Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hi folks,

I just bought an Einstein w/ an MC2 to play around with before I buy 3 more in the next few weeks.....I'm kind of curious as to some of the quirks though that I seem to be having, and wondering if others have the same?

The modeling light settings seems to like to change on its' own after firing the flash/changing power settings. Sometimes I want it kept to full power so I'll change it to that setting....I'll take a photo, and then it'll change itself to "track flashpower" or "independently adjustable" and the power output will go way down. I've found it to be kind of annoying as I have to go back and manually change it. Sometimes it'll even shut itself off totally.

I have a Sekonic L-758DR and was wondering what people do for triggering? I can put it in a non ControlTL channel and it works fine, but then I lose the ability to remotely adjust power unless I go back and change the channel on the Einstein to a ControlTL channel. If I have a flash 12 feet in the air, this becomes a bit cumbersome. I guess I'm looking at just using the MiniTT1 to remotely pop the flashes in one hand with the light meter in the other as I think that's pretty much my only option, but was wondering if folks do something different?

The AC3 seems to be extremely inconsistent in adjusting power on the Einstein. As in, it hardly ever seems to work. My SU-800 on top of my MiniTT1 works like a champ every time and even dials down to 1/128....but obviously the AC3 is much faster and easier to use, and would like to have the option of using it. I foresee myself probably just using the SU-800 for two reasons....it actually works, and I can dial down to 1/128. However, I'm not sure why it won't adjust power as it should? It works perfectly fine with my FlexTT5's and SB900's, no issues in adjusting power. Anyone else having this problem? The Power Tracking seems to really throw it all off on the rare occasion the AC3 is working when I go to adjust my aperture....sometimes I can't even really dial the power back up to full power with the AC3. I was thinking of shutting the Power Tracking off, but then I think I have to manually adjust flash power at the Einstein itself. I'm half debating going with a CyberCommander setup if someone can convince me to spend the money (since I already have the PW stuff) on them.

Other than that, I love the flash and looking forward to getting more of them. The 86" PLM is pretty nice too :)

There is a model lamp control overide in the transmitter (could be reciever). That will need to be adjusted via the computer. As for change in power, are you allowing time for the E640 to dump or charge to the new setting? If not, you will find the same problem in any remote. Einstein is different than speedlites in that there is still excess energy that needs to be dumped where as a speedlite can adjust instantly (at the cost of color temp consistency).

Are you saying you are using the SU800 to control power of Einstein via the PW remotes?

Yeah, I adjusted the modeling lamp part in the TT1 to not go in standby mode....but what I'm talking about is if you look on the back of the Einstein, it literally changes the modeling type. It's like the changes you make aren't permanent and it defaults back to whatever it was after you take a photo. And yep, I watch the back of the unit to make sure it goes green and dumps power when lowering output.



Yep, I can mount an SU-800 on top of the MiniTT1 and use that to control the output of the Einstein and my SB-900's at the same time. I do this sometimes when using the TT5's as well - the MiniTT1 turns the SU-800 from an IR device to an RF device when it's mounted onto the TT1. Pretty nifty.

Einstein is literally a slave unit when an adjusting remote system is used. Parameters which are controlled via the remote will revert to the remote's setting if changed on the flash unit. This is true with cyber commander and mc2. There is a check box in the transmitter (different than what you have adjusted). This allows model lamp control on the flash unit. Since this is a pocket wizard product, that is the limit of my knowlege, though others may provide more assistance, or we can supply the contact info for pocket wizard.

Interesting to know about the su800.

I am using the exact same setup and was experiencing the exact same behavior you described with the modeling lamp randomly changing and using the AC3 to adjust the Einstein power level.

I don't have a solution for the modeling lamp, but I contacted PocketWizard and they explained that the MiniTT1 will sleep when the Nikon meter sleeps, which by default on my D700 is 6 seconds. At this point, any changes to the AC3 will not be transmitted to the MC2 until the shutter is half pressed - waking the Nikon meter. To fix this, adjust your camera meter sleep delay (it's in the E bank on my D700) to something greater than the default, I usually change to 30 seconds which gives me time to meter with the Sekonic, trigger with my TT1, and adjust power level with the AC3. Keep in mind you will use more battery the longer the meter is active.

Hope this helps.

Here's the response from PocketWizard support:


You're actually seeing normal operation of your transmitting MiniTT1, because the MiniTT1 goes to sleep with the camera's metering system. When the radio is asleep, no radio signals are sent to change power levels - and, as you've noticed, half-pressing the shutter release wakes the metering system back up, and thus the MiniTT1 as well.

When changing settings, I generally recommend half-pressing the shutter release as well - solely to see the changes happen in real time. If you make changes while the radio is asleep, the changes will simply be sent on the next wakeup cycle.

You can tell if the camera meters are awake by looking through the viewfinder - if the shutter and aperture are displayed, the meters are awake. On a Nikon camera, the top LCD on the camera also displays the shutter/aperture when the meters are running. (Canon cameras display shutter/aperture all the time).

I think I figured out most of my issues - I turned off the Power Tracking feature in my MiniTT1 (it was annoying the crap out of me anyway), which seems to have solved a lot of problems. I also figured out that I need to take a test shot before using the AC3 to adjust power levels every time the Einstein or camera/PW is turned off/on. Just hitting the Test button doesn't work....you have to actually take a picture.

I have the meter in my D3s set to 8 seconds. The good news is after reading another thread, Sekonic will have a new module out that will work with ControlTL frequencies, which should pretty much solve the last of my issues (I think).