L358 Wired, Unwired, and Radio Flash Metering

I'm seriously thinking about picking one of these up and have been to the website and perused the manual, but I'm confused about the PW radio trigger feature. If you can get a reading using the unwired feature why would you want to buy the radio trigger. It appeared that the meter might no be able to register the flash unwired if the flash level was relatively close to the ambient light level: is this true and if so how close is too close.

I have Skyports and want to know if I will be happy using this meter w/o a wire. I would probally have my camera around my neck, walk over to where I want to take a reading, enable unwired flash metering, and fire my flashes using the test button on my Skyport transmitter. Is that the best way to do it.

Would there be any situations where the wire would be necessary?

Thanks.

I don't know what you mean by "unwired" mode. To meter a strobe without the PW feature you have to either plug the sync cord into the strobe, or hold the light meter and hit the test button on the flash. The PW transmitter just makes life easier. I suspect there's a gap in your knowledge of flash metering, it'll all become clear once you buy one.

With Skyports you have to use one of the methods above, unless you plug the meter into a skyport transmitter, which I presume would work but i've not tried yet.

tim wrote in post #5919018
I don't know what you mean by "unwired" mode. To meter a strobe without the PW feature you have to either plug the sync cord into the strobe, or hold the light meter and hit the test button on the flash. The PW transmitter just makes life easier. I suspect there's a gap in your knowledge of flash metering, it'll all become clear once you buy one.

With Skyports you have to use one of the methods above, unless you plug the meter into a skyport transmitter, which I presume would work but i've not tried yet.

Excuse me, it's corded, uncorded, and wireless instead of wired, unwired, and radio, but the question is the same. This is all straight out of the users manual. I'm confused about the benafits of corded vs uncorded; I assume that radio has all the benafits of corded.

I don't know, I never read the manual, I just know how to use it:
- Plug the meter into the lights, put it into 'trigger mode', hit the button on the meter, light fires and is metered.
- Don't plug the meter into the lights, set the meter to 'watch for a flash mode', and somehow trigger the lights - usually with the test button.
- The PW mode is the same as my first point above, without the inconvenience of a cord.

tim wrote in post #5919198
I don't know, I never read the manual, I just know how to use it:
- Plug the meter into the lights, put it into 'trigger mode', hit the button on the meter, light fires and is metered.
- Don't plug the meter into the lights, set the meter to 'watch for a flash mode', and somehow trigger the lights - usually with the test button.
- The PW mode is the same as my first point above, without the inconvenience of a cord.

Ok, my question is what is the benafit of #1 (or #3) over #2. Are there situations where #2 won't do and you need to use #1 (or #3)?

With #2 you will often need one person holding the light meter and one person pushing the test button on the strobe(s). If you have long enough arms you should be right

If you use your Skyports to fire your flash you can fire them by pushing the test button on the camera unit. I use the AB RFT1s (CyberSync on order) and that's what I do.

Set the L-358 to Auto Reset cordless flash mode, push the measure button, push the test button on the trigger. I actually ordered a second transmitter for backup and use it to trip the flash if the camera is on a tripod.

Bottom line - you should be fine without wires and without PWs.

As to whether the L-358 will allow you to measure in the situation you describe I wouldn't know. I've not been there.

Titus213 wrote in post #5919433
If you use your Skyports to fire your flash you can fire them by pushing the test button on the camera unit. I use the AB RFT1s (CyberSync on order) and that's what I do.

Set the L-358 to Auto Reset cordless flash mode, push the measure button, push the test button on the trigger. I actually ordered a second transmitter for backup and use it to trip the flash if the camera is on a tripod.

Bottom line - you should be fine without wires and without PWs.

Sweet, thanks.

OK so does anyone have agood link on how to use the flash meter? I understand that if I meter a model w/ my on camera meter and set the exposure to 0 they will come out more or less middle gray. How do you use the light meter to get the exposure you want taking into consideration skin tone? I can see how the meter would help you to get your ratios, but I don't understand how an ambient meter better tyhan a reflective meter for setting the shadows.

http://ilovephotograph​y.com/L358.html

Here's one I just got in email: http://sekonic.wordpre​ss.com …ography-1-on-1-episode-2/