Douglas Hofstader has a talk on this topic called "Albert Einstein on Light; Light on Albert Einstein" that I often revisit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePA1zq56J1I (watch 10:30 to 12:00 if you're pressed for time, but I recommend the whole thing)
Indeed. I recommend also checking out the 2nd volume of Einstein's collected papers. There is one with the proceedings from a conference on the subject, and Einstein is basically alone in trying to convince his peers, including Planck, of the reality of "quanta" of light, independent of the process of emission and absorption or mathematical tricks.
