Pocket Wizards

Ballyman

Howdy

I am thinking of getting a pair of these. I use ebay cheapo's at the minute but they are very unreliable both for triggering flashes and/or shutter.

I can't find anything that is both reliable and cheap. The only thing that seems to be available are pocket wizards that will do trigger flash and shutter. AM I mistaken here??

They are an incredible price for what they do, is there something else out there that is reliable?

Anyway, I have a voucher for Conns (lucky me ) so called in there to have a gander. €300 each and another €80 for a shutter trigger cable. €680 to trigger a flash or shutter?? Holy **** batman.

I had a look on ebay and all the usual suspects in Hong Kong have a pocket wizard set of two for approx. €270 and the cable is €13.

Am I missing something here?? Surely Conns can't be that much more expensive?? ANy recommendations on where I can get them in Ireland or online or any other info or if they are even worth it?? Cheers

DotOrg

Ballyman wrote: »

Am I missing something here?? Surely Conns can't be that much more expensive??

this made me laugh, not cos it's funny, cos it is sadly true. but buying from anywhere in Ireland will still be way ove rthe HK prices, Calumet up in Belfast have slightly better prices
http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/item/352-000A/

pete4130

PW's come in two versions, one for the US and one for Europe....the US ones are not legal here as the frequency interferes or can interfere with emergency services radios. EU ones won't work with US ones!

The PW's are all tranceivers now (so they can transmit and receive signals, the older ones were either transmitter or receiver or tranceiver...they are all now tranceiver afaik).
They are capable of firing your camera provided you have the right cable. I use them just for flash triggering and the cable I use is mini PC to phono.

I've bought cables from this place in the UK before and they are a tad more expensive but they should do whatever you need http://www.robertwhite.co.uk/products.asp?PT_ID=453

Conns is ridiculously expensive for them! Sell the Conns voucher maybe and put the money towards buying them elsewhere!?!? Robert White is maybe £15 a cable...

I think I've heard of a radio trigger called Alien Bees but I don't know too much about them. I've heard they are meant to be reliable. Pocket wizards are pretty much industry standard and it'll be easier to find people with more units if you ever needed to borrow.

Anything else you need to know drop me a PM.

Pete.

soccerc

Ballyman


Bite the bullet and get the PW's, but make sure the are the CE marked Plus II's. They come with Pc/phono cable to fire flash and you can pick up the shutter trigger cable for less than a tenner from ebay.

I got mine from Hong Kong and saved 50% at the time compared to Irish bricks and mortar outlets.

oshead

If you are gonna go down the PWs road, you should look at the PW MiniTT1 Transmitter and/or PW FlexTT5 Transceiver. They support Canon E-TTL II. The Nikon version i-TTL will be out this winter.

I use Elinchrom Universal Skyports myself.

ttcomet

I have the tranceiver version of them and find them excellent. Got them from Kerso on ebay (you need to mail him and ask for the price). However they are the American version so there may be issues with getting them repaired and with certain legalites of using them.

Those newer ones Oshead mentions have some mixed reviews especially with Canon flashes something to do with RFI interferance from the flash itself.

dazftw

what flash do you have 1st of all.. canon flashes arent the best with PW's! I had some trouble with my canon flashes..

Ballyman

580EX. The MKI version. This works fine with the ebay triggers. I had lots of problems with the 430EX alright with the ebay stuff as it kept either misfiring or else not firing at all so I presume the 580EX will work just fine.

I have a 3 head light set that I want to replace with 3 flashes, 2PW transeivers (camera and flash) and two light trigger sensors (other two flashes). I have everything bar the third 580EX and the PW's so the plan is to sell the light set and buy the PW's and flash with the proceeds. It will make the whole thing more portable and mobile as I need power points for the lights whereas the other setup batteries will do the job. Thats the plan anyway. Is it good or bad in your eyes?? Is there any real pluses on keeping the light set instead I wonder???

To be honest I'm more interested in the shutter trigger option though and this is almost impossible to find bar the cheapo ebay stuff but thats not reliable at all.

dazftw

If you can make them portable I would keep them.. I went from flashes to studio strobes and much prefer them! Even though its a hassle transporting them.

The 430EX were the worst flash for pocket wizards! I had them! Its all to do with the radio frequency. The 580 do perform alot better though so I reckon your fine.