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 p.4 #15 · Einstein questions answered | |
Paul Buff wrote:
adamdewilde wrote:
I may have dreamed this up, or read someone elses wishful thoughts on the matter.. Or it could have been mentioned here, but after reading the manual I didn't see anything that would indicate my thoughts are right on the Einstein units.
Ok so here goes, I thought I heard/read that the Einstein CCommander was built like a light meter. So essentially what you could do is take a light meter reading from flash A then take a reading from flash B and C, and then tell CC that flash A is the main, flash B is the fill and flash C is the rim, and you would then based on internal calculations of distance of flash from person, and modifier readouts, be able to say I want A to be 2 full stops above B, and I want C to pop 1/2 a stop above A...
Then it automatically sets the lights up, and you start shooting..
Now the reason I thought this was, because someone mentioned CC was a light meter, and someone mentioned that it could calculate ratios coming from the lights, and then I think someone mentioned something about being able to control the flashes independently within there groups.
Having something that auto setups for me, would be better then having to run back and fourth with my sekonic light meter, tethering each light then adjusting 2-3 times, would be a headache with 3-4 lights.. ESP since AB doesn't have a sekonic module deal like the PW company does..
I'm just curious how much of this is true, and or false, as in how much of this I dreamt up.
If there are similar features, please explain in more basic terms 
Best,
ADam
Almost, but not quite. CC can meter each light separately, and/or can meter any group of lights (8 different groups - you put whatever lights in the group that you want - and it can also meter the whole set of lights that your camera will see when you fire. All metering is incident mode and is independent of other metering modes.
You can name each light IE Main left, Fill Right, Hair 1, etc.
In normal use, CC displays all 16 possible lights in terms of power settings and by the f stop you metered for each. in 16 channel bargraph form. Say you do a guess setup, then meter say main = f8 6/10, fill f4 2/10,etc. If you really want main = f8 0/10 and fill = f 5.6 0/10. You just select main and you will see a digital readout of the f8 6/10. Just click it down until it reads f 8 0/10 - no need to re meter - just dial it in. Go to the Fill and read the f4 2/10 you first metered . . . click it up to the f5.6 0/10 you wanted. Your done,
Now select ALL and take a reading of all lights. Say you get f 8 3/10, but you really want to shoot at f8 . . . while in ALL, just click the power down until you get f8. What happens is that each individual light drops by 3/10 f . . . keeping exactly the same balance betweens the lights but getting the f8 total you want. In this example, the main you had set to f8 drops to f5.6 7/10 and the fill you had set at f5.6 drops to f4 7/10. Want to do the same shot at f11? Just go back to ALL and raise the f stop to f11 . . . all the lights raise their power by 1f and you're ready to shoot at f11.
If you want to see what a particular group of lights looks like and what the contribute to the f exposure, put those lights in a group and select that group, Everything else goes off and you can see and mater that particular group. If you want that group brighter, just click up the power and only that group changes . . . and updates the metered f stop from each light in that group and of the aggregate in that group.
You only metered once, then set up the exact output and aggregate exposure on the CC. You can then save this as one of 50 presets for later recall, then do a whole different setup and save it.
When you're done for the day, you can go to ALL > Off and the power to each light is turned off (standby) Even if you actually shut of the main circuit breaker, you can come back in a week, turn the breaker back on, recall one of the memories you saved and bingo - they lights are all turned on to the exact settings you saved last week. Recall another memory and everything resets to that setup.
Clear, or confusing? If you call Customer service they can send you a Cyber Commander and preliminary Einstein manuals, which are quite complete.
This all sounds fantastic and exactly what I'm after. The problem I have is that I can only afford one Einstein to augment a couple AB800 and AB1600 units. For the next year or two I need to run a mixture of AB and Einstein. Is this remote functionality unique to the Einstein or will I be able to have this control with a combination of Einstein and AB? I understood that this would be possible with traditional AB units but just want to confirm.
Thanks!
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