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McNally's New Book!
- Thread starter Tyke Tiler
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Well, I've finished reading it now. Been chipping away in bits for half an hour or so a day, and reallllly paying attention as I go.
I think it's a fantastic book, and I feel like I've learned a helluva lot (to use a McNally vernacular. I quite like his writing style by the way, very accessible and quite amusing, for a yank
)
I just need to get out there and start trying to put some of it in to practice. Oh, and buy another 47 speedlights or so
I'd be keen to hear what other people's thoughts are now you've probably finished it too?
P.S. Is it worth buying The Moment it Clicks? I think I will as I'm an official Joe fan now.
I think it's a fantastic book, and I feel like I've learned a helluva lot (to use a McNally vernacular. I quite like his writing style by the way, very accessible and quite amusing, for a yank
)I just need to get out there and start trying to put some of it in to practice. Oh, and buy another 47 speedlights or so
I'd be keen to hear what other people's thoughts are now you've probably finished it too?
P.S. Is it worth buying The Moment it Clicks? I think I will as I'm an official Joe fan now.
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....I just need to get out there and start trying to put some of it in to practice. Oh, and buy another 47 speedlights or so
I'd be keen to hear what are other people's thoughts are now you've probably finshied it too?
P.S. Is it worth buying The Moment it Clicks too? I think I will as I'm an official Joe fan now.
I'm nearly done, just a few chapters to go, already though my expectations have been utterly surpassed.
The things I have learnt are simply golden. It's completely reshaped my opinion on CLS and using ITTL out in the field.
Just the thought of not having to run to each unit to adjust output and concentration is very appeasing.
Yes, the moment it clicks is superb, continue with your purchase
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Well, your obviously finished with it then, so how's about a fiver for it?!!! Haha! Gonna have to get on Amazon and have a check out if it's as good as this thread says, I need to learn the basics of how to use flash so would I be right in thinking that this+strobist fits the bill?
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I'm nearly done, just a few chapters to go, already though my expectations have been utterly surpassed.
The things I have learnt are simply golden. It's completely reshaped my opinion on CLS and using ITTL out in the field.
Just the thought of not having to run to each unit to adjust output and concentration is very appeasing.
Yes, the moment it clicks is superb, continue with your purchase
Know what you mean about CLS and iTTL. It's still early days for me with off camera flash (and flash in general), and before I read this book I'd been 'persuaded' that full manual flash was the way to go. Hence I bought some skyports etc etc.
Now I'm thinking if it's good enough for Joe, it's more than good enough for me, and I should stick with CLS when at all possible.
He has a lot of situations though when he has to stick an SU-800 off on 1 or even 2 S-28( iI think?) cables to make sure everything fires though. Not sure I can go to the further expense and bother though of all this. Oh, and having a 'Brad' (an assistant or 2) on hand at all times would be a massive help obvioulsy, a luxury many togs can't afford.
Presumably The Mac will be looking at the pocket wizard II's now, surely. Radio triggers with full TTL must be the best solution.....?
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There will always be uses for your triggers, I'd hold on to em, my PW's are going no where
Yeah, he mentions that the SU-800 can work a lot better by linking two off camera flash cords together as an extension, failing that another SB-800 or 900 works well as a master to control the other groups.
Y'know, I'm interested to find out more about the new PW's and what the RRP's are going to be like, I don't know a fat lot at the mo.
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Thinking about it, if the new PW's aren't able to control groups like Nikon's CLS, or if you would need a PW transceiver for each flash then my vote would still be for CLS as each groups output can be managed from your camera.
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I bet there'll be a rush on sales of sheets of CTO now that the book is out
Hacker
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Having had just a quick skim through the book I too am now re-thinking about the Skyports. :bonk: I've used CLS quite a bit and really like the functionality of it, it's just the range issues I have.
Methinks they are going to be dear.
Thinking about it, if the new PW's aren't able to control groups like Nikon's CLS, or if you would need a PW transceiver for each flash then my vote would still be for CLS as each groups output can be managed from your camera.
You've lost me with that one!
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This is the beauty of CLS, say you have 9 Nikon SB900's (yes expensive but were allowed to dream a little), with those 9 SB's you can split them into 3 groups of three with CLS, A,B and C.
You may have group A lighting your subject as the main light, group B could be your side or rim lights and group C could be your background light for example.
All groups are manageable via your camera with the SU-800 or another SB-800 or 900 flash.
The new pocket wizards, despite having ITTL relations will most likely need a separate trigger for each flash where as CLS doesn't. You just need a CLS compatible camera and the SB units with the option of an SU-800 to keep the hive/family working together.
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Re CLS, you need to remember, Joe McNally is a paid Nikon ambassador,some of his solutions (daisy chain a load of SC-29s together and put an SU-800 on the end so that the flashgun can see the signal) are overly complicated and still somewhat unreliable, but need to be that way to use only Nikon products.
If Nikon had their own version of PWs the book would be full of examples of how to use those instead....
If Nikon had their own version of PWs the book would be full of examples of how to use those instead....
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Thats just it, for me it's easier than what I do now, controlling the units via the camera is much simpler, regardless how many off camera cords are used to connect the master units and regardless of whether Joe's a paid Nikon guy.
Having groups and managing them without having to rush around saves time and extends capability.
The only downside is cost, which is unavoidable whichever method we turn to. My PW set is remaining in my inventory, as sometimes distance and signal strength is going to more important, but having the option manage groups of flashes is of serious interest.
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Must say, that's the only bit of the book that puts me on a bit of a downer - the lengths he has to go to to get eveyrthing firing as it should. Kind of works if you're a big budget, assistant clad, lots of time shooter like Joe, more difficult for us lesser mortals perhaps...
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For me the problem is that none of flashguns work with CLS, but then the whole set cost less than one SB-900. I appreciate though that in a commercial setting speed is of the essence.
As long as you are indoors and can set up line-of sight, or even cobble some sort of small reflectors together to direct the signal onto the receiver on the flash then I'd imagine it would be advantageous if all your flashes are CLS compatible.
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I don't see the flash system as a hinderance personally, it's the grips and the diffusion that requires help and assistance and that compliment would be doubled, even tripled if head and pack systems are used instead.
That's kind of the point of the book, big light with small flashes, not big light nice and easy.
Us mortals can always use the help of an assistant for bigger jobs, having up to six SB's on the CLS system, with a skylite panel and maybe umbrellas and softboxes is quite manageable with two peeps onboard.
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Yep, thats the only issue that presents itself for me at the moment, I have one working SB-800.
I'd love a couple 900's but I fear selling organs is the only way of getting there at the mo.
Hacker
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Aha! I see what you mean now, I often use separate channels in CLS so it will be interesting to see if the new PW's can handle this. I'm sure the engineers at PW will have thought of this and I would have hoped they would build in the functionality.
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Indeed mate, I've just had a closer butchers on the pocket wizard site and at the moment, their new TTL devices, the FlexTTL and the miniTTL are for Canon systems only.
The Nikon compatible units are yet to be released, but if they do incorporate all of the functionality of CLS, ie, groups, individual channels and of course ITTL, were in for a nice surprise!
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I was browsing through the shelves at Waterstones in Leeds yesterday and saw three copies of this there. I was tempted to buy it there and then but thought that I should search to see if there were other options out there. Hmmm, ever wish that you'd just gone and bought it? I'm going into Leeds tonight, though not sure when they shut, I may just see if I can order it online and save the hassle.
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How much were Waterstones wanting? It's cheap on Amazon....
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Hmmm, from memory, twice as much as Amazon. Looks like I'll be ordering online. Not going to save anything though as I've also popped Don McCullin's "In England" in my basket while I was passing.
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The Moment It Clicks isn't exactly cheap at the moment. Is it worth the £25 or so, or should I just get Hot Shoe Diaries for half that?
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You can get it new on Amazon Marketplace for as little as £17.74. It is an interesting book and makes you consider your shots more.
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I think I paid £15 for Moment from Amazon at Xmas, but if it's gone way up get Hot Shoe instead,it's pretty similar, in all honesty, but with a bit more flashgun-related stuff added.