My credit card appears to be smoking slightly...

manaheim · Dec 18, 2011

Thanks everyone at TPF for your advice.

I just picked up three PocketWizards, an AC3 zone controller and a Tamrac strap (with plastic buckles, yes)

In the end, PWs seemed the most feature-rich with the least overall amount of complaints. The radio poppers were really tempting, but each alternative to PW had some annoying limitation I wasn't comfortable with... having a flash on-camera as your main controller, not having ttl, etc.

I chose not to go with the mini for the on-camera part because I didn't want a funky battery. I want to be able to switch over to fresh batteries easily.

For the strap, I caved in on my desire for all metal... interestingly, it was someone's (Big Mike's?) comment that the metal wound up grinding away at the camera finish that pushed me over the edge. But I also didn't see a single person saying that they had a plastic piece break on them, so I figured I'm probably fine. Esp. since I don't use this particular strap all that much.

I'm still probably going to pickup a nikon hand-strap later on. Very nice, those things.

Thanks to all for your tips and guidance!

-Chris

xposurepro · Dec 18, 2011

Ahhhh the joyful feeling of blowing your wad on camera toys ... and just in time for Christmas. :thumbup:

flatflip · Dec 18, 2011

I have the Tamrac strap on my film camera and it is comfy. I put small zip ties on the plastic buckles to insure they don't come apart. Of course if you want them to come apart that's different.

KmH · Dec 18, 2011

Now you know the reasons Pocket Wizards are the professional industry standard. :thumbup:

Derrel · Dec 18, 2011

The carbon needs to be burned off the credit card now and again....short, intense bursts of spending help to do that...

mwcfarms · Dec 18, 2011

Lol nice gratz on the new toys. I went in to the camerastore I frequent on Friday and put a stack of Christmas goodies behind the counter for my husband to go pick up. I put away some Pocketwizards, the Sekonic L358, a new lens, a color checker and some other stuff. he just has to pick and I really hope he picked some wizards.

tirediron · Dec 18, 2011

mwcfarms said:
Lol nice gratz on the new toys. I went in to the camerastore I frequent on Friday and put a stack of Christmas goodies behind the counter for my husband to go pick up. I put away some Pocketwizards, the Sekonic L358, a new lens, a color checker and some other stuff. he just has to pick and I really hope he picked some wizards.

As you skipped out of the store singing, "Merry Christmas to me... "

tirediron · Dec 18, 2011

I love my PWs. Simple and reliable. I've even still got a couple of the old first generation, brown "cigarette pack' style as well as my +2s and they work just fine.

manaheim · Dec 18, 2011

flatflip said:
I have the Tamrac strap on my film camera and it is comfy. I put small zip ties on the plastic buckles to insure they don't come apart. Of course if you want them to come apart that's different.

Yeah, I do want to be able to take the strap off the camera fairly easily, so unfortunately that won't quite work.

tirediron said:
I love my PWs. Simple and reliable. I've even still got a couple of the old first generation, brown "cigarette pack' style as well as my +2s and they work just fine.

hehe. cool.

Anyway, yup, fun to buy some toys. Saving the rest for a D4, but had to burn off a bit of the income from the year to try to avoid throwing money out the window on taxes. I had hoped to have a new Nikon in hand by now, but this has not been a banner year for Nikon, unfortunately.