Pixapro CITI600 TTL on location
The first time I took my Pixapro CITI600 TTL portable battery flash on location, in typical English fashion the sun disappeared behind cloud and rain so I didn’t bother testing the high-speed sync facility as planned.
This Ed Nugent; Ed is one of life’s nice guys, a nurseryman, grower & plantsman who’s worked with plants since leaving school, including exhibiting at the internationally renowned Chelsea Flower Show in London. He and his wife Josie have just established a new plant nursery Garden Sage not too far from the studio I work from in Burgess Hill. I popped in to a) see what was in offer & b) buy some herbs plants - as you do, we got talking as Ed was on hand to welcome the customers, a great touch and testament to his desire for the nursery to succeed. He even agreed to be photographed for my Sussex Photographer blog!
As I said at the beginning, they day became very grey thick cloud & rain making for a a very cool look to the images which didn’t really give the look I wanted. To compensate for this I added ½ CTB (Colour Temperature Blue) gel - LEE Filters 202 ½ CT Blue, took a grey balance reference close to Ed’s face to correct in post-processing. This gave me the warmer background area not lit by the flash.
The CITI600 TTL battery mono bloc flash head was mounted to a 20" sliding leg Kupo Grip C-stand with a 40" boom - I find this a very stable & versatile configuration for most lights from Speedlites through to bulky mains powered studio heads. It’s essential to remember that when rigging any light stand that one of the legs MUST bender the load of the light & boom for optimum stability.
The soft box is the Pixapro 60cm portable beauty dish (silver inside) with the front diffuser in place, but not the inner deflector. This modifier has a recessed diffuser panel allowing a egg crate grid (supplied) to add more direction & less spill to the light.
As this is a TTL unit I used the TTL facility in conjunction with the Pixapro ST-III T (Canon) trigger. My camera was set to Av with -‚Öî stop exposure compensation dialled in. The flash was set to TTL via the trigger & an initial exposure compensation of -1 dialled in (this was established with a number of controlled Fred Tests prior to use). When using the CITI600 TTL you’ll notice that any exposure compensation does not appear on the head display; this doesn’t mean the flash doesn’t recognise the trigger commands, it’s just the head is designed to work with both Canon & Nikon camera systems. This may or may not change with future firmware upgrades.
The first frame was a bit hot (over-exposed) so I dialled in -2 stops exposure compensation on the Pixapro ST-III T (Canon) trigger. and was ready to go. The light was not that challenging so for the short duration of the shoot I didn’t need to change this.
Given the ambient light conditions, camera Av TTL exposure was ISO 160, ƒ/4, 1/160th sec.
The CITI600 TTL is a welcome addition to my portable lighting gear as it fits nicely when I need a wide aperture ƒ/stop for shallow depth of field (DoF) effects which with conventional portable battery flash are not possible without the use of a camera lens 0.9 solid ND filter which darkens the view finder & reduces the exposure overall requiring more flash power. I will have Speedlites in my kit, which on average are 80w/s compared to the mighty 600w/s of the CITI600 TTL at full power:)
During a controlled location Fred Test I’ve achieved with a 45° Long Focus Reflector
in place (honeycomb grid not fitted), ƒ/22 at 4m (13ft) in bright sunlight, Manual 1/1, camera ISO 100, 1/50th sec.
The Pixapro CITI600 TTL is also available in a non-TTL version.
Pixapro CITI600 TTL Key Features:
- TTL auto exposure Canon & Nikon with appropriate trigger, variable over a ±3 stop range in ‚Öì stop increments.
- Manual from 1/1 to 1/256th power - a firmware upgrade is required for the ST-III T rigger at the time of writing as the trigger only goes to 1/128th power. Be aware that the firmware upgrade is only PC, not Mac for now and the download page is in Chinese.
- Multi stroboscopic flash with variable frequency.
- 32 channels and 5 groups.
- 10w CoB LED modelling light with three power levels.
Of special interest to some will be the flash tube which is user replaceable and has a protective glass cover - reducing the risk of damage or electric shock from an exposed flash tube.
The design of the flash tube projects as well as radiating light improving efficiency with most Pixapro reflectors and modifiers - Speedlites and the Profoto B1 & B2 have concealed flash tubes very much like a Speedlite so only project light! The LED modelling light is positioned to project light through the flash tube and gives a surprisingly accurate preview.
Very soon a remote lead will be available for the head which means the power supply & flash head will be separate, very much like the Elinchrom Quadra system - one of the reasons which attracted me to the system originally was low mass on the top of a light stand when on location outside.
Also, not the construction of the 60cm portable beauty dish, very durable and not dissimilar to the Elinchrom Rotalite range of flash modifiers.
The instruction manual is clear & concise. These days a paper manual is a bonus as much of the time manuals and user guides are PDF download for DIY printing.
I highly recommend the Pixapro brand products available from https://www.essentialphoto.co.uk - Yang Wu and the team offer a superb level of customer service (yes, I have experienced it) both on the telephone and by the website Live Chat!
That’s it for now and don’t forget if you really enjoy lighting to visit and join The LIGHT Side - a place to learn, be mentored, nurtured and learn about lighting, lighting and photography, whatever your level or experience.
