Technical Support wrote:
Alien Bees only locked out the slave eye if something was plugged into the sync jack. Using the RJ11 jack alone did not lock out the slave eye.
As for using two together,
1) Say a shooter wanted to be able to adjust the flashes, but keep a speed lite in the hotshoe (and did not/could not connect via PC cord). The speedlite could trigger the lights. At lowered power, the Einsteins could recycle fast enough that preflashes were not a concern. Alternatively, some modern flashes and most older flashes had an auto sensing eye, so it could operate automatically with no preflash.
2) Radio is not suitable for all locations. Underwater photogs cannot use radio from underwater to trigger above water flashes. They (or an assistant) could use a CC to adjust lights, but use an on camera flash to trigger the lights.
3) Range may be an issue for radio when optical slaves are not. A photographer may be able to get close enough to adjust lights via CC, but that may not be a good shooting position. A closer flash could potentially trigger an optical slave at ranges not possibel by radio, particularly if there is interference. There is a train photographer in mind that could potentially use this if the need arose.
4) similar to 2 & 3, bending around attenuating obsticles. Metal buildings, adobe walls (yes, I have spoken to those who do this), etc, will reduce or eliminate radio range. It may be easier to get to some spots for adjustment vs. the unit itself, but light can bounce around better than radio waves.
5) redundancy in triggering, see:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/06/on ... -pt-1.html While these examples may be on the fringes, I have had to help find a solution to every one of them, and I am sure more are out there. If we decided the slave eye could not be used under any circumstance with a tranciever, this would add more cost to the solution, if one could be found.
As for word of mouth, we have access to a wide variety of strobes spanning a wide range of brand, cost, quality and age that have manual switches for the slave eye. I cannot see why a light would have a switch if it automatically disengaged when connected to a sync cord. With that and the new power supply not triggering in direct sun, these units are on about the same playing field as ours (for this particular function), in that you will have to manually turn off the slave eye.
That said, I pass all suggestions along and, as you know, Paul reads these posts as well.
Thanks for the extra information. I agree that there are situations possible where one would want to adjust the lights with CC, even though not using radio triggers to fire the lights. (I would like to see set up shots for the underwater situation you describe!).
Given that these are, in fact, corner or fringe uses, I think they could still be supported by a manual override, deliberate choice of slave enable. So the Einstein/CC firmware need not completely lock out slave enable when any trigger/receiver is installed, but they could automatically disable them for us as a normal situation. If any of us encounter situations where we want to enable them, we make a specific choice to do so. Otherwise, we don't have to always wonder about or fuss with it.
The sun/vagabond situation is not the only place where the slave enable as it currently is implemented is an issue for many of us. I frequently shoot at events, instruct at events, etc. where I am not the only photographer with lights. I don't want to have to find that my light is firing when I trigger, but also whenever the slave senses another photographer's speedlight or strobe. When I plug in my trigger/receiver, either the CSXCV, or in the jack, I want my slave to be disabled.
My Einsteins are getting a LOT of attention when I show up with them at events, and I spend a fair amount of time extolling their virtues, especially to AB users, but they have also impressed some ProFoto users. If I have to resort to taping off the slave eye, they will notice and ask.
And about 10 photographers were around when my Einstein/Vagabond/low-setting-sun situation went into machine gun strobe firing. "The slave triggers off the SUN?!??!?!" was coming out of all their mouths.
At another event, a friend's Einstein was firing when she wasn't shooting. Several photographers at that event "learned" about the slave being enabled simultaneously when trigger/receivers were in use. "The slave stays on when you plug the receiver in? You have to step thru the menu and turn it off even then? REALLY?"
So, even though there may be only a few folks taking the time to mention it here, ask for a fix, there are a LOT of folks who are baffled by this design choice.
I was working with another pro who teaches about 24 workshops a year. He takes a profoto rig with him when he does. I walked him thru the Einstein, noting all the improvements over the ABs (he is very familiar with those). He was really impressed. He said he was going to order himself a couple to use, and to take to his workshops. He pointed the Einstein out to the other attendees, said he would be absolutely comfortable showing up to a high end client shoot with these (but would not have with ABs) and suggested to the AB owners that these would be a great upgrade for them.
Then the sun triggered the machine gun firing. He told everyone to wait for that fix. He won't be getting them, either, for use at his workshops, until that is cleared up. Not good if he also has to tell people at his workshops "put a piece of tape here".
I'll reiterate: I LOVE my Einsteins, I love PB products and customer service/support. I recommend them frequently. I am "on your side" even in this case: I simply want you to know how literally two dozen different photographers have reacted to this particular thing with the slave eye.
They won't take the time to figure out the whys and wherefores of "it only happens with a vagabond, and a fix is coming" and "the slave is enabled to support some weird corner cases, so as long as you check it every time you set up, and be careful what you do with the CC, or just tape it off". They just look at it, scratch their heads, and walk away....
In that one afternoon, when the sun/vagabond/slave-accidentally-enabled-with-triggers-installed situation, no one wanted to know all these subtleties. I would say that there were three photographers present in the group who were going to go home and place orders, but when that happened they literally and figuratively walked away....
Had the slave eye been automatically disabled when the CSXCV was installed, this would not have happened (vagabond or not, sun or not, it would have been prevented), and you would have sold 6-10 lights that very day.
I KNEW about this issue, I KNEW to keep the slave disabled, and yet, inadvertently, the slave became enabled on one of my four lights. Annoyed me, but astounded the potential customers to a degree that you lost sales.
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