PocketWizard with Flash guns Help

J

Jon.S

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Jon
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Hi,
After a bit of help if anyone is able to assist?

I am using my Pocketwizard Plus II's to try and use some off camera flash.
Now I have used the PW's for the remote camera with good success, But with flash I am having some issues.

Setup I am trying for starters,
PW with the camera body, and a 550ex or 58ex (tried both) off the camera with the PW connected via a female hot shoe adapter.

Now I have the PW on the camera hot shoe (have tried solo and with a PW to PC cable)
The flashgun I have the other PW connected to via a PW to female hot shoe adapter. (Flash is set in manual mode to my desired settings)

PW on the camera transmit mode is set to 'Both' and the PW with the flash is set to 'Both' (Have tried the flash on all of the transmit settings.)

Now the set up works mint apart from one thing..

When I bang off a sequence of shots in continuous shooting the flash only fires for the first shot and nothing else.
Now if I bang a load off but quickly release the shutter in between each shot the flash fires as many times as I select it to continuously.

Anyone know why the flash is not firing more than once when I hold the shutter down for a continuous burst during a sequence?
I am sure the PW's are supposed to allow this to happen?

Okay it is no major shakes if I have to quickly release the shutter and carry on like that for say the 6 shots that I need, but the time loss of doing this is the difference between catching the right shot when for example a bike is in the air doing a trick, And some times when focusing on something as small as a mountain bike this method can throw the focusing as well so potentially I could miss the shot all together.

I've got a set of Yongnuo's and I can hold the shutter down and the flash will fire as many times as possible but the PW's seem to not be able to do this :-(

Hope I have explained the problem clear enough..

Thanks,

Regards,
Jon
 
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Sounds like the flash can't recycle fast enough. No gun will only keep up with continuous shooting except at very low power.

Or could be low batteries in the PWs.
 
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I thought that with the recycle speed but the light is ready on the flash to go straight away especially on low power and when I am releasing the shutter and taking the next photo quickly (which is the only way it seems to flash quite a few times) it recycles on the money which is split seconds in between shots.
Also if it was the flash not recycling fast enough the Yongnuo's would not work? but they do and give up to 8 flashes on low power during a continuous burst from the camera.

Just tried new batteries in the PW's as I didn't think to try that and same problem, Bugger. It must be something relating to the PW's but I can't put my finger on it.

Spent about a hour searching the net and found nothing, Emailed PW but guess it may be a month or so before I get a reply.

Regards,
Jon
 
PW are very quick with replies. If there is nothing malfunctioning, they will know the answer for sure.

This is a bit of a punt, but there are known issues using optical slaves with Canon flashes, that will only fire once and won't fire again without turning the gun off/on to kill some residual voltage left in the foot. You need a slightly modified slave.

Could be something like that? It was a right puzzle before I found the answer and got a couple of the modded Sonia slaves.
 
First thing I would do is try the flash on camera in High Speed mode and see if it can keep up just to make sure.

Assuming it can, check the software version of the PW’s as they are often shipped with older software in and that has caused problems in the past.

Mark
 
The flash is connected via a female hot shoe to pocket wizard adapter which goes into the flash part of the PW.
They are the PW ll's.
Will wait and see what PW come back and say.

Regards,
Jon.S
 
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