New Radio Poppers vs New Pocket Wizard

firedancing4life

I really want the new pocket wizards but I can't find any for sale since they are so new. Ideally I'd want them by the 21st of this month but I realize that is probably not going to happen.

I was also looking at the Radio Poppers, however I really like how the pocket wizard fits on the hot shoe and the flash on top of that. The Radio Poppers velcro technique is probably going to get in the way of my GF Lightsphere.

Am I understanding correctly that the other difference is the radio poppers will work with other off camera flashes such as...alien bees where as the pocket wizard...i'm locked into something that has to slide into my hot shoe?

Price isn't an issue the main issue for me, but cheaper would be ok with me.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

-Kevin

ziggy53

How would you use the system? (What application(s)?)

Llywellyn

Check out today's blog on the Radio Popper site. They're changing how they mount. No more velcro.

firedancing4life

Llywellyn wrote:

Check out today's blog on the Radio Popper site. They're changing how they mount. No more velcro.

whoa ! thanks for the tip.

firedancing4life

ziggy53 wrote:

How would you use the system? (What application(s)?)

wedding receptions....and then general off camera flash for portraits.

-Kevin

jeffreaux2

Llywellyn wrote:

Check out today's blog on the Radio Popper site. They're changing how they mount. No more velcro.

Finally.....


The DIY solutions for these are what has made me wait.....



...and to answer another question....

- The new pocket wizards have a pc connection that will allow the use of non dedicated flash units as well as studio strobes. The killer for me on the PW system is that the Flash Exposure Compensation currently can only be dialed down +- two stops......rather than 3 that are available if using a 580 for a master. In addition to that, the reported radio interference that is experienced with the 580EXII flash drops the max distance to around 30feet. That is horrible. The fix...of course is to add a $60 canon off camera shoe cord between the tranciever and flash. That ups the $$$ quite a bit.

They are indeed reprting that RP's can be used with alien beez...Im not sure how the connectivety works out. Also....it is said that High speed sych can be had with studio strobes and RP's.

ziggy53

firedancing4life wrote:

wedding receptions....and then general off camera flash for portraits.

-Kevin

I use inexpensive radio slaves similar to the Cactus units, and I also use optical slaves. The optical slaves work fine for most controlled circumstances when I don't have conflicts from other folk's flashes. The radio slaves work fine for wedding stuff, except the distance is somewhat limited.

For more reliable distance slaving it's hard to beat the reliability of the original Pocket Wizard units.

Hackbone

Just read and independent study that said the poppers were good up to 680 ft ttl and an 100' if in manual. I've got the new set and had not a chance to really play with them but they are great in direct sunlight from what I practiced.

Scott_Quier

Hackbone wrote:

Just read and independent study that said the poppers were good up to 680 ft ttl and an 100' if in manual. I've got the new set and had not a chance to really play with them but they are great in direct sunlight from what I practiced.

Do you have a link?

There's something strange about those numbers. I would expect a higher fidelity requirement for the TTL than manual flash - thus I would expect to see the TTL distance less than the manual. - Looking forward to that reference link. TIA

Village Idiot

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Finally.....


The DIY solutions for these are what has made me wait.....



...and to answer another question....

- The new pocket wizards have a pc connection that will allow the use of non dedicated flash units as well as studio strobes. The killer for me on the PW system is that the Flash Exposure Compensation currently can only be dialed down +- two stops......rather than 3 that are available if using a 580 for a master. In addition to that, the reported radio interference that is experienced with the 580EXII flash drops the max distance to around 30feet. That is horrible. The fix...of course is to add a $60 canon off camera shoe cord between the tranciever and flash. That ups the $$$ quite a bit.

They are indeed reprting that RP's can be used with alien beez...Im not sure how the connectivety works out. Also....it is said that High speed sych can be had with studio strobes and RP's.

Where did you see the bit about the distance? Their site has it listed at 1000' on manual and 800' with TTL. Of course that's in perfect conditions with no interference, but 30'?

jeffreaux2

jlw wrote:

I remember reading that too; it was in the extensive writeup on Rob Galbraith's blog. He said it's not anything to do with the PW units, but with the fact that the original 430EX flash unit spews heavy RF interference on the frequencies used by the PWs. Since the radio frequencies available for remote control devices are limited (different ones in different countries) it's likely that other FCC-approved units that use the same band would have the same type of problem.

Yup....


...and there is reference to the issue in the PW user manual.

Village Idiot

jlw wrote:

I remember reading that too; it was in the extensive writeup on Rob Galbraith's blog. He said it's not anything to do with the PW units, but with the fact that the original 430EX flash unit spews heavy RF interference on the frequencies used by the PWs. Since the radio frequencies available for remote control devices are limited (different ones in different countries) it's likely that other FCC-approved units that use the same band would have the same type of problem.

580EX II too? I thought I read some where that the other Canon flashes weren't as bad as the 430. Strobist maybe?

I use a PW PII attached to a 580EX II's flash head via ball bungee and the only problems I have with it firing involve the PC cable being a POS.

jeffreaux2

Village Idiot wrote:

580EX II too? I thought I read some where that the other Canon flashes weren't as bad as the 430. Strobist maybe?

I use a PW PII attached to a 580EX II's flash head via ball bungee and the only problems I have with it firing involve the PC cable being a POS.

Its not an issue with the old PW models...just the new stuff. Best reprted range is with 430EXII.