Pocket Wizard

Village Idiot · Oct 30, 2008

benhasajeep said:
Just a question about how your setting up your SB-600's.

Are you turning the body of the flash so the sensor is towards your camera? Most big Nikon flashes rotate 180 one way and 90 the other, plus tilt up and down some (900, 800, 600, 80 etc...). By being able to rotate the head you can point the sensor on the main body of the flash towards the camera. Then turn the flash head, and angle it for the desired flash angle for the picture.

You may be doing this, I don't know but just a suggestion. I have not experienced any problems using a mix of Nikon flashes this way. I have even used my Canon flash in the mix with no problems. In the short distances involved in studio use, you should have no errors at all doing it this way.

But when you go outside or start putting barriers in between flashes that will limit the light but not a radio signal could be a problem.

Not all GI triggers are created equal and some may work, but they may only work 75% of the time. Some may work 90% of the time. Some may work 25% of the time. Sure you can send them back, but if you have a trigger that's working most of the time, would you want to bother sending it back?

Plus there's other alternatives to PW's. Cyber syncs, skyports, etc...

But PW's are the industry standard. I like being able to fire mine with my Sekonic light meter and one day when I can afford strobes that are $2000 a piece, I'll buy a set of studio lights with PW modules built in.

platano · Oct 30, 2008

JerryPH said:
I wonder how many times even in your life, YOU will do it? :lmao:

I have modded the GI triggers for the simple cost of a 12.39 inch piece of single strand CAT5 wire for the triggers to increase their reliable triggering distance to over 350 feet. I have modded the receivers so that they use standard rechargeable AA batteries instead of the short lasting $12 dollar batteries they use (the battery holders were under 70 cents each!).

can you post pics of your modded gear, and like a "HOW-TO" tutorial on how you did it? Im pretty dumb on these modding things. I wanna get a wireless set up like that since I just bought my SB-600 and looked a Nick Turpins photography

Village Idiot · Oct 30, 2008

platano said:
can you post pics of your modded gear, and like a "HOW-TO" tutorial on how you did it? Im pretty dumb on these modding things. I wanna get a wireless set up like that since I just bought my SB-600 and looked a Nick Turpins photography

Here's one way to do it. A link for the tutorial is in the first post:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157602622255547/

you just need the parts and some soldering ability.

D40 · Oct 30, 2008

Why I want PW is a good question. True I am an amateur but I don't want to spend money on something that is going to work 90% of the time. I had looked at some triggers that are much cheaper and had heard that they may fire and may not. The mid range triggers are not that much cheaper from what I have seen, for instance I have heard good things about:

http://www.ppmag.com/web-exclusives/2007/10/flash-waves-wireless-synch-kit.html

These look great and seem to get good reviews so but I don't find as much about them and to many places that sell them. I am just interested in getting a running price of what the PW would cost so I can decide if they are going to be worth it. I think you can get the Flash Waves for $250 with 1 transmitter and 2 receivers. So, I am not buying anything yet. Here is they way I look at it, if I asked these questions and have people tell me that the PW are well worth the money that is the best way to go then I would save up for 1-2 of them. To me haveing to wait and save for a better product is worth it, as apposed to running out and buying a cheaper itam just to have them now. Make any sense? By the way if anyone can tell me about these Flash Waves I would appreciate it

As to the comment on turning the flash so the sensor is toward the camera...Thanks

I had not thought of that. I had used the Nikon CLS and it was very iffy as to when it worked and I just can't stand useing something that is not going to work when I need it

D40 · Oct 30, 2008

http://www.tallyns.com/tpp/amazing/itemdesc.asp?ic=3101020&eq=FALLSPEC%2E10&Tp

Here a receiver and transmitter is $189. But another receiver is $150

Helen B · Oct 30, 2008

Have you considered the Radiopoppers I gave the link to? Nikon CLS control over radio instead of IR.

Best,
Helen

D40 · Oct 30, 2008

I had not, I did not see the link over on the side. I just now went to there site

JerryPH · Oct 30, 2008

platano said:
can you post pics of your modded gear, and like a "HOW-TO" tutorial on how you did it?

I can. It is ridiculously easy.

http://jerryphpics.blogspot.com/2008/07/004-cactus-v2s-modifications.html

JerryPH · Oct 30, 2008

Radio poppers are VERY cool, but again, in that same price range... and they have a very ugly (IMHO) poorly thought out system. I was very gung ho about getting them the moment they became available in Canada... but that changed as soon as I saw one and played with one in real life.

Still, wireless CLS is nothing to sneeze at!

platano · Oct 31, 2008

Thanks for the tutorial guys.

Village Idiot · Oct 31, 2008

Radio Poopers wood bee grate, butt they can't just trigger a non wireless TTL source. I mean, I can use my PW's or any other wireless trigger for pretty much any strobe out there as long as it has a hot shoe or sync port. Radio Poppers are easily only usable with about only 15% of the strobes out there where other wireless triggers are not.

I'm not saying long range wireless TTL is bad, but they could have very easily added a port for a 3.5mm miniphone cable and had an awesome device. As it is now, they cost about as much as Pocket Wizards, then they require to buy expensive TTL strobes. I can use a $35 Vivitar with my PW's.

D40 · Oct 31, 2008

Ya the radio poppers are out, I did not like them to much either. I also looked at the Elinchrom Skyport but they are not that much cheaper than the PW, Also I do not like the button battery that is used in the transmitter and the fact that the receiver uses a built in rechargable battery. I like useing the AAA and AA batteries better.

Helen B · Oct 31, 2008

I don't think that there would be any point in using a Radiopopper with simple strobes - that's not what they are for and so that's probably why they left the sync socket off (they did consider it, I believe). They are intended for something like CLS control (not necessarily TTL) over radio instead of IR. I can only see them being used by someone with an all-Nikon CLS (for example) system who wishes to keep the full functionality by central remote control rather than people like me who have a mix of systems and are happy to run around between strobes adjusting powers.

Best,
Helen

Village Idiot · Nov 3, 2008

Helen B said:
I don't think that there would be any point in using a Radiopopper with simple strobes - that's not what they are for and so that's probably why they left the sync socket off (they did consider it, I believe). They are intended for something like CLS control (not necessarily TTL) over radio instead of IR. I can only see them being used by someone with an all-Nikon CLS (for example) system who wishes to keep the full functionality by central remote control rather than people like me who have a mix of systems and are happy to run around between strobes adjusting powers.

Best,
Helen

They're usable with pretty much any wireless TTL strobe I believe. Canon, Sigma, etc...

But what I'm saying is that they would be a much more viable option for photographers if they had a simple triggering port on them. I know people that shoot with wireless TTL strobes and with studio lights. It would be rediculously expensive to spend almost $800 on just triggers for extra range with your speed lights, then have to go and spend for additional triggers to fire any other lights you may be using.

I'm sure it wouldn't have cost that much more to have a sync port installed and then they could have had a much larger target audience.

D40 said:
Ya the radio poppers are out, I did not like them to much either. I also looked at the Elinchrom Skyport but they are not that much cheaper than the PW, Also I do not like the button battery that is used in the transmitter and the fact that the receiver uses a built in rechargable battery. I like useing the AAA and AA batteries better.

Really? They're half the price of the PW's.

table1349 · Nov 3, 2008

Village Idiot said:
They're usable with pretty much any wireless TTL strobe I believe. Canon, Sigma, etc...

But what I'm saying is that they would be a much more viable option for photographers if they had a simple triggering port on them. I know people that shoot with wireless TTL strobes and with studio lights. It would be rediculously expensive to spend almost $800 on just triggers for extra range with your speed lights, then have to go and spend for additional triggers to fire any other lights you may be using.

I'm sure it wouldn't have cost that much more to have a sync port installed and then they could have had a much larger target audience.

Really? They're half the price of the PW's.

The problem with radio poppers is that they are not triggers in the truest sense of the word. Rather they are a repeater that sends the standard TTL IR signal to a greater distance from the transmitter to the receiver. They emit the same IR light via the fiber optic cable to the TTL strobe via radio signals. My guess is that to include the necessary hardware to make them work as they do now and add the wireless triggering mechanism would be expensive.