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Archive 2022 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.

  
 
cbbr
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


I currently shoot PCB lights (WL1600's, AB800's, AB400's) indoors and out. I use the PCB Vagabonds outside and the CyberCommander/syncs everywhere. I also use speedlights and phottix ttl remotes.

So the PCB stuff has been great, but I would like some run & gun flexibility with much higher output than a speedlight. All Nikon bodies if that matters.

I looked at the Phottix Indira 500, but can't find one with an AC adapter and don't want to be battery only. Battery is fine, but not actually necessary because of the Vagabonds/Jackery/Honda Generator if I really need it.

Any suggestions from those who have actually used ttl studio lights?



Dec 01, 2022 at 11:52 AM
jeffbuzz
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


Godox has been incredibly easy to use. All you need is the appropriate trigger for your Nikon and it will fire any Godox "X" system strobe. You can get AC adapters for all the larger monolights like the AD400 and above.


Dec 01, 2022 at 12:40 PM
kaplah
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


cbbr wrote:
So the PCB stuff has been great, but I would like some run & gun flexibility with much higher output than a speedlight. All Nikon bodies if that matters.


Other than it being heavy, there's the PCB Link - it's studio-centric. And "coming soon" (early 2023, right around the corner), is the more-portable (E640 form factor / weight) PCB Celestial - it's location-centric with enough ws to 'beat the sun' (depending on distance and modifiers) - and you can charge the battery while using it, so in studio that could be a thing. They'll work with your cyber commander etc, and do TTL / HSS with the Hub controller (in turn controlled by your phone).

FYI.




Dec 01, 2022 at 02:01 PM
cbbr
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


New scares my just a touch. It seems like there have been several of these systems (like the Phottix stuff) that have come and gone.


Dec 01, 2022 at 02:38 PM
kaplah
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


cbbr wrote:
New scares my just a touch.

If you mean the PCB, the Link is proven, one assumes the Celestial will be okay - they certainly aren't rushing it out. In their corporate history I'm not aware of a product being walked back. Regarding longevity, they still sell the White Lightnings.

If it's something else - please ignore the above




Dec 01, 2022 at 05:21 PM
cbbr
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


kaplah wrote:
If you mean the PCB, the Link is proven, one assumes the Celestial will be okay - they certainly aren't rushing it out. In their corporate history I'm not aware of a product being walked back. Regarding longevity, they still sell the White Lightnings.

If it's something else - please ignore the above


Practically everything that I shoot now is PCB and its all rock solid. That said, everything that I shoot was time tested before I bought any of it. It was also pretty basic.

The ttl/Nikon interface is what I want to know works out of the box because the secondary market will be $0 if it has an issue. I still can't figure out what was wrong with the Phottix Indria - their remotes work great.

I suppose that I'm just not an early adopter. The last time I did that was with a D600...



Dec 02, 2022 at 07:57 AM
kaplah
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


cbbr wrote:
The ttl/Nikon interface is what I want to know works out of the box because the secondary market will be $0 if it has an issue.

I'll come back to this thread once I've experimented with a Celestial and let you know. Since it's the same mechanism as the Link - now proven - I'm pretty confident hence am on the early release mailing list and will pick one up promptly. It will solve two problems for me - one is a rare 'need' (more of a strong desire) for high-powered (above speedlight) TTL, the other is to shrink my on-site kit, which right now includes a WL X3200.

Having said that, fully understand re: early adopter. The risk varies - but once bitten twice shy.



Dec 03, 2022 at 11:23 AM
CharleyL
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


When unhappy with my flash system 3 years ago, I asked for, and received many suggestions, and the larger number of these were suggesting that I go with Godox. Funds were a bit limited at the time, so changing everything was a big hurdle for me. Then I discovered that the Godox X2T transmitters had a pass through hot shoe on top of them, but no information was available about it. I took a chance and bought the Godox X2Tc and two Godox speedlites, hoping that this hot shoe on top of the X2Tc would allow me to stack the transmitter for my old lights on top of it, to bridge the need to fully change brands all at one time. It Worked !!! I was able to use my old lights along with these two speedlites and control both brands from the camera.

From that point on I began to realize that the Godox system was much more reliable than my old lights. If any lights missed triggering, it was always my old lights, unless I had bumped the channel
or something while setting up. I became very impressed with the Godox X system and how reliable it was. So from that point on I made it a point to buy Godox/Flashpoint lights as my finances allowed, and replaced all of my studio and field flash as quickly as I could. In just a little over a year I had made the complete transition to Godox/Flashpoint and had sold off all of my other lights and transmitters. I now have 7 studio strobes and 5 speed lights, plus 3 Pro transmitters. I just recently gave my adult grand daughter an older Canon Rebel Xsi Camera and included the X2Tc transmitter and a speedlite with it. She is now coming by my studio about one afternoon a week to learn photography (beyond cell phones) from me. If she continues to love photography, she will be inheriting the entire contents of my photo studio.

Charley



Dec 04, 2022 at 02:49 PM
ErickPHOTO
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


The elinchrom system is great, the new 500 head is excellent. Will do TTL but costs about $1000. If that is on the high price for you at this time, look into the Godox 600. Cheers!


Jun 05, 2023 at 09:23 PM
MikMaunier
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


I think no other lighting solution works better than Profoto when paired with Canon in TTL mode. I had previously used Godox before investing in Profoto, and while they did a decent job, I could never achieve consistent exposure in TTL with Canon


Jun 06, 2023 at 04:47 PM
CharleyL
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Moving to ttl, looking for advice.


You aren't ever likely to get consistent exposure in TTL, no matter what lights or camera you use, for one simple reason.

It's not the fault of the lights. The problem with TTL is that it re-computes the camera settings for every shot, and it's working off the average light level of the whole shot. Repeat shots of the same image will be nearly identical, but add a white sweater or something and the average level will will be different in the following shots, so the shots will be darker in the camera. The camera re-computes the levels in the TTL shot to get you in the ballpark with your settings, but then switching to "Manual" and using the settings obtained from the TTL shot will get you repeat levels in your following shots, even if a slight change like "adding a white sweater" takes place. Minor changes in the average light level of the following similar shots will be repeatable. Change the scene significantly and you will usually need to start over with TTL being used for this next "first shot" to get the next scene settings that the camera wants for this next scene, etc. followed by copying these settings to manual mode to repeat the process.

Something else to try when deciding on manual camera settings is to put your digital camera in "Live View", and turn on the "Settings" so they display around the edge of the screen. You can then see what the camera sees and with the camera settings all displayed around the edge of the image you can make adjustments to get the best shot. Then, in "Manual" make changes for Shutter Speed, F-Stop, and ISO to get the settings that produce this best image on the screen. Also, watch the little ruler scale symbol with the pointer display. This is sort-of a built-in light meter. It shows what the camera thinks of your Manual Settings. If the pointer is left of center zero the photo to be taken will be too dark. If right of center zero the image taken will be too light. You may want the shot a little brighter or darker, but you can decide this yourself based on this and previous shots taken. In most cameras, a manual change to this calibration can re-zero this scale for how you want all of the following photos to be. From then on, when this scale is pointing at zero your shots will all be at that desired setting. At least it will help keep you from making "really bad shots". This doesn't work with flash though. Only in constant light in or outdoors, but with practice you will become familiar with what works and what doesn't with your camera settings in "Manual Mode".

Pay attention to the "focus Symbol(s) in the screen too. These are the locations that the camera is using for Focus Points to set the sharpest focus of the shot. You can choose these and their positions in the camera settings, and they will make a big difference if set based on what you are shooting. Make certain that at least one of these is over the subject's eyes or point that you want the "most in focus" of the shot to be. When you have many of these focus points, the camera will do a "best average" setting of them for the shot.

For flash photography, you are kind-of locked into a short range of shutter speeds, usually 1/200 or 1.250 second, depending on your camera. Too slow and there is no light left by the time that the shutter closes. Too fast and the higher shutter speed requires a slit formation that scans across the camera sensor, requiring many close together smaller flashes in succession to light the whole image in sequence to the shutter slit position for even lighting across the whole sensor.
Your best light level control in constant lighting is the shutter speed, but this doesn't work so well with flash photography. But you do have the ability to adjust the flash light levels and light positions, diffusers, etc. To get the needed light levels for your shots.

F-Stop settings of the camera also affect the camera light levels that it sees, but F-Stop settings have more affect on the depth-of-focus than camera light level control. Still, it has affect on the exposure levels, and sometimes can be a huge benefit. I try to run at F-6 to F-8 most of the time in the studio when using flash. Here, my setting is mostly to remove ambient room light from the shots so only the flash levels control the lights for the shots.

ISO camera settings are similar to the ISO of film days. It is a kind-of light sensitivity control, similar to the "Volume Knob" for audio level control of your record player. In film days, 100 ISO provided the best photos if the lighting was bright enough, but it was a film manufacturing setting, and you had to buy a roll of the correct ISO Setting if you wanted different. Since the whole roll was made at only one setting, this required shooting the whole roll before you could change the ISO setting. The higher the ISO number, the grainier the film. Yes, it was more sensitive to light, but the larger grain made the shots taken less sharp at higher ISO numbers.

This is still true with digital cameras, but photo quality does not deteriorate significantly until you reach nearer to the max capability of the light sensitivity of the camera, and this is getting better with new developments of camera chips. We can actually take acceptable photos in late evening light with no flash now. I can remember back in the film days of doing everything to avoid having to use 400 or higher ISO. Now we have cameras that can take good photos with ISO settings far beyond this, and they are acceptable up to one or two settings from the camera's maximum ISO capability.

Learn how to use what you have properly and you will save big money. Godox lights are every bit as powerful as bright as comparable models of Profoto.

Charley










Jun 18, 2023 at 02:12 PM





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