Survey: Sony Compatibility with Flash Lighting

Hey there,

I'd like to determine demand for Sony compatibility with advanced off-camera and on-camera flash features such as HSS and TTL. Can you guys let me know what features you want, specifically as Sony photographers? Do you guys currently have any triggers, systems or flashes that you use already that provide advanced functionality, and if so, would you change anything about these systems?

Cheers,
Product Dev

I can give you a fairly complete product features list.
First I'd like to know what company, and an idea about time to market.

Creating a survey is useful to you but what's the benefit to us?

There is already quite a bit of on/off Flash compatibility w/ Sony, so I'm wondering if this is someone that wants to do a startup and is trying gain information or not.
yes, I have triggers but they do not support HSS, but they are available if i want to pay for them, as with anything else.
The request is to vague for me to provide a button push on your poll.

Honestly, I would like to see something that could rival the YN622 system for Canon/Nikon in terms of price/performance. But I really don't know anything about Sony's existing off camera TTL system.

dmward wrote in post #17668157
I can give you a fairly complete product features list.

I'm all ears.

Can't do that. We'd be tipping our hand to our competitors. All I can say is that the more demand there is for Sony compatibility, the more we can prioritize this feature over other projects that we're working on.

I think it's mutually beneficial. How often do you get your gear wishlist fulfilled? Honestly, this is the first time I've used the POTN survey feature and I didn't realize that I couldn't edit it later, so I'm interested more in the following posts than necessarily the poll itself.

DagoImaging wrote in post #17668363
There is already quite a bit of on/off Flash compatibility w/ Sony, so I'm wondering if this is someone that wants to do a startup and is trying gain information or not.
yes, I have triggers but they do not support HSS, but they are available if i want to pay for them, as with anything else.
The request is to vague for me to provide a button push on your poll.

I actually didn't know how the poll function works and set it up incorrectly, so I'd rather just get general input here. There are triggers with HSS/TTL compatibility with a strobe? Could you direct me to them? If they already exist, that would change our perspective.

bacchanal wrote in post #17668608
Honestly, I would like to see something that could rival the YN622 system for Canon/Nikon in terms of price/performance. But I really don't know anything about Sony's existing off camera TTL system.

Thanks a bunch! Do you want this for just transmitting purposes with a dedicated strobe or also to also act as a receiver for Sony's pre-existing TTL/HSS on-camera flashes?

idkdc wrote in post #17668751
I'm all ears.

Can't do that. We'd be tipping our hand to our competitors. All I can say is that the more demand there is for Sony compatibility, the more we can prioritize this feature over other projects that we're working on.

I think it's mutually beneficial. How often do you get your gear wishlist fulfilled? Honestly, this is the first time I've used the POTN survey feature and I didn't realize that I couldn't edit it later, so I'm interested more in the following posts than necessarily the poll itself.

Take the best features of Phottix Indira, Godox v860, Canon 600EX-RT and combine them into a system that extends from Speedlites to 600Ws monolights.

The ideal system will be able to control via an on-camera speedlite or a control trigger (think Canon) that permits controlling multiple channels, with multiple lights in a complex lighting scheme. The Buff Cyber Commander controller, if it had TTL capabilities is a reasonable model.

And, the price points have to be closer to Yongnou and Nissin that to Profoto.

dmward wrote in post #17669290
Take the best features of Phottix Indira, Godox v860, Canon 600EX-RT and combine them into a system that extends from Speedlites to 600Ws monolights.

The ideal system will be able to control via an on-camera speedlite or a control trigger (think Canon) that permits controlling multiple channels, with multiple lights in a complex lighting scheme. The Buff Cyber Commander controller, if it had TTL capabilities is a reasonable model.

And, the price points have to be closer to Yongnou and Nissin that to Profoto.

Thanks. What do you like on the Buff Cyber Commander vs. other triggers? The 10 channels or the monolight remote refreshing?

I'll eat my words since the couple I was aware of that "used" to exist seem to no longer be around. I'll take that as false claims to their ability.

DagoImaging wrote in post #17670695
I'll eat my words since the couple I was aware of that "used" to exist seem to no longer be around. I'll take that as false claims to their ability.

Yeah, I agree, there's something fishy going on with those promised products.

Cyber Commander permits setting up one or more lighting schemes and saving them in memory. That's one benefit.

The way I used it most often was to setup a lighting scheme. Often with 5 lights, set ratio between main and fill, get the kicker just right and then get the two background lights set to ensure white without excessive flare around model. With everything set for one exposure i.e. F8 at ISO 100. I could then move the whole lighting scheme up or down if I wanted to change F stop. Or, if I wanted to change a ratio I could dial that into the scheme and everything else would remain related.

It wasn't the easiest interface but it worked like a charm.

The Canon 600EX-RT system permitted similar capabilities when combined with FEC in the camera.

The just released Nissan NAS appears to offer similar capabilities for speedlites based on my early testing.

TTL, is an extremely useful tool when understood and applied properly. With the proper system design (Canon, Nissan) it offers substantial advantages to improve productivity on location.

Been begging Profoto for TTL/HSS remotes for the a7 series for several months now. The B1 and B2 series are so nice! All I get back is the usual "We can not comment on future products. Stay tuned." That said, I'd be interested in lighting similarly priced with the same quality. Bring it to market & take my money.

The problem with TTL is that each manufacturer has developed their own protocol to control the process.
A third party, such as Profoto has to reverse engineer the protocols for each manufacturer's implementation and then install it into the device.

Companies such as Yongnou, Nissin, Phottix and others have accomplished this for multiple manufacturers.

Nissin has a nice solution with the Di700 NAS, and Phottix has a promising solution with Mitros +, Odin, and Indra.

Profoto is probably too arrogant to license the reverse engineered firmware from anyone so will have to invest the engineering resources to accomplish the reverse engineering themselves.

And, given their customer profile, there will have to be a lot of professional interest to justify the effort.

When Phottix gets the Odin II done and working with Canon, Nikon and Sony, they will be the system to beat.

dmward wrote in post #17694720
The problem with TTL is that each manufacturer has developed their own protocol to control the process.
A third party, such as Profoto has to reverse engineer the protocols for each manufacturer's implementation and then install it into the device.

Companies such as Yongnou, Nissin, Phottix and others have accomplished this for multiple manufacturers.

Nissin has a nice solution with the Di700 NAS, and Phottix has a promising solution with Mitros +, Odin, and Indra.

Profoto is probably too arrogant to license the reverse engineered firmware from anyone so will have to invest the engineering resources to accomplish the reverse engineering themselves.

And, given their customer profile, there will have to be a lot of professional interest to justify the effort.

When Phottix gets the Odin II done and working with Canon, Nikon and Sony, they will be the system to beat.

Word on the grapevine is that Phottix will not release an Odin II for Sony.