Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Has anyone had issues with their Commander not wanting to stay vertical when mounted in the camera hot shoe? The ratcheting hinge on mine is so week that when i tilt my camera down, the entire Commander body folds completely down to the horizontal position with loud clicking noises. I'm not sure why a hinge is needed in the first place since i can see the display fine from any angle.

I also get massive headaches when i barely touch it to adjust a setting and the thing swings down flat under its own weight. Is there a way to lock that hinge or will i be forced to superglue the shoe mount of the commander to its body in order to lock it?

Thanks!

The hinge was made so the Commander will fold flat and out of the way when not in use. There is not a locking mechanism on the Cyber Commander. However, a popular option is to have a CST mounted on the hotshoe for triggering, and a CC in hand/on a lanyard/in a pocket for configuring and metering. If you wish to fix it in place, perhaps ome 3M mounting tape between the body and foot. This would be removeable and would facilitate any repairs should the need arise.

Putting the CC on a lanyard defeats the purpose of being able to make quick edits to the strobes while shooting.

I've never seen any pocketwizard users complain about their pw's not being able to fold down flat- in fact the current CC design seems more like a hindrance than something useful. Don't think tape will be strong enough to stay put as i push the toggles- will try hot glue instead. Thanks for the response. :)

The hinge on the CC is clearly not meant to be very strong... otherwise people would be breaking hot shoes. By far the best option is to set your lights up with the CC and when finished....replace it with a very simple and small CST on the camera. Almost every photographer I know does it this way.... including me. Why wastefully chew through batteries if you use the CC as your main trigger when you can just use the long lasting CST instead? The CC doesn't use rechargables.


Pulling a CC out of your pocket is quite fast at making quick edits. How can you say that it's not? It takes 2 seconds.

I put the CC on the hotshoe one time: it just isn't efficient/effective to use it that way, in my opinion. Maybe if your camera is on a tripod, but if handholding the camera, you are then operating it in an awkward position, independent of the weak hinge.

So, I use the CST on camera. I put a little hotshoe mount and a d-ring on my CC, can clip it to my belt loop, or on a lanyard. This keeps it separate and handy when setting up, easier for triggering the lights and metering (if using the cc as a light meter).

I consider it a back-up as an on-camera trigger. In a pinch, if the CST/battery died, I can put the CC in the hotshoe. I figure I need to have a backup anyway, so if I have a CST, why not use it as the primary trigger instead of as a backup in the bag?

Mine uses Eneloops just fine.

But, like the OP, I'd never considered using the CC as a aux control unit to a CST. Guess it makes sense though (unless you don't happen to already own one).

what would really be cool is an iOS (apple idevice) or computer based control option (with a tX attachment) of course). :P

How do you set up to shoot with the CST on camera and keeping the CC separate?

The CST can only be set to one channel, and my four Einsteins need to be set to separate channels to function with the CC. What am I not getting here? I'd much prefer to not have the CC on the camera hotshoe.

Paul Wright

The CST only has teh option of one frequency, and no channels. This means it will broadcast the "fire" signal to all recievers set to that frequency. The recievers have already been set to the desired configuration, so they are only waiting on a "fire" command, and they do not care who they get that from (CC or CST).