Got a new Pocket Wizard (and a problem!)Update

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AliB

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Bought a new Pocketwizard this week. Yes only one! I got the Mini TTL bit that goes on the camera.

Now I've not totally taken leave of my senses by only buying one half of the TTL equation because I already have a pair of plus IIs. I have been using a couple of cables and a splitter to rig two flashes from one trigger but last weekend I got a bit frustrated at the distance I could get between the flashes and had to clone out the trailing cables in PP.

So I can now fire two flashes using the two plus II's and although it's all manual I prefer that anyway. It's a very neat little unit and far nicer on camera than the PlusII. I always felt like I was going to take my eye out with the ariel!

And, if I ever want to go down the Flex TTL path, I already have half the kit! Simples. :D (and I now have an empty piggy bank again :'()
 
Nope! (although ask me again in another year! lol)

decision has been made to stay with creative and that (for me) means manual flash. I do have friends who have bought the whole kit and still use it all on manual. Having a couple of plus II's it makes perfect sense for me to stay manual.

And if I want some ETTL for small indoor stuff I have an ST-E2 :)

If I add anything else at all (and that's unlikely) it will be more plus IIs but I have two of those for the Canon EX580s and two optical slaves on Vivitars. I can't see me needing much more than 4!



Well, for a while! :)
 
Hmmmm had the first outing with the MiniTT1 on Sunday and I have to say that so far I'm far from impressed!

Had triggering problems with it all day and finally ended up giving up on it and going back to the plusII's which strangely did not miss a beat!

So I've done a little homework tonight and discovered a wealth of information, not all of it positive. There are some quite alarming complaints from the UK including one photographer sending them back and threatening court action under the sale of goods act if he does not get his money back because they are not fit for use.

The UK ones appear to use a different frequency from the US ones. I had read that there could be some shielding issues with a EX580 but I was using it with a Lencarta head and there should not be any RF issues. I was also using the plusII on the Lencarta so, again, should not be an issue.

I called the seller this morning and again this afternoon (I don't get fobbed off easily) and was told that I may have to send it for repair. "Errr no I don't think so replace or refund, this is less than a week old"

Further reading reveals new firmware and all sort of messing about in software with a utility you need to download to set the thing up. But as a basic trigger with a plusII it SHOULD work right out the box. Channel 1, battery in, switch on and use.

Will keep you posted on progress.
 
Yep, that's what I figured. I can eliminate RF because it's not on a flash head, it's not a flex (which is the bit that does have a problem) it's the plus II (which has never had a problem) and I use a decent length lead and never had a problem with the plusII yet using it like this.

I figure I might just ask for a refund and buy another plusII at this rate!
 
Conducted some tests with it tonight. Made sure is was configured for basic triggering on Ch1, latest firmware and popped it on the 5D.

At the other end a trusty plusII and EX580.

Results? 54.8% failure rate. It's going back!
 
I wonder if there may be something similar with the Nikon versions, hence the rather long delay in bringing those to market? Just out of curiosity (and probably not relevant) but what batteries are you using in the Flex?
 
AliB said:
Conducted some tests with it tonight. Made sure is was configured for basic triggering on Ch1, latest firmware and popped it on the 5D.

At the other end a trusty plusII and EX580.

Results? 54.8% failure rate. It's going back!
Click to expand...

That's ridiculous Ali :nono: I take it you are fully aware of the RF interference problems PW are having with these things, and their suggested solutions? Not that they are anywhere near acceptable, but they do exist.

I'm also wondering why the delay with the Nikon version. If it is RF interference again, I wonder if Pocket Wizard will have to review the frequencies they use, but if they do that, they lose all backwards compatibility :shrug:

Can't you modify your working practise to keep everything in range of the normal Canon E-TTL? If not, Radio Poppers...
 
It's definately NOT RF in this case chaps because I'm not using a flex at all. I already have a pair of PW plusII's and I bought the MiniTT1 to trigger those as a pair with the idea that I could always add a flex at a later date.

I'm using it to trigger a plusII so it's not even being asked to send the TTL info just as a basic trigger, the camera and flash are all on manual.

My other plusII in the same test scored 100% reliability, not a single failure so I can be very, very sure it's not a problem at the flash end of things.

If it won't even work when configured as a basic trigger then I shudder to think what it would perform like when asked to do anything complicated!

I'm not changing my working practices to fit with the ST-E2 because it simply won't work for the kinds of things I like doing. On Sunday I had a studio head with a fresnel mounted on a balcony above where I was shooting. No line of sight but the plusII's do the job perfectly. I had hoped the MiniTT1 would have added more of that level of functionality.

I read up on it and there is one chap so disgusted that he's issued a claim in the small claims court claiming that it is not fit for purpose under Sale of Goods Act even though he's out of the 28 days for statutory rights.

I've written to the seller enclosing a contact sheet of all the failures and asked for a refund. They want to send it for repair but I'm not for budging. Refund it is or I'll be taking action myself. I only bought it last week!
 
Maybe it's an RF problem :D



I can happily confirm the PWs worked well - too well in fact. At one point I went to the loo, that was one floor down and through some mighty brick/stone walls in fact. The loo itself was a huge old affair so I took a shot, forgetting the PW was still set to 'on', and a faint beep from the distance told me I was still triggering the flash :lol:

DD
 
ha ha ha!

So you HAVE been flashing in the loos again! :)
 
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