Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

The L-758DR has been my absolute metering standard for several years now. It is fantastic in all respects, and it isn't cheap. Last week, I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with the Cyber Commander, and work it with my WL/AB lights in studio. I must have been a pretty silly sight several hours into the fun, as I think I might have been drooling a bit over the control offered by Cyber Commander over my entire lighting setup. It's quite impressive, and I ordered one with a couple of remotes a few days ago.

Back to the flash meter issue, most all of my studio flash metering is done in incident mode, and the Cyber Commander tracked my Sekonic L-758DR nearly perfectly. I was pleased to say the least, and I look forward to adding a CST to my Cyber kit so I can keep the tiny Cyber Commander in my hand to meter, set power/ratios, and trigger shots without ever having to pull the L-758 out of it's case.

If you have yet to buy a flashmeter, and do not have needs that really justify the expense of a high end all mode light meter, buy the Cyber Commander, and be amazed. No kidding.

I have long been using Sekonic L358 and 558 meters for all my flash work, but over the past few weeks I've been working with the CyberCommander and testing its capabilities as well as its "fit" into my shooting flow.

I was not initially impressed by the dinky hemisphere glued to the back of a light remote control. But as I've used it, I've become more and more impressed. The bottom line is that it's going to become my primary exposure tool.

A very big reason for that is the sheer convenience of having one tool in my hand that controls and adjusts the lights, triggers the lights, and measures exposure. I used to use the old Paul Buff Radio Remote One, which means I was juggling two devices. Now it's just one device. Controlling lights remotely is better than any drug in the world--it makes any other way of working positively disgusting. Don't talk to me about any other brand of light unless it's got a radio remote control that is the equal of at least the old Radio Remote One...and none of the others comes close even at ten times the price.

It would have had to really suck as a meter to hose up that level of convenience, but it turns out to be a very good meter. My first incident meter was a Sekonic Studio Delux I bought from a pawn shop in 1972 (I've still got that meter, and it still works). For a selenium meter, the low-light sensitivity was directly related to the size of the cell, so a larger hemisphere meant a more sensitive meter. That may or may not make a difference today, but it seems to have no relevance to the CyberCommander.

Also, when you can easily turn lights on and off by a couple of clicks, it does not matter that the hemisphere does not retract. There are a number of features available in the Sekonics and similar meters that are valuable or essential in other circumstances that simply don't matter when evaluating exposure and lighting ratios with Paul C Buff lights.

This means the CyberCommander can't replace a meter like the L558 for all the things the L558 can do, but it can replace the L558 for everything the L558 can do for shooting under Paul Buff lights...and it can do a lot more.

Oh, and you can change the measurement duration (shutter speed) of the CyberCommander to take more or less ambient light into account. No, it does not give you a readout of the percentage of the exposure that is flash versus ambient, but I've never found that essential anyway. It was valuable when working with film--less so with the immediacy of digital review.

Accuracywise, my CyberCommander needed the calibration tweaked to match my Sekonics (that's easy), and having been calibrated, it matches them well within 1/10 stop through its range.

I would point out that using the CyberCommander to its fullest really means relinquishing it as an on-camera trigger if you have the camera on a tripod or stand. If you keep the camera on you as you move to the subject to take meter readings, then keeping it on the camera works okay. But if you use a tripod or stand as I do, you have to keep attaching and re-attaching it to the camera. For that reason, I've gotten a CST to attach permanently to the camera and I have the CyberCommander connected to a keeper on my belt.

Pretty soon now, the Sekonics will be back-up meters for flash use (although I still use the L558 for spotmetering in ambient light). I intend to buy another CyberCommander as it's own backup, though, because having to go to the Sekonics will cramp my style.