Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

This is bound to be a PW issue, but thought some of you who use MiniTT1's, AC3's and PowerMC2's might have some ideas.

Problem description:
Einstein with PowerMC2 gets initialized to -5f instead of the expected -3f.

Details:

1. Nikon D700 with MiniTT1 and AC3
2. MiniTT1 set to "Center on ISO & Aperture with First Shot"
3. Einstein with PowerMC2 set to Zone C
4. Zone "C" on the AC3 set to Automatic, with 0 compensation.
5. D700 FEC set to 0
6. Einstein/PowerMC2 is powered up and manually set to -3f, which is where it should be initialized when MiniTT1/AC3 and D700 are powered up.
7. With the power manually set to -3f, the light at the intended subject meters f8 at ISO 200
8. MiniTT1 is then switched on (Einstein doesn't change at this point, which is good)
9. D700 is then turned on (preset to Manual mode, f8, 1/250, ISO200)
10. According to the literature, the MiniTT1/AC3 should set the Einstein power to -3f when the D700 is turned on, but it gets erroneously set to -5f
11. Strangely, rotating the AC3 dial for Zone C in either direction away from 0 and then back to 0 causes the Einstein to be correctly set to -3f.
12. Everything works normally at this point, as long as the camera & MiniTT1 are not switched off.
13. If the MiniTT1 and D700 are switched off and back on, the power gets incorrectly reset to -5f.

Any ideas?

Sounds like a firmware bug in something. There seem to be a few hit or miss bugs like that, and I am really not surprised considering the number of cameras on the market (even if limited to Canon and Nikon). Each one acts a little different, and to thoroughly get every bug out is a monumental task, especially when new cameras are released every 12-18 months. I bet Pocket Wizard would like to know that directly. You can reach them by one of the two methods below:

http://www.pocketwizard.com/contact/inquiry/
802-658-0038 x572

This has been reported to PW. Still waiting for a response.

LPA responded today. Only took 6 business days, which is about 7 days longer than it takes to get a response from PCB's tech support. ;)

Anyway, they were able to reproduce the problem, and it turns out that it gets solved by the current Beta-version firmware. However, the Einstein's modeling light can no longer be completely turned off after upgrading to the Beta version. The check box is set to prevent controlling the modeling lamp from the transmitter, but it seems to have no effect. The modeling lamp does, however, stay at -8f (1w), so it shouldn't be much of an issue when running on batteries.

Unfortunately, the 1W setting for the modeling is calibrated to maintain Lumen levels equivalent to 1/250 of the lamp at full. As you dim a bulb the efficiency goes down so at the "1W" setting the lamp is likely drawing closer to 5 actual electrical watts.

Still not a huge deal with VML. BTW, we are shipping the 35W high efficiency lamps for Einstein for VML use.

That explains why it was too hot to hold when I decided to circumvent the issue by removing the modeling lamp. Ouch!