The new Nissin Di700A & Air 1 wireless TTL flash for Sony

I used the great wireless i-TTL flash for many years with my Nikon DSLRs and after switching to Sony some time ago I was missing this wireless TTL flash most.
Many weeks ago I read about the new Nissin flashes here at SAR and tried to order them. Many dealers offered the flash and some the commander Air1 too, but no one could deliver! I had to wait several weeks, till I got the kit set and one extra flash unit.

I want to mention, that I payed for the gear and do this post for the readers of SAR!
you find the following pictures here in my flickr album

Here is what I got.

The camera is the A7RII with the Zeiss Batis 2/25mm. The Air 1 commander is mounted on the camera, the two flashes are mounted on the included stands and you can see the box with the batteries. Nissin offers extra battery holders for a fast replacement of batteries during shooting. They also offer extra power boosters. If you want more info go to the Nissin homepage.

The A7RII with the Zeiss Otus 1.4/85 and the Nissin Di700A (do some exercises
for you arm befor you start shooting :-) )

I would like to share with you how I used the flashes.

Let’s start with a typical setup for a portrait.

One flash simply bounced against the white wall and ceiling.

Sony A7RII with Zeiss Makro-Planar 2/100@f/5.6

And one flash with a silver umbrella reflector

Sony A7RII with Zeiss Otus 1.4/85@ f/4

Next is a test with the use of HSS (high-speed synchronization)

This HSS also works with the A7R and even with the NEX-6!!

A7RII with Otus 1.4/85@ f/4 and 1/640. One flash and umbrella reflector.

I reduced the exposure of the background by -3 EV. With shorter exposure times you can of course eliminate the ambient light completely.

the same situation with automatic exposure without flash, f/4

Macro

Sony A7RII with Zeiss Makro-Planar 2/100 ZE@ f/11,

one remote flash outdoor

Sony A7RII with Micro Nikkor PC 85mm/2.8
light tent, two flashes left and right

Stills

Sony A7RII with Zeiss Makro-Planar 2/100@ f/11 light tent, two flashes left and right

Same set up, the exposures with white object and black object are both perfect!

Architecture

All with Sony A7RII and Zeiss Batis 2/25mm@ f/2.5, 1/250, ISO 100 first without flash

Two flashes in front of the building, same camera and lens, same time

Again two flashes positioned next to the camera, f/2.0, same time, distance to the building about 40m!

and last but not least

Digitizing with Sony A7RII for slide/film

copy slides and negatives with 5.300 DPI, exposure controlled with TTL

The set up:
this is a normal bellows, in this case for Nikon, with a slide duplicator adapter. The lens is a Leica Focotar 4.5/50mm enlarger lens. You will get enlarger lenses for very good prices now. It is set on f/11. Or look for “Slide Duplicator”, I just saw one for 87$ including the bellows.

There are not many scanners, that can do it and with this set up you need only seconds per “scan”, no scanner is that fast. For 6 negatives you need about 20 seconds, every image ist perfectly exposed.

To protect the lens against the flash, I put some dark paper over the lens and the slide holder. Not used here for better demonstrating the set up.

What I like:
the price
the menu system
wireless radio (tested up to 30m, may be more), not IR
zoom reflector from 24-200mm and 16mm
three groups of multiple flashes
individual remote control of exposure and zoom reflector for every group
remote control of TTL with/without HSS or manual exposure from 1/1 to 1/128

What I don’t like
—

I hope, these infos are helpful for you

regards

dierk

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dierktopp/