Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hi, I am submitting this question for my wife Bonnie. She is the photographer and I am her photo Bitc..., I mean helper. We currently have the following for her studio, 3 Einsteins each using the CSXCV Transceiver, a Cyber Commander and for her camera, we are using the CST Trigger Tranmitter. At first we finally figured out the camera settings to get everything working correctly and all worked great. But, unfortunatelly, she didn't write down the camera settings that wewe needed for it to work successfully. But since then, she has been shooting without any flash at all or with her EX-580 and now we can't remember the camera settings to go back to Studio mode. Does anyone use this camera (the 7D) who might have a simple camera setup cheat sheet? We know the flash must be set to Manual and not TTL but what are the other necessary settings? For the past year and a half, she has been using the Canon 7D but just purchased a new 5D MKII so I am hopeing for setup instructions for this camera also for use with the CST since it is a little different than the 7D. I have tried the Canon forums but haven't had much luck.

Thanks for any help...Keith

Unfortunately, there is not a specific "studio" group of settings. However, common starting point settings for most cameras will apply to those two cameras. "M" mode on the camera dial, ISO 100, 1/200 shutter speed, and a suitable aperture and flash output settings.
These latter two are vague, but they are derived from each other. I believe on Canons, there is a menu option for enabling or disabling the flash. This needs to be enabled for the camera to trigger the CST which then triggers the lights.

Keith,
When I use my 5DII with Einsteins and Cyber Sync Trigger. I have the camera set to M, shutter at 1/200, ISO to 100 and F stop to get the proper exposure based on lighting.
I resume you are using the Cyber Commander to set the lighting ratio and power for a reasonable exposure.
Set the CC shutter speed to 1/200 (or whatever is closest.) Set the ISO to 100. Then read the lights individually, I do it at full power but that's not required. Set up the ratios you want between main, fill and kickers, then using ALL for the channel selection aim the incident dome at the camera from the subject position and take a reading. I go for F11 for portraits. Adjust the power on the lights with the CC until it reads F11. Shot a test shot and your good to go.

It will work exactly the same way on the 7D. Only difference is that you could set the shutter speed to 1/250 since that is its max sync speed.