Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have the Sekonic 308s. Simply put in the mode to detect a flash (no need to cable to the strobe). It works great.

I find the Commander flash meter to be a very close match to what Sekonic reads... BUT... the Commander has to be facing directly into the flash. If you face the camera, or are tilted slightly you will get different readings.

The Sekonic has a wider acceptable angle for detecting light and is accurate if you are not 100% directly facing the light. This is my only problem with the Commander light meter.

Oddly, I use the commander to fire the strobes and meter with the Sekonic.
Of course I have mixed lights... some are not Paul C Buff lights (yet).
Once I sell them, and trade up for an all-Einstein set, I would like to sell the Sekonic... but I will be keeping it since it is simply easier to obtain accurate results.

I think the light meter is great, it's just that I don't understand how to read the meter after having used the sekonic 358. How do you read 1.4"9 and match it up with the camera's related f/stop?

he, he, that keeps getting me. I keep looking for f1.5 as the next digit up, but naturally its the next f-stop!


Remember the Series: f1.4, f2.0, f2.8, f4.0, etc...

So, f1.4"9 would be just a 1/10 of a stop under f2.0.
f1.4 plus half a stop = 1.4"5
f1.4 plus 1/10th stop = 1.4"1
and so on...
:-)

f/x.x' 3 is 1/3 of a stop above and f/x.x' 7 is 2/3 above. So, if you get 5.6' 3, that is the same as f/6.3 on your camera. f/5.6' 7 is f/7.1.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzEf7N ... YzNGI3MjBi

can you confirm whether this chart matches with the correct f stop for the cybercommander? (you can also edit and make corrections to the chart) I want to print this in size 2 font and tape it to the back of the cybercommander since there is no 1/3 F/stop measurements on the cybercommander.

thanks

I attached a small printout so that you can tape the measurements to the back of the cybercommander

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzEf7N ... YzNGI3MjBi

i changed the measurements from .3 and .7 as 1/3 and 2/3 stop respectively.

Its as close as you're going to get... with 1/10 stop increments rather then 1/3 stops, there is going to be some rounding issues. Neither .6 nor .7 is equal to .6666666666666666666666... (or 2/3). Although .7 is a bit closer. And certainly beyond a terribly significant difference to be worth losing sleep over. :-)

Thanks for the work.

Note, the first link works fine, the second link requires I log into Google to see document.
Is this a permissions issue? (not being familiar at all with Google Docs).

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzEf7N ... YzNGI3MjBi

try the link one more time. i changed the access to anyone with the link can see the file. it could be a permissions issue since the attached file is an excel .xlsx file rather than a google docs spreadsheet. normally forums allow attachments in which i could attach the file but I can't find the attachment feature in the PCB forums.

here's what it will look like.

Thanks c2thew. This is most helpful.

RMS