Pocket Wizard help

Mustardpics · 11 Dec 2012

Is anyone on here a Pocket Wizard expert? I usually use Profoto portable lighting (which always works a dream with PWs), but tried it today with a copuple of Canon 580 EXIIs and it went a bit wrong as follows . . .

- PW transmitter of top of camera (EOS 1D IV)
- PW receiver linked by cable to Speedlight no.1 (which was set up as master)
- Speedlight no.2 was set up as slave to no.1

The problem was that Speedlight no.2 fired about 1 second after the Speedlight no.1

Anyone know a fix for this? Thanks in advance - any thoughts gratefully received!

boyfalldown · 11 Dec 2012

yes - don't try to use slave/master flashes with any radio triggers. Sadly it jus doesn't work properly. Its not jst PW's and not just canon either

admirable · 11 Dec 2012

PW via cable to 'Y' piece...........two cables from 'Y' piece to both Speedlites?

HoppyUK · 11 Dec 2012

What PWs?

You can't mix studio flash with E-TTL technology, but they'll all play together in manual mode.

Mustardpics · 12 Dec 2012

Thanks guys. I've now tried just about everything and think the only fix is at link another PW to the 2nd speedlight, so that everything is driven by the PWs.

(I think I'll stick to Profoto in future though ;-)

treeman · 12 Dec 2012

I'm confused....if you're using your Canon flash in slave mode it should fire at exactly the right time regardless of whatever your using to trigger the initial flash. I do it lots mixing my main lights with a Nikon speedlite in slave mode, all triggered by PW's.

admirable · 12 Dec 2012

treeman said:
I'm confused....if you're using your Canon flash in slave mode it should fire at exactly the right time regardless of whatever your using to trigger the initial flash. I do it lots mixing my main lights with a Nikon speedlite in slave mode, all triggered by PW's.

Read post 1 again, too much of a time delay.

He's using the PW to fire flash 1 and then using the IR on flash 1 to fire flash 2.

Never going to work due to the time delay between the camera shutter firing and the signal getting to flash 2 via the PW/flash1/IR signal.

treeman · 12 Dec 2012

Oh I see, I thought he was talking about optical slave as no mention of IR.

itsdavedotnet · 12 Dec 2012

treeman said:
I'm confused....if you're using your Canon flash in slave mode it should fire at exactly the right time regardless of whatever your using to trigger the initial flash. I do it lots mixing my main lights with a Nikon speedlite in slave mode, all triggered by PW's.

Should be fine.... And definitely not a second delay... Check the settings on your slave speedlight.

HoppyUK · 12 Dec 2012

itsdavedotnet said:
Should be fine.... And definitely not a second delay... Check the settings on your slave speedlight.

Canon guns don't have a normal optical slave mode - they will only respond to an E-TTL master coded firing signal.

We also don't know what kind of PW trigger the OP is using - makes a big difference to the options.

admirable · 12 Dec 2012

itsdavedotnet said:
Should be fine.... And definitely not a second delay...

It might not be a second but I'll bet you can see it with the naked eye.

treeman · 12 Dec 2012

HoppyUK said:
Canon guns don't have a normal optical slave mode - they will only respond to an E-TTL master coded firing signal.

Ah! all clear now

itsdavedotnet · 13 Dec 2012

Canon guns don't have a normal optical slave mode - they will only respond to an E-TTL master coded firing signal.

course they don't, my bad. Silly canon.

Pinarello · 9 Jan 2013

Drop Pocket Wizard an email. They will reply in detail, in a day or two...