[inkista]

Yep, but TTL's irrelevant in a multiple light setup. ...

Unless you have a system that does TTL group ratios (e.g., you can set Groups A:B as key and fill to have a 4:1 ratio). Granted, I think only Profoto Air supports that at this time for Nikon and Canon. And it can still be useful just for setting up your key, particularly if you have a TTL lock feature on your triggers.

...And what do you do when the first customer in the group has a Canon, the next Nikon, and their friend Olympus?

TTL is brand specific.

Make a system that can autoswitch TTL between those systems.

With Godox X gear, Canon, Nikon, and Olympus shooters can share the same off-camera lights with TTL in the same shoot. I believe the NIssin Air 10s will also do this, as do the Profoto Air and Cactus V6II triggering systems.

I would agree that TTL isn't a have-to-have feature historically, any more than autofocus was for most of the existence of photography. But they sure are nice to have.

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Last edited by inkista; 09-06-2018 at 04:36 PM.

[clackers]

Unless you have a system that does TTL group ratios (e.g., you can set Groups A:B as key and fill to have a 4:1 ratio).

It still makes no sense.

Say your model has 1/3 of her face lit by the key, she's looking back at you. If you get her to turn her head toward the key so that now 2/3 of her face is lit by it, with TTL, the hair light and fill and background suddenly all go darker.

That's why you set these things up manually, and leave them, for consistency.

I use P-TTL at events because only a single flash is involved, and it's run and gun shooting.

Instead of paying for something like an AD600 (why that power rating? Even a speedlight on full power will be too much inside a room), a battery pack (AC technology is simpler and cheaper), HSS (you're in a studio, you're not overpowering sun, your shutter speed when you stop down to black is 1/1000s anyway), heavy (you have to have quality robust stands, and holding on the end of a monopod is hard), you have to cope with the recycle delay of any battery system, and TTL (see the problems above), I reckon buy *several* cheap mains monolights for the same money, and still have the cash for a really big octabox, a couple of strip boxes, a beauty dish and ring flash diffuser.

I have an AD360 II and Cactus V6 II triggers myself so it's a setup that can do HSS, but I rarely use it. Speedlights do pretty much everything I shoot. Hobbyists can buy three or four Yongnuos and the TX controller for them for almost nothing compared to real studio gear.

[inkista]

It still makes no sense.

Say your model has 1/3 of her face lit by the key, she's looking back at you. If you get her to turn her head toward the key so that now 2/3 of her face is lit by it, with TTL, the hair light and fill and background suddenly all go darker.

That's why you set these things up manually, and leave them, for consistency.

Or set these things up in TTL and use TTL lock to leave them in M for consistency. TTL can get you there faster if you want the freedom to still mess about with light-to-subject distance, iso, or aperture while figuring out your setup, or you need to do multiple setups and flow from one to the other dynamically. And TTL lock lets you have shot-to-shot consistency thereafter. TTL lock's been a thing on Profoto Airs for three years, but Cactus and Godox only brought them in the V6II and XPro this year, so not a lot of folks have had the opportunity to play with this feature, yet.

... Instead of paying for something like an AD600 (why that power rating? Even a speedlight on full power will be too much inside a room),

Kinda depends on the size of the room and the height of the ceiling, and the size of the group you're shooting yes? But also if you want to stop fast action and use HSS for, say, sports outside... or to speed up recycle by using a lower power setting.

a battery pack (AC technology is simpler and cheaper),

If you price out, say, a Paul Buff Einstein ($500) and a Vagabond Mini ($249), it comes to about the same price as an AD600 ($750). And the pack requires being cabled, instead of being integrated into the strobe. Simpler/cheaper depends on your POV, and whether you're going to be shooting on location far far away from A/C outlets. OP said hummingbirds were a subject.

HSS (you're in a studio, you're not overpowering sun, your shutter speed when you stop down to black is 1/1000s anyway),

And if you're on location shooting in sunny-16 conditions, having to stop fast motion with sports? Or you'll still get motion blur with hummingbirds' wings at even 1/1000s?

heavy (you have to have quality robust stands, and holding on the end of a monopod is hard),

It's no heavier than a lot of other AC monolights. And, as I pointed out, you can actually separate the head of an AD600 onto the extension head, and have the heavier battery portion of the light in a pack on your back or at your waist if doing VALS duty with one. It's mostly only the bulb of the AD600 you have to hoist overhead if you have the AD-H600, too. A lot of AD600 users love it for boom work.

you have to cope with the recycle delay of any battery system,

True. But you're also not tripping over cables or lugging a battery pack along with the strobe out on location. It all depends on what the OP means by "studio"; whether that's literally for use in a studio with a wall plug nearby all the time, or out on location only occasionally or routinely.

and TTL (see the problems above),

So you put it in M, or you spend less money and get the AD600M, because you don't need no stinkin' TTL. Choice is good.

I reckon buy *several* cheap mains monolights for the same money, and still have the cash for a really big octabox, a couple of strip boxes, a beauty dish and ring flash diffuser.

Agreed. For a studio-only shooter, this is a better choice. But the OP mentioned hummingbirds. I don't think hummingbirds are often to be found inside studios. And they move really really fast mostly in areas where you can't kill the ambient and let the flash freeze the motion for you.

I have an AD360 II and Cactus V6 II triggers myself so it's a setup that can do HSS, but I rarely use it. Speedlights do pretty much everything I shoot.

Me, too (personally, I'd be doing a speedlight setup for OCF with hummingbirds around a feeder). And that's great. But the OP's not you or me.