Originally posted by GeneV I had expected the older AF400T to be the big winner, but it was not. Manual settings are used in the training procedure, and the manual settings of the AF400T are limited and do not mesh well with the V6 training.
Two manual levels only make profiling a challenge. You should be able to skip the non-supported levels in the training but in any event such a profile will not be very accurate.
Have you tried another Pentax profile for a flash with a similar guide number?
That could result in something usable, even if the guide numbers aren't that close.
What happens when you use the AF 360 FGZ profile, for instance?
One last thing you could try is to "cheat" in the training. If you happen to have a one-stop ND filter, you can use that in front of the flash when the training asks for 1/2 power. You could just leave the flash at 1/1 power and simulate the 1/2 (and other) level(s) with filter(s), or -- but now it gets really hacky -- by altering the distance of the flash to the bounce surface. Increasing the distance by a factor of ~1.4 (square root of 2) should halve the light intensity. In practice, this won't work precisely because the flash pattern isn't entirely even and you'll get additional room bounce, etc. But, heck, I'd try it. It won't cost anything except a bit of battery charge and 30min of time, or so.
Originally posted by GeneV Does the V6II as a receiver work well with the power commands and channels of the V6 transmitter?
It should, but I guess at this point no one knows yet. Cactus have posted that they are planning to release a firmware for the V6 that will make it compatible with the V6II. I was a beta-tester for the V6II but have never seen even an alpha version of that V6 firmware.
Given their past choices, I expect Cactus to provide as much compatibility as possible. They already said that a V6 won't be able to function as an HSS receiver, but they will make it capable of being a PowerSync receiver if one uses a V6II sender.
From a technical perspective I don't see why a V6 sender should not be able to instruct a V6II receiver to fire a digital flash with a certain power level and zoom setting. Whether the V6 firmware update will actually support this scenario remains to be seen, though.