|
Forums >
Photography Talk >
The amazing Cyber Commander!
I was lucky enough to get one of the new Cyber Commanders and a few battery powered CSRB+ receivers from Alien Bees (White Lightning, Zeus) on Monday. I opened the boxes and was immediately intimidated by the instruction manual. Eventually (two days later) I picked up the instruction sheet and started working my way through the basic setup procedure. Fortunately the instruction sheet was easy to follow and had plenty of pictures (I like pictures!), and after about an hour I had the Cyber Commander working with my AB800. The best part was that in spite of my concerns, once I had finished following the instructions I actually felt I understood how this thing worked! I want to mention that the Cyber Commander was developed in tandem with the new Einstein monolight system, and the Einstein's will be much easier to set up as they "talk" to the Cyber Commander. What I found interesting is even my six year old Alien Bees can be completely controlled by the new Cyber Commander, and from a conversation I had earlier today with one of the engineers at Paul C. Buff companies, even twenty year old White Lightning's are compatible with the Cyber Commander. Okay, what does the Cyber Commander do? This unit allows you to set the power levels for up to 16 separate lights from your camera (one light per channel), and then fire them together, wirelessly. It will adjust the modeling lights for each light so they are lighting the scene with the same ratios as the flash output, or it will allow you to keep the modeling lights for all or some of your lights at full power. You also have sixteen separate frequencies available to eliminate any conflicts with other lighting systems. Clearly this is far more control than most of us would ever use, but I know several photographers for whom this is a God send. For me just being able to adjust a main light which is way up on a light stand or a boom without having to pull the light down is a big deal. The Cyber Commander also works as a flash meter. And not only does it measure the light output for a given setting, it also shows you the t1 flash duration and color temperature for a given power setting. I'm not sure of this, but I suspect the flash duration and color temperature readings are based on typical outputs from the AB light selected at the adjusted power setting rather than actual measurements, but still useful information. The Cyber Commander allows you to specify each light by name (AB1600, Zeus 1200/A or B head, ABR800, etc.) and gives you the parameters of that light on the power adjustment screen. I should also mention that you can fire other brands of lights with the Cyber Commander, but obviously without a digital interface they would have to have their power adjusted manually. I'm pretty jazzed about the Cyber Commander, and part of this is that once I followed the set up instructions one time, I felt that I actually knew how to use it. I'm not a gear head, so considering how much they control they built into this unit, feeling comfortable after such a short time was important to me. Physically the Cyber Commander is about the same size as the older Pocket Wizards, and the back of the Cyber Commander has a large LCD which displays the various menus. The receiver units are bigger than the Cyber Sync receivers, but still pretty compact. The Cyber Commander sells for $179.95, and each CSRB+ receiver is price at $89.95. The units are now shipping to those who placed pre orders, and should be available to anyone else who wishes to purchase them. Now I really am jonesing for the Einstein's! Fish -- John Fisher 900 West Avenue, Suite 633 Miami Beach, Florida 33139 305 534-9322 http://www.johnfisher.com Oct 22 09 09:22 pm Link Ha, I've only been waiting for it for the past year. It and a few Einsteins are on my short list now that it's finally out. Oct 22 09 09:47 pm Link How does it get meter readings? Do you have to hold it at the subject, test fire each light? Oct 22 09 10:20 pm Link w00t! Just placed my order, along with a ring flash travel bag. Glad to see this thing finally make it out the door... been staring at the 3D rendering for quite awhile now wondering if it was going to be the next Duke Nukem 3D or Bibble 5. Oct 22 09 10:38 pm Link John Fisher wrote: Amazing! I´m shocked to see all the features the Cybercommander packs Oct 22 09 10:54 pm Link Do you have a vagabond? Curious how well the receivers deal w/ being on battery power while on location... And have you tried it outside in sunlight? Oct 23 09 08:56 am Link In the image of the cybercommander, on the top right of the screen , it has a kelvin temp. Can it read the light's color as well? Oct 23 09 10:19 am Link T-P wrote: I don't think so. It has a database for Buff Lights, so it knows if you have a AB800 at half power it's color temp is X. Oct 23 09 11:35 am Link WOW, its finally out? Please let us know how you like them, after you've tried it out. Oct 23 09 01:52 pm Link Bill Sylvester wrote: Thanks. Oct 23 09 03:02 pm Link Thanks... My banker will hate you for this post  Oct 23 09 03:41 pm Link Really looking forward to hearing more information on these. They have some photos posted over at Fred Miranda: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/827061 Oct 24 09 07:53 am Link Sodarock wrote: Yes, those are my photos taken last night in my hotel room. I received 4 packages from PB totaling around 500.00, I have to sneak them into the house one by one to keep the wife from blowing a gasket... Oct 24 09 09:08 am Link Sodarock wrote: Apparently Paul Buff browses over here occasionally.... Oct 24 09 10:14 am Link nwprophoto wrote: That's how I found this thread because I saw his link to here. So I made it a circular reference Oct 24 09 11:01 am Link I got my Cyber Commander a few days ago and I have been working with support ever since. The problem is that I have about a 40-60% success rate meaning that the lights don't always fire. Support narrowed it down to a problem with the cyber commander sending the signal and not a receiver issue. They are sending me a replacement unit. We'll see how well the replacement unit works. When the cyber commander did work, it was amazing although I do think the joy sticks need to be revised. They don't feel like they will hold up to a lot of use, but I could be wrong. Maybe I just had a really bad unit. -Darrin Nov 13 09 06:48 am Link John: I was speaking with Michael Rosen the other night... he's been talking about The Commander since at least March. He got it also and just raved about it. Can't wait to get mine. Thanks for all the info. Holly Gordon Nov 13 09 07:09 am Link John Fisher wrote: Yeah. Gettin old sucks, don't it Fish. Nov 13 09 07:52 am Link I just got mine and used it for a shoot last weekend. It was FREAKING AWESOME. I've only had two issues so far: 1. When turning on lights, I've had some lights rapid-fire randomly. I think something in the CSR+/CC communication may be causing other lights to fire. May also have something to do with my old house not having a third-wire ground. Or maybe it was wifi interference with a nearby laptop. 2. *Somehow* I accidentally "disabled" a channel, and couldn't figure out how. I ended up just switching the light to another channel. The instructions were a bit haphazard, they showed what a disabled channel looks like, but no instructions for enabling/disabling them. One forehead-slap moment I had setting them up: I connected everything up and couldn't figure out why I could fire the lights but not control the output levels. The problem was I was still using the 1/8" plugs on the receiver side, and you have to use the RJ-11 (telephone) connectors instead. The CSR+ didn't come with one, so I went to Radio Shack (I have a crimper but I'm lazy) and got some patch cables. Get the 6-foot ones, NOT the 4", because you dont' want the weight of the CSR+ hanging on the phone cord. Nov 14 09 07:37 am Link Has anyone using the CC also used the Skyport (w/ RX units) and able to offer a comparison? Nov 14 09 07:44 am Link Richard Tallent wrote: Hey Richard, Nov 14 09 09:13 am Link Great notes. Any UPDATED INFO since October? Still holding up well? I tried the RP units and found a 5 - 10% failure rate to fire. Not acceptable. Hoping the CC are betterâ¦Â and not a headache to learn. Word? Apr 07 10 08:35 pm Link
Post hidden on Apr 07, 2010 08:43 pm
Reason: not helpful Comments: What's your point again? Apr 07 10 08:38 pm Link I have used mine with my Vagabond and they work fine. IT can be a little fussy to set up with the lights on the initial set up, which has to be done everytime you use it. Control wise, it works perfect. The setup thing will be great with the einsteins if the Commander will auto detect and set up the lights. One thing, when using it outdoors in the bright sun, the screen is VERY hard to see. Trying to create enough shade to see the screen can be very hard to do. Apr 08 10 03:40 am Link Richard Tallent wrote: I'm pretty sure the AB units need to be properly grounded to work as advertised. If you look at the technical specs, and how they work, part of the "magic" has to do with being grounded. Apr 08 10 04:42 am Link To the moderator who hid my post: My point was that this post reads like an advertisement and it's from someone who is admittedly sponsored by Paul Buff. You don't think it's relevant to question his objectivity? Apr 08 10 11:13 am Link Tim Foster wrote: Many of us know that he is sponsored by Paul Buff! Apr 08 10 01:00 pm Link Jerry Nemeth wrote: Not everyone knows. I think he should have disclosed it with his post. Apr 08 10 01:02 pm Link Tim Foster wrote: I agree. I don't read the forums enough to know he's sponsored by Paul Buff. Even then, my first thought after reading it was that this is the closest thing I've seen to an infomercial on a forum. Just read like that to me. Apr 08 10 01:45 pm Link DMHolman wrote: Agree 100% Apr 08 10 01:55 pm Link Tim Foster wrote: Mea Culpa. When writing about Alien Bees, White Lightning, and Zeus, I sometimes post that I'm a sponsored photographer for Paul C. Buff companies, and I do state this on my profile page here on Model Mayhem. And I always state that I'm a sponsored photographer for Paul C. Buff companies if I mention another company's product in my post. It really does bother me when someone goes off on how great one company's product is compared to another company when in fact the person making the comparison does have a dog in the fight. Apr 08 10 02:38 pm Link While I love the Buff product, and am writing about it, I am not sponsored by them, though it would be nice if I were as much as I use there stuff. That said, I recieved my Cyber Commanders and CyberSyncs and thank goodness for the superb technical support, because even after reading the instructions, and I'm an electrical engineer with a background in computer science... I couldn't figure out how to configure the things to do a shoot. After about a 1/2 hour on the phone, and some trial and error and more questions, I now, so far love them. For anyone who does not wish to spend 1/2 hour on phone plus or read and try to deconstruct the instruction on initial set up, you can read here how to do this: http://glamourphotography.co/gear/paul- … al-set-up/ Oct 15 10 10:13 pm Link Hum lights don't always fire it's main issue. I don't own it but I have read somewhere that it's very hard to setup up first time CyberCommander. I'm curious to know if a lightmeter (Sekonic) can be trigger ? Does it recognize receiver device? D Canter Photography wrote: Oct 16 10 05:33 am Link As always, thanks for the infomercial! Oct 16 10 07:01 am Link Quang Dang wrote: The lights always work for me, and it didn't take more than 15 minutes or so of reading the manual and experimenting before I got it to do what I wanted. I've read lots of places how difficult it is, but I don't see it. Oct 16 10 07:19 am Link I have had the Buff units go into auto fire with Quantum radio slaves for no reason. It seemed to happen in old buildings or where there were a lot of audio equipment. Un plugged radios and plugged them into my other strobe and they worked without auto firing. No idea why -- suspect bad wiring. Oct 16 10 11:42 am Link culturedwoman wrote: WOW !!! Given your background and education that would seem to Illustrate a product that is far too complex and not very user friendly. Oct 16 10 11:52 am Link Jealous. Wish I could have photography sponsored companies. Great feature though, they finally figured out the technology for it, it's about time! So much easier to adjust than going to each light manually. Given that powerpacks and if you're shooting tethered you can do it also, but this helps also! Oct 16 10 11:52 am Link Brooklyn Bridge Images wrote: I did not like my Nikon manual either. Is the Nikon too complex? The next version will be even more complex... ah give me film and the smell of chemicals.... Oct 19 10 06:39 pm Link Brooklyn Bridge Images wrote: The interface design is mediocre at best and at times counter intuitive. The manual is also poorly written. PCB, Inc is a hardware company. They should have farmed out the user interface design to someone with appropriate experience in the field and the manual for something that complex should have be written by a competent technical writer. Oct 19 10 06:53 pm Link |
! Whenever you can (and if you are allowed) please post a video 
I would love to see it working!
