cyber commander and ambient light

Will the PCB cyber commander measure ambient light? I'm considering buying the sekonic l-358 but if I buy another einstein and the cyber commander I don't think I need the sekonic. Any thoughts?

Yes...set one of your channels up to a light of type "unknown" with no light connected to it.
Select that light in the CC and press the pop/meter button.
You now have an ambient reading!

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=lQrOtxNMSBQ

Well lookie there - that's an awesome tip guys. Regarding the metering video, shouldn't the dome be facing the camera position???? Your measuring light falling on a subject from a specific angle, not how much light the subject reflects back to the camera position.

Regarding the Sekonic vs. CC - after this little tidbit of info, I'm much less woried about the differences. The CC blows the Sekonic out of the water with remote power and 'easier' multi light readings vs. combined exposure. The one missing feature that I would enjoy for the CC to have is the Sekonic's ambient/flash ratio. That feature alone would give you an awesome understanding of how much 'strobe' light you are really throwing into a scene. i.e. 30% = a good heavy fill, 70% = a medium main light and 100% = blasted in an ambient/stobe outdoor scene.

Ohh, its much easier to change ISO on the Sekonic - in the heat of the moment with the CC you will FAIL. Its almost easier to calc in whole stop ISO increments and do the math in your head. Same goes with any type of ND or Pola filter situation that you need to compensate an fStop or multiples. IIRC, the Sekonic would allow for 2 ISO options that could be transposed in realtime.

Believe me, I'm not trying to convince you to go with the Sekonic - just throwing out some of my findings. The CC in your pocket or even on top of a camera is gold!

Thanks for all the info. I believe I'll be buying the CC and hopefully another einstein.

I agree that the sekonic is much more intuitive andoffers flash to ambient ratios, but once you understand lighting; you might find that chimping is faster as a whole. Plus the time you save running back and forth to the lights is invaluable.

MrScott wrote in post #14731966
Well lookie there - that's an awesome tip guys. Regarding the metering video, shouldn't the dome be facing the camera position???? Your measuring light falling on a subject from a specific angle, not how much light the subject reflects back to the camera position.

The metering of the CC is fairly obsolete once the CC is on the camera in shooting position. At least I never use it when shooting.

If I need to meter I remove the CC from the camera and walk out and meter away at the subject.

Old thread but had a question.
Can the Cyber commander read the light from the strobe rather than just ambient like the sekonic can or should I also invest into a light meter anyways??