mta 400 final images : mark a lee

New Goods Recently Arrived in Photo Checkout

Students -

Photo checkout now has available several new items which may be of use to you. Those of you who have been frequently checking out light meters may already be aware that we've acquired another pair of Sekonic L758s (PDF of the manual is available here), but we've also picked up a couple more basic lightmeters: a pair of Gossen Digiflash meters. These are very small and simple meters, and as such I suspect that some of you will love them dearly for their portability and simplicity, and others among you will regard them with a frothing hatred for their lack of advanced features and basic interface. I would advise having a look at them before you have need for a light meter to determine if it's the sort of meter you'd like or not. The instruction manual is available here (PDF), and of course you can stop by photo checkout to give one a test drive.

On the color management side of things, there's a new Spyder3 Elite available for (in-building) checkout to address your laptop display calibration needs, and a trio of X-Rite Colorchecker Passports.

Checkout also has a couple new Vivitar 285HVs. These are non-dedicated flashes that can be used on just about any camera with a flash shoe or PC socket... except for that goofy Sony/Minolta "inside out" flash shoe design. These are essentially manual flashes, and though they have some Auto features, they won't give you any sort of TTL functionality, so you might want to study up on the manual, which is available in checkout. I couldn't find a Vivitar-provided online manual for the 285HV, but there is a manual for a prior version (though same model number) located here (PDF).

Cybersyncs!

Students-

Photo Checkout now has available a set of Cybersyncs for the AlienBees. This permits you to wirelessly discharge the Alienbees, free of the relentless tether of sync cords! Checkout has one CST transmitter, which connects to the camera, and one CSRB, which connects to one AlienBee light. Both units will have to be checked out to be of any use. The CST can sit in your camera's flash shoe, and connects by a short cord to the camera's PC socket, so you might need to do some creative peripheral management if your camera lacks a PC socket, and you try to use a hot shoe adapter and CST at the same time. The CSRB is powered by 2 AA batteries, which are currently in the unit, but it may be advisable to have a spare set of batteries on hand, since the operational life of the batteries is as yet undetermined.

The Cybersyncs are available at checkout now, so feel free to make use of them!

Radio flash systems

A morning conversation with Jackson prompted me to spend the next several hours doing some industry research. I thought I'd share the results of what I found. There are several systems for wirelessly triggering flashes, notably radio and infrared. The infrared systems are primarly native to Canon and Nikon with many manufacturers introducing radio systems. The two radio system leaders at the moment are Pockewizard (old established company) and Radio Popper.

Wireless basics: The infrared system uses a beam of infrared light to transmit encoded information from a camera, flash or commander unit to remote flashes. The system is limited in range and is line of sight. When a flash is used as a commander in the Canon and Nikon system, they rely on a series of pre-flashes to transmit information about the coming exposure to the remote units. Radio is similar in that the information is sent via radio wave. The benefits are a longer transmit distance and the signal can go through walls, obstacles, etc.

Pocket Wizard has a reliable system for use with studio lighting (Plus II, Multimax) but the introduction of compatability with flashguns (Flex and Mini) came last summer. Canon flashes are highly susceptible to interference and the problem was solved with a cover that's now refered to as the flash cozy (play on beer cozy). The product for Nikon are in production and expected out in 2010. These systems will encode the Canon or Nikon flash instructions directly to radio. The process is very complicated and is the reason why it has taken so long to develop.

Radio Popper is getting a lot of attention as they created a simpler methodology in which the infrared signal is relayed to a device which encodes to radio, transmits, then another device encodes back to infrared and sends to the flash unit. The units are relatively small and have proven to be quite effective. The Px and JrX are their products with the Px being more advanced and costing appx. $250 per unit. Note: you'll need one unit to transmit and one unit for each flash. In testing, the Radio Poppers have proven more reliable than Pocket Wizard for consecutive speed firing and distance. The PW worked up to 120 ft as opposed to the RP which fired up to 620ft. The beauty of the Radio Popper system is that a photographer could actually simultaneously fire flashguns of any brand along with studio flashes. A very adaptable system.

I've been using the Nikon wireless system for a couple years, several hours a day in varying conditions with great success. Nikon and Canon cameras with pop-up flashes can easily trigger a compatible remote flash providing you with terrific off-camera flash opportunites. The systems mentioned above simply allow for more flashes triggered via radio to cover greater distances through obstacles.

It's important to remember at times like this that while the technology is interesting and gadgets are fun, ultimately the skill of the photographer is what creates a great photograph.