of available gear]]''' }}} = Paul C. Buff gear = This page is mostly about the Buff range of gear. If you want to browse their wares, do yourself a favour and '''use the [[http://paulcbuff.com/| US homepage]]'''. When it comes to purchase time, you have the fun of dealing with the [[https://paulcbuff.com.au/cms/| Australian homepage]], which will drive you batty. * Site can be a bit slow * CMS/commerce system is a free off-the-shelf thing with haphazard theming * Product listings are really fugly * Actual product pages contain almost no information Nice people running it though. == On buying locally == * Very expensive <> (note that this doesn't take into account non-parity between the currencies) {{{{#!wiki seesaw intl_pricing_comparison * AU$710 vs US$500 for an E640 * AU$400 vs US$240 for the Vagabond * AU$172 vs US$90 for a spare vagabond battery * AU$70 vs US$30 for the CSXCV transceiver module * AU$277 vs US$180 for the Cyber Commander transmitter }}}} * Monsieur Buff has a very thorough [[http://paulcbuff.com/faq.php#international| explanation for the differences in price]] * Warranty * Quick shipping = Reviews = This is a list of sub-pages: <> = Buying lights 2011-08-04 = So I wanted some studio strobes. <> {{{{#!wiki seesaw buying_lights I considered a few brands: * Elinchrom * Glanz (cheapies) * Paul C. Buff Buff makes the Alienbees series, which might be a more familiar name to some. They look to be a little cheaper than Elinchrom, should be at least on par in terms of product quality, and the company sounds like they're really smart, switched-on people. There are some other big brands out there like Bowens, Profoto and Multiblitz. They're hella-expensive though. The Buff gear looks like the way to go. They have a local distributor, but their markups are kinda... bad. The US store won't sell here though. Get the lights locally and procure the accessories some other way? Maybe? || '''Item''' || '''US''' || '''Local''' || || lights || 500 || 700 || || stands || 40 || 74 || || brollys || 30 || 66 || || reflectors || 15 || 38 || || grid || 25 || 57 || || receivers || 30 || 54 || || commander || 180 || 260 || || carry bags? || 13 || ?? || Popped an order in, 2011-08-02. Website is... not impressive. Two timeout errors about being unable to contact the payment provider before finally succeeding, and a blank section where it's meant to say "A confirmation email was sent to the address: " Tried again on 2011-08-03, after giving them a call. They confirmed my suspicion that the website was having issues yesterday, I feel much better now. Placed the order again, no hassles this time. \o/ || 2x || Einstein || E640 || $699.00 each || 1398.01 || || 2x || 7" reflector || 7AB/R || $37.40 each || 74.80 || || 1x || 10-degree honeycomb grid || HG10 || $57.20 each || 57.20 || |||| Shipping || || || 70.00 || |||| Package discount || || || -30.60 || |||| '''Total''' || || || '''1569.41''' || }}}} = Remote triggering and power 2011-09-06 = The lights are pretty cool, but using a PC sync cable sucks big time, and optical slaving is less than ideal. Remote power control would be nice too. <> {{{{#!wiki seesaw buying_triggers The Buff range of gear uses a triggering system of their own creation named ''Cybersync''. It's pretty badass. * Centralised control from a single commander device * Up to 16 individually addressable channels (lights, or groups if you're using 1st-gen gear that does unidirectional communication) * Built-in flashmeter in the commander * Total control of all features of 2nd-gen lights (the Einstein model) * Status feedback from 2nd-gen lights (eg. ready/non-ready charge status) Another cool thing about Buff is that they have portable power solutions. That are actually portable. And pretty affordable too. So an order went in. || 1x || Cyber Commander || COMMANDER || $266.20 each || 266.20 || || 2x || Cybersync CSXCV || CSXCV || $53.90 each || 107.80 || || 1x || Vagabond Mini || HG10 || $399.00 each || 399.00 || |||| Shipping || || || 88.48 || |||| Coupon discount || || || -38.65 || |||| '''Total''' || || || '''822.83''' || }}}}