Thinking about pulling the plug on a Profoto AcuteB2 600 kit and I have some questions on the Air system. Can I buy an Air Sync to hook up to non-Profoto strobes and/or Canon Flashes? I understand I can't control the power with the Air Remote but all I'm interested in is triggering them in case I'm at a small gig and all I need is a little kicker and a 580EX will work fine for that. I was looking at the model with the PocketWizard built in but it's an additional ~$700. If I can run anything off the Air Sync I'd dump my PocketWizards all together and just get the AcuteB2 600 with Air but without the PW built in. Also, does the Air use a miniphone out if I wanted to hook it up to my camera via PC in case I want to run on camera flash? Thanks!
Excellent. Just curious how the performance of the Air system is. Has quite a bit longer range according to specs. My PW's were never really that good in really large locations. Several times I'd get misfires if my body was between the PW and the strobe. Never had an issue with normal sized work, though. Just looking for bullet proof performance. Also, what's the focal plane shutter max sync? I'm only finding the leaf shutter sync speed.
The Air and Air Sync transceivers operate at 2.4GHz, and are pretty immune to interference in my admittedly limited experience. I haven't heard anywhere near the number of complaints about range and interference that I hear about PWs.
Also, regarding triggering a camera, I forgot to mention that there are two kinds of cables, simple release cables and "prerelease" cables; the latter can activate the half-press function on some cameras' shutter releases.
The max shutter speed for FP shutters will vary depending on the camera, but in "Speed" mode the response time of the Air Sync is only 200 microseconds, so it shouldn't be an issue.
cineski wrote:
I was looking at the model with the PocketWizard built in but it's an additional ~$700.
I bought the AirS/R (one with built in PW) and it was only marginally more, not $700! It did have to be shipped over specially from Sweden though. This Air sync thing is such a waste on the B2 600 because it cannot remotely adjust power. I went the PW route because it means I can use speedlights with it, get hypersync and remotely adjust their power rather than paying profoto tax on what are 'dumb' triggers
Mark, $2377 for the B2600 Air vs $3071 for the Air/PW version is a pretty big difference. Profoto must really be pushing the Air technology to be charging that much more for PW. I did notice that you can't adjust the Full/half/quarter switch but for reliable triggering and 2 stop adjustments with the air model I think I'd rather save the additional $700 and put that toward the Air remote for $360.
I've recently become quite the Air fan. Very reliable and the usual Profoto build quality.
cineski wrote:
Mark, $2377 for the B2600 Air vs $3071 for the Air/PW version is a pretty big difference. Profoto must really be pushing the Air technology to be charging that much more for PW. I did notice that you can't adjust the Full/half/quarter switch but for reliable triggering and 2 stop adjustments with the air model I think I'd rather save the additional $700 and put that toward the Air remote for $360.
Just to make it clear: the battery packs only have AirS (for AirSync, dumb triggering) and not full-on Air, so you won't have any adjustment via Air at all.
You wouldn't need the Air Remote for this either (as the power adjustments won't do anything), you can get the (much cheaper) Air Sync.
