New Pocket Wizards & High Speed Synch

Quitarita

Hi!

I have a love/hate relationship with the new pocket wizards. I love that they are smaller and do ttl. But I hate that they are not consistent and I cannot figure out how to use the high speed synch.

I'm using my 5d markii with them. Has anyone gotten high speed synch to work for them? I still get the black bar of death anytime i go beyond 250 shutter speed. Or am I totally missing something?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

~rosaura

Dan7312

I have gotten it to work with a 580EX and a 550EX and a 7D. I only got Mini/Flex's a couple of weeks ago and after a bit of a learning curve they seem to work pretty well.

Leave the flashes in Off (that is not slave or master) and don't turn on HS sync on the flashes.

Do you have the version 5 firmware?

I'm pretty sure that the default is automatically use HS sync when the shutter speed is over 1/200, but you can use PocketWizard software to check that.

I have found that the Mini/Flex's are sensitive to the order you turn things on. Start with everything turned off, then make sure the Mini and Flex's are turned on before the camera or flashes. I do Mini/Flex's first, then camera, then flashes. Then take a couple of shots, they Mini/Flex's seem to use them to get everything sync'd up.

I've run into some black bars and flash on the first shutter release in mirror lockup mode when I turned on the camera/flashes before all of the PocketWizards were turned on.

Also if you flash is more than 15/20 feet from the camera you might need to use the new cloth shield around a 580EX because of noise. So far I have been using the 580EX within 20 feet of the camera without the shield and haven't had any noise issues.

Dan

Quitarita wrote: »

Hi!

I have a love/hate relationship with the new pocket wizards. I love that they are smaller and do ttl. But I hate that they are not consistent and I cannot figure out how to use the high speed synch.

I'm using my 5d markii with them. Has anyone gotten high speed synch to work for them? I still get the black bar of death anytime i go beyond 250 shutter speed. Or am I totally missing something?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

~rosaura

joshhuntnm

Dan7312 wrote: »

Also if you flash is more than 15/20 feet from the camera you might need to use the new cloth shield around a 580EX because of noise. So far I have been using the 580EX within 20 feet of the camera without the shield and haven't had any noise issues.

Dan

cloth shield, noise? what is that about?

Dan7312

The 580 flashes generate radio interference when they flash which can interfere with the PocketWizards receiver attached to the camera and cause mis-fires. This is the weak point of PocketWizards.

As long as the flashes and camera are less than about 30 feet from each other it's not a problem. When the get farther apart than that it can cause mis-fires.

When you have setups where there is more than 30 feet between the flash and camera there are a number of solutions to this. PocketWizards include a special cloth shield you put over the flash body when you use it. It covers everything except, of course, where the light comes out. It's a bit cumbersome, but managable.

There is an optional special solid plactic shield that serves the same purpose as the cloth one, but looks to be quite a bit less cumbersome to deal with, but I haven't used it.

You can can connect the receiver to the flash with an ettl cable and a ferrite bead. This gets some distance between the receiver and the flash itself.

Lastly, if you have a 580EX II you can have it modified for about $70 to reduce it interference. PocketWizard has a couple repair shops that do this. Then you don't need any of the other techniques.

With any of these solutions the flash and camera can be over 100 feet apart.

joshhuntnm wrote: »

cloth shield, noise? what is that about?