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[OM] Re: This morning's Cameta list

Subject: [OM] Re: This morning's Cameta list
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 21:50:48 -0400
Sorry, I don't know anything about radio control of TTL flash.  Nikon 
and Canon offer "wireless" control of multiple TTL capable flash units 
and the ability to control the lighting ratios between them but I think 
the control is infrared and not radio.  But I could be wrong.  I just 
don't pay much attention to that high priced stuff.

Apart from my four Alien Bee B800's ($279 each) I'm the epitome of cheap 
when it comes to flash and flash control.  What allows you to do that is 
a flash meter.  I use a Sekonic L-358.  I haven't made a single TTL shot 
since I got the flash meter.  For that matter I use the incident mode in 
the meter for most of my natural light stuff as well.  The camera's 
meter rarely gets used.  As I commented the other day I have a Canon 5D 
which has a spot meter.  I've owned the camera since early summer and 
the spot meter has never been turned on.

I do sometimes use on-camera flash units in normal auto mode when 
shooting digital.  I like to use two flashes with one in the hot shoe 
and the other on a bracket.  You can put both flashes in auto mode, do a 
test shot and then adjust the ISO levels on each flash unit individually 
to control the output.  I use the hotshoe flash to illuminate the 
subject and the bracket mounted flash to illiminate the room.

When shooting events such as this night time wedding reception in a tent
<http://www.chucknorcutt.com/party.php> I use two to four of the studio 
lights as "room lights".  I try to set up the lights to provide (as 
closely as I can) an overall background illimination of f/5.6 at ISO 
400.  I then set my camera mounted flash on a bracket and set it 
manually for a good f/8 manual exposure at a particular distance 
considering also the extra light from the room lights.  The idea is to 
properly expose the important foreground subject at about f/8 and leave 
the background at f/5.6 so that it recedes in brightness but doesn't 
look like the inside of a dark tunnel.  In addition I tend to use a long 
shutter speed in order to pick up the incandescent lights in the room. 
The party shot was taken at 1/4 second and you can see some subject 
motion if you look closely at, for example, finger tips.  At much less 
than 1/4 second the lights lining the inside of the tent would have 
disappeared since they're much less bright than the flash.

Anyhow, back to the radio slaves.  I have four of these units
<http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-Radio-Slave-Flashlight-4-Channel-battery_W0QQitemZ280020917577QQihZ018QQcategoryZ30086QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting>
with two of them from this exact seller whom I can recommend.  Just 
don't expect the claims of 30 meters range to prove true.  The range of 
my 4 units varies from about 15 meters to about 40 meters.  If you 
expect 15 and get 20 then be happy.  I need remote triggering in the 
party room since I couldn't possibly have cable strung between camera 
and lights.  If the room is small enough for the range of my cheap 
devices I'll put a radio receiver on each light.  If the room is too big 
I'll use one or two receivers on the lights near the dance floor and 
then count on those lights to trigger the other ones optically.  The 
Alien Bees have an optical trigger built in which functions autmatically 
if no electrical trigger is plugged in.  Lights triggered optically will 
be set off by party goers P&S cameras so ocassionally you'll miss a 
shot.  However, the Bees recycle from a full dump in about 3/4 second so 
they're ususally ready to go at all times.  Besides, they're normally 
not running at full power so actual recyling times are even quicker.

When using these simple radio slaves they are acting no differently than 
a PC cable.  There is only a simple triggering signal.  That's it. 
Period.  There is no more.  There's nothing mysterious.  They're just a 
long PC cable with no wire between the two ends  :-)

I recently bought one of these 16 channel units from this seller
<http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Radio-Slave-Flash-Trigger-16-Channel-Wireless_W0QQitemZ140021097358QQihZ004QQcategoryZ30086QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem>
but have been sorely disappointed so far.  I bought it for the claim of 
50 meters range plus having a PC connection on the back to trigger 
portable flash units without needing some sort of adapter.  The range 
has tested out so poorly and the operation is so erratic that I think I 
may have a defective unit.  I need to do a little more testing to verify 
that my flash unit is not at fault and then contact the seller.  For the 
moment this unit is not recommended by Chuck.

The 4 channel slaves come standard with a 1/4" mono plug which is common 
on some studio flashes.  They also include a 1/4" to miniplug adapter 
which is what's used on the Bees.  Since they don't have a PC socket for 
triggering a portable flash I plug the miniplug adapter into a 
female/female miniplug coupler from Radio Shack and then attach a PC 
cable with male miniplug on the other end and plug that end into the 
coupler.  Finding all the right cables and adapters to go on a shoot can 
sometimes be a problem.  The cables and adapters tend to get scattered 
around between about 8 different camera/equipment bags.

Hope this helps.
Chuck Norcutt




usher99@xxxxxxx wrote:

> Chuck, Always like your elegant, economical lighting solutions and
> the results.    Haven't tried a radio slave as yet and don't like the
> line of sight limitation of the optical triggers in many
> applications.  Wonder if you could spell out how to set up the radio
> slave  for  TTL or non TTL  auto use for a radio slave Newbie.  I
> haven't required them often, though would be nice to have the option
> for not too much dinero. Mike 


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