E-TTL Studio Strobe?

[brightondale]

Perhaps a newbie question I know, but can someone tell me why there isn't a company to offer studio strobes that utilize E-TTL metering with the features we see on Speedlites like FEC, ratio control, etc?

[davemphoto]

I don't think any company wants to develop any gear specific to a camera manufacturer. Canon's ETTL is different than Nikon's iTTL. Only PocketWizard is doing it but only radio triggers and they've had issues with Canon flashes and the Nikon version has been over a year and still no release date. It's a headache for any company to go this route.

However, Canon or Nikon should develop their own brand of studio lights that uses their system. Considering the cost of existing small flashes, studio strobes by Canon or Nikon would be very expensive. Remember neither of them use radio triggers for their off camera light systems, which have limitations. If they built radio triggers into the camera and flashes, then they could start incorporating them into studio strobes. I don't see any of that happening soon.