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A7rII - Nissin Di700a /Godox AD360 Systems wireless flash

Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

Just ordered them. I'm going to buy a third flash when they become available again. Question though how many flashes can we use . I might be doing interiors again as I'm waiting to hear from a client. Big multi million dollar one but I like portable flashes to place behind plants and such as kicker lights plus I have my Dynalites too. But heck if this pans out I would not mind having 5 portables. I also need to sit down and figure out which flash goes to each bank and Mark flash A,B,C so I know when setting up.

I should probably read the freaking manual. Not
 
MikeEvangelist

MikeEvangelist

Member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

Guy Mancuso said:
Question though how many flashes can we use
Click to expand...
The manual doesn't say. But I found this in the press release from when the system was announced:

"The Nissin Commander Air1 can control 3 groups of new Nissin Di700A flash (maximum 21 guns)."

Perfect for a 21-gun salute!
 
D

dmward

Member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

MikeEvangelist said:
The manual doesn't say. But I found this in the press release from when the system was announced:

"The Nissin Commander Air1 can control 3 groups of new Nissin Di700A flash (maximum 21 guns)."

Perfect for a 21-gun salute!
Click to expand...
Not sure if I mentioned this so I'll do it here;
I contacted Nissin to ask if I could use 2 Commanders to control the same speedlites. The answer is No. :-(
I would like to be able to do what I'd with Canon 600EX-RT. i.e. have a commander on each camera body for the same lights.
This means I have to swap the commander back and forth. It also means that having a backup commander would require re-mating each speedlite to the new commander.

Neither option is great at a reception or other event where the speedlites are off camera.
 
D

dmward

Member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

An update for those who are interested.
I've been using the Nissin kit at weddings with A7RII and A7II.
They work well in TTL and manual as one would expect.
The one problem is relatively slow recycle time with the four internal AA batteries.

It took me awhile to realize the plug for external power is a Sony configuration. Once I figured that out I ordered cables to work with my Cheetah/Godox battery packs.
I also discovered that Pixel has a version of the TD382 8 AA cell pack with Sony connector. I used those with my Canon kit and was happy with their reliability.

The cables will be here today. Unfortunately the Pixel packs are coming from China and won't be here till mid-December.

End result, I should have fast recycle times which is a real benefit.

The Cheetah/Godox pack has two ports. With their bare bulb strobes its possible to use a Y connector that combines the two ports into one to improve recycle time. I'm going to try it with the Di700a when I get the cables. Will be interesting to see how it works. If it doesn't introduce too much heat buildup it might be a way to get very short recycle at full power.
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

David I shot last night a bunch of awards and ran into the same issue with battles. Im looking for a solution as well. PLEASE keep me posted. Nissin has a external but its 250 dollars per pack. Thats just too much money as we can buy Indra moonlights or something else.
 
D

dmward

Member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

Here is link to the Cheetah/Godox battery I plan to use.
Elsewhere on the page is the Y cable. Not sure yet if that will be too much. These batteries will deliver about 400 pops with the 300Ws CL360 so should last forever with the Di700a.

Here is link to the Pixel 8 cell pack. I used these for years with Canon speedlites. They are inexpensive, reliable and have two circuits of 4 cells each. That way, if a battery goes flat, the other circuit will continue to recharge the speedlite. The other advantage is that they are smaller than the Lithium Ion packs and fit easily in a pocket.

I'll post Sunday or Monday about what I learned Saturday.
 
JMaher

JMaher

New member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

David,

Looking forward to your results. I recently used the lights on a shoot and ended up raising my ISO to get faster recycle times. I like both of the options you suggested. I used the Pixel packs in the past with Canon gear with excellent results and I have two of the Godox batteries in my lighting bag. that I use with a Godox 360 and 180.
Jim
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

So I ordered 2 Cables through Amazon. Than I ordered a used Excellent Plus flashpoint pack for 110.00 from Adorama

Ill try it than order a second pack. One pack for each head
 
D

dmward

Member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

The cables I ordered arrived late this morning.
Quick test with the Cheetah/Godox Li-Ion pack. Recycle time at full power as fast as I can say "thousand 1"

Put another way; Setting the shutter to Continuous Low resulted in no missed frames at up to 1/2 power.
With the speedlite in ETTL mode HSS enabled, it also kept up with the shutter at 1/500 second.

I went into the backyard and did a quick fill-in test. Camera set to Av with Continuous Low, minus 1EV exposure compensation, flash kept up with shutter.
 
D

dmward

Member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

Wondered about Flash Compensation in TTL mode.
Turns out that its additive between camera setting and speedlite setting. Not sure that one gets 5EV but the frame with both set to max is significantly brighter than with just one set to max.
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

I'm thinking of selling all my Dynalites heads and pack. Get some more battery options. When I need real lights I can rent from Tempe camera 30 miles from me. They have a full line of Profoto gear I can rent. Anyone interest in studio strobes let me know. I need to figure out my whole system and costs but I have a 1600 watt pack and 3 heads plus a ton of accessories .
 
D

dmward

Member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

Guy Mancuso said:
I'm thinking of selling all my Dynalites heads and pack. Get some more battery options. When I need real lights I can rent from Tempe camera 30 miles from me. They have a full line of Profoto gear I can rent. Anyone interest in studio strobes let me know. I need to figure out my whole system and costs but I have a 1600 watt pack and 3 heads plus a ton of accessories .
Click to expand...
Guy,
I can sympathize. I had a full kit of Einsteins. Including the very good Li-Ion battery packs. I sold them after I started using the Cheetah/Godox bare bulb units. Very light, the 360 is 300 Ws and its easy to put two of them into a large modifier if necessary. The system ranges from V850s which are manual speedlites to the 360, all controlled by same triggering system. Those, along with the Nissin 700 Air system gets the job done.
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

David I'm noticing that the flashpoint battery and the Godox battery look the same. I could use them with the correct cable on either Godox or Nissin. Do you have a image of the Godox cable end or the unit itself.

From some reading it looks like quantum cables as well. It looks like a standard. What I could do is get 2 360 heads Godox units and buy one more Nissin. That would give me 3 big batteries. 2 Godox heads and 3 Nissin. What transmitter?
 
JMaher

JMaher

New member
Re: A7rII and Nissin Di700a wireless flash

Guy,

Flashpoint are just re-branded Godox units as are Cheetah and a few others. The connection to the battery remains the same. What you need to look out for are the cable connections to the flash unit. This changed a few times over the past few years. They all use a Godox FT-16 trigger (or re-branded unit) which controls many lights at a time. The control unit is very elegant and allows you to control flash power individually from the trigger. It is a very good system just lacking the ETTL capability of the Nissin. The portable units do not have a modeling light if that is important to you. Godox also makes inexpensive studio lights that use the same triggering method. I have used these for a few years.

I don't know if the Quantum cables have the same connection but I don't think they do.

Jim
 
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