Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I'm new to using the Cyber Commander, but have had my AB400s for about 2 years. Here is my question. While setting up my Cyber Commander the max flashpower I can get is F4.0. Is this the max flashpower for AB400s? Or am I doing something wrong?

thanks

How are you determining this reading? Via the meter in the CC, or by another type of meter or some other method. Also, at what distance is teh light from subject and what modifier are you using?

Also, this was posted twice, so the redundant post was deleted.

A B400 can give you f32, with or without CC. It's all a matter of the modifiers and the distance. F4 is not a measure of flash power . . . it's a measure of how much light you are getting on the subject, which, again, is determined by modifiers and distance.

The AB400 160WS light should get about f8+ with a 7" reflector at 10 feet, ISO 100, 1/250sec.

With my regular light meter I can get up to f32. On my cyber commander the 'blue' bars will not go higher that f8. My subjects are usually about 7-8 feet from my softboxes

The actual meter reading is at the top center of the CC. This value is obtained by taking a meter reading from the subjects position. The f/- scale on the side does not correlate directly to the blue bar, but to the yellow dash. As you go from one light to the next, metering individually, these yellow bars mark where other lights were metered at, so you can keep track of which light metered what. It is entirely possible, even likely, that a meter reading from a B400 will yeild a yellow bar above the blue bar. As you power down the light, the yellow bar should track with the lowering blue bar.

The blue bars will be offset based on the model of light. for example, a B1600 would have a max blue bar just shy of the f/22 mark, a B800 would be just shy of the f/16 mark, and the B400 would max out just shy of the f/8 mark. All bars would be the same length, as that represents the range of power (5 stops on each light). An Einstein would top out the same as a B1600, but bottom out below a B400, as it has a broader range, but the same max power as a B1600.

Be sure when you meter, you are at the subject's position. You cannot dial in "f/4" and have the light go to an f/4 setting, without at least one meter reading for that light from the subject. Once you meter, and get f/16 (for example), you can then power down to f/4 without having to remeter.

I hope this makes sense.

The blue bars don't indicate metered f stop . . . the yellow dot does that. The blue bar indicates EU number on the right hand scale. This is a representation of WS and has no direct correlation to metered f stop.

By the way, the new 8 1/2" reflector will give you about one stop more brightness than the standard 7" wide angle reflector.