I just bought myself some z-240 type 4s from Backscatter, and I've read the manual, well, tried to, is it me or is it very badly translated? Maybe I shouldn't be reading it in bed last thing at night when my eyes are very tired............
I connected the strobes to my D200 with the sync chords, and set the strobes to M (-0.5 > -6) mode and took some test shots of my sofa and tv remote etc and all seems fine. I want to control the strobe power myself, so do I just leave them on that mode and Full mode if I need full power?
Can I just twiddle the power settings as I wish to adjust strobe power or is it recommended that I set the power according to my f-stop ie. the same number? That's what I can make out from the instruction manual, with my tired and frustrated eyes. I am used to Ikelite DS-125s where I just have a few power settings. Can I just treat my Inons the same, but with many more power settings?
Also, there is a little knob thingy on the bottom of the face of the strobe which turns a small black ring onto and off of the strobe face, I think it is called the +1/4 EV Compensation Switch, what on earth does that do?!
And also, I like the focus light feature, and the way it shuts off momentarily when I press the shutter button, I think, but from what I can make out in the manual, if I use sync chords it doesn't actually shut off, although I'm sure it did when I tried it. Anyway, I am wondering if I can use one strobe as a focus light only, and not have it fire a flash when I press the shutter button ie. I just use the other strobe for flash. I couldn't get this to work. I ended up having the focus light on the left strobe and the strobe power on minimum so it only fired very softly. I am worried about backscatter from the strobe which is focus lighting directly at the subject, is that an issue I should be concerned about?
I appreciate any tips, I'm off to Galapagos for the Jim Church photo workshop on Aggressor in August and want to feel a bit more prepared before I go!
Thanks.
