Thursday, September 11, 2014

ControlTL, MILD to WILD!
A project that I have wanted to do for a while.  The concept was a short series of videos explaining and demonstrating the features of the Pocket Wizard ControlTL units.

As it turns out, there is a *crapload* of stuff to talk about when it comes to these top of the line transceivers, and those short videos ended up being quite detailed and long. 

The PW ControlTL units are the most advanced camera triggers on the market and because of that have a bit of a learning curve before people can get proper performance out of them, much less start accessing some of the more advanced features from them.

In the process I am having a bit of fun. First, a few rules I made...
#1, no retakes. How it comes out, that's how it comes out.
#2, I try to cover things in at least a semi-logical order and of course the first video is a bit dry, but covers all the necessary evils that one has to know to be comfy with before we get to the more fun stuff.
#3, no single video will exceed 30 minutes (man do I ever break that rule... lol), most will be less than that (I hope!).
#4, bloopers, if any, are left in. No one is paying me to do this, so I may as well have some fun in the process.

Ok, here we go!



Video #1, I cover the following:

- Detailed descriptions of the FlexTT5, MiniTT1 and AC3.
- Where and how to install batteries with a couple of added hints
- Firmware updates, what they are and how to make them
- Physical setup
- Proper turn on order
- How to do a synchronization shot
- Single group TTL (no commander) the advantages and disadvantages
- Demo of the single TTL group
- Using Flash exposure compensation and how that fits with the ControlTL units.






Video #2, I cover the following:

Video #2 is all about the basics of using commanders in the ControlTL world.  Where #2 covers the theory with examples, video #3 covers practical examples and demonstrations of how each commander works in comparison.








Video #3, I cover the following:
This is all about fleshing out the basics we discussed in #2.  This video is all about using commanders with ControlTL units, and how to take it 1 step further from the single group TTL solution that video #1 ended at.  This video covers all the practical side that #2 left out and shows real life examples of the techniques discussed.

Covered in this video are how to use the following commanders:
- SB-800
- SB-900
- AC3





Video #4, I cover the following:

Video #4 changes gears.  Instead of focusing on one concept and working in the details, in this video we tackle what I feel are the top 10 things you should know about your ControlTL units.

In this video we don't cover the usual 1-2 topics... but 10! Bring the popcorn, watch, learn and enjoy the following topics:

1 - Mix and match older PW units with your ControlTL units!
2 - Introduction to the PW config utility
3 - How to change channels in the PW Config utility
4 - Basic and full reset how-to.
5 - Learn Mode: Change channels without the PW Config utility
6 - Two cameras. One ControlTL environment.
7 - Control flash power with off camera MiniTT1 & AC3
8 - Using the ControlTL units with Sekonic meters
9 - SpeedCycle
10 - How to supercharge your camera's max sync speed



.. and we are not done yet, there are at least 2 more videos planned to come in the near future!

Enjoy!