phil_bradon

<p>Hi Chad. Certainly interesting piece of history. RF noise was a pretty big problem early on. PocketWizard found a pretty interesting thing to contain it. They now go the distance. And now offer some pretty amazing improvements in the Canon Flash system.<br>

Check this out.<br>

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<p >Might check out the recently finished Mark Wallace US MeetUP tour. 2-1/2 months, 8 cities. Lots of happy PocketWizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 owners.</p>

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<p >Phil Bradon</p>

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Did CTPA say they had a calibration body for the CMIIIF? Without one, the meter cannot be brought back to proper calibration once serviced. As much as I loved the CMIIIF (I was on the design team that created it), I have to caution that the non-service issue should be considered carefully before purchase of one. Might be different if Kenko decided to help out and service them (have to assume that they have a calibration body for their version of the meter). That said, I am now working with Sekonic and have had some time with the C-500. Nice meter. I expect it to be very big in Hollywood. If you are shooting digital, and who isn't, you should look at the meter to clean up the light in front of your camera. If working with only one light source, using the white balance features of your camera or software is the way to go. If you are dealing with more that one, an expo disk will not save you. You will end up with color casts on subjects closer to any given light source (green for fluorescent, orange for tungsten, blue for daylight). The answer is light-source filtration. Balance lights to clean things up or to arrive at a common color that can be adjusted or corrected by a white balance.

Sorry hear about your Precision experience. Not surprised though. The most important problem they caused was losing the calibration bodies when all of the calibration equipment was moved from KM up to Precision. One more possibility. Try Nippon Camera in NYC. NipponPC@aol.com. See if Casey is still around. Tell him that I mentioned the possibility. They might just have the parts. However, calibration will still be an issue because of the above. All of that said. Check out the new Sekonic C-500R. It is calibrated for film as are all standard color meters and human spectral response which is what Digital cameras are designed for. Less expensive than the Kenko (Minolta).

Did you send your CMIIIF to Precision? Were they able to service it?