Pocket Wizard & Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite

[Stephan]

I recently purchased a new Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite and want to use it off camera by way of two Pocket Wizard Plus II transceivers. I am having lots of trouble getting this to happen. Has anyone used this setup with the above gear and had success? Anyone knowledgable to give me a detailed walk-through? This is my first Speedlite flash and this model has so many settings. I've spent two days working on this and am hoping to find my answer here. Thanks!

By the way I am shooting with a Canon T2i.

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome aboard.

This should be fairly simple. You put one PW on the hotshoe of the camera and you connect the other PW to the flash via a cable. I believe the 600EX has a PC port, so the cable would have to be this PocketWizard® - PC1
A popular alternative is to use a hot shoe adapter attached to the foot of the flash, rather than plugging into the flash itself. But as the flash has a sync port, this isn't necessary.

Of course, both the PWs have to be on the same channel.

The flash should be in Manual mode, because it won't be able to communicate with the camera for E-TTL, and if you do put it into that mode, it will just fire at full power.
The only settings you have to be concerned about, on the flash; are the power, the zoom and tilt/rotation.

So where are you having problems? Do the PWs react to each other? A common failure point is the cables and/or connections. Trying a new cable is one of the first things to try when it's not working (provided it's all set up correctly).

 

[IByte]

I recently purchased a new Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite and want to use it off camera by way of two Pocket Wizard Plus II transceivers. I am having lots of trouble getting this to happen. Has anyone used this setup with the above gear and had success? Anyone knowledgable to give me a detailed walk-through? This is my first Speedlite flash and this model has so many settings. I've spent two days working on this and am hoping to find my answer here. Thanks!

By the way I am shooting with a Canon T2i.

Not to be a smarta$$ are those PW for canon? Were able to test fire?

 

[Stephan]

Welcome aboard.

This should be fairly simple. You put one PW on the hotshoe of the camera and you connect the other PW to the flash via a cable. I believe the 600EX has a PC port, so the cable would have to be this PocketWizard® - PC1
A popular alternative is to use a hot shoe adapter attached to the foot of the flash, rather than plugging into the flash itself. But as the flash has a sync port, this isn't necessary.

Of course, both the PWs have to be on the same channel.

The flash should be in Manual mode, because it won't be able to communicate with the camera for E-TTL, and if you do put it into that mode, it will just fire at full power.
The only settings you have to be concerned about, on the flash; are the power, the zoom and tilt/rotation.

So where are you having problems? Do the PWs react to each other? A common failure point is the cables and/or connections. Trying a new cable is one of the first things to try when it's not working (provided it's all set up correctly).

Thanks for your reply Big Mike. I set up my gear like this:

I put one Pocket Wizard on the hotshot of my camera as you mentioned. I did connect the second Pocket Wizard to the Speedlite by using a cable from the PW to the PC port of the 600EX-RT. I did use the correct cable that attaches to the PC port which plugged into the 1/8" jack of the PW. I tried to connect it to each of the two PW jacks (Flash and the Camera/Flash) to see if that would make a difference. I have not used a hot shoe adapter as you mentioned. I did have both Pocket Wizards set on Channel 1 and if I press the shutter button on the camera or the test button on the PW already attached to the camera, the red lights which blink every few seconds remain lit until I release the shutter (or test) button, so it confirms the PW's are communicating one to the other as they should be. I have set the Speedlite to Manual Mode. If I press the test button on the PW which is attached to the Speedlite, the flash does not fire.

Can you describe where the zoom and tilt/rotation settings need to be set at? Thanks!

 

[TCampbell]

I was just going to ask if the flash was in "manual" mode but I see you've done that.

The mini & flex pocket wizard combination e.g. (minitt1 & flextt5 for "Canon" for example) can do TTL (although you usually have to fractionally knock-down the maximum flash sync speed to be safe... e.g. 1/160 rather than 1/200th) but the "plus II" and the new "plus III" are for manual flash only. All flashes should be in manual mode and the camera should not be attempting to do ETTL.

PocketWizard recommends that you set both units (the unit on the camera and the unit located with the flash) to the "BOTH" mode (don't use "Local" or "Remote" mode.)

Does the flash work correctly if mounted directly to the camera when in "manual" mode?

 

[Stephan]

PROBLEM SOLVED! I took my gear into the camera store and found that it was just a cable issue. For some reason my cable wasn't allowing the Speedlite to flash. I purchased another PC port cable and the flash fires off camera perfectly! $12.00 and now headache-free!

 

[Big Mike]

Like I mentioned before...it's usually the cables.

Glad you got it figured out.

 

[fjrabon]

Every time I pack gear, when I think I've packed enough sync cables/pc cables, I pack 1-2 more. I went to a shoot the other day with literally 5 sync cables when I really only needed one. Those things just scare me to death.

 

[Big Mike]

I've had to finish a few shoots with a 15 foot cable wrapped around my flash, camera, hand, arm, light stand...because I needed to connect something 6" away. Looks silly but you have to have some sort of backup.