Now that I have reliable triggers (read: PocketWizard PLUS II
I was about to throw them in the garbage when I had the idea that they may be useful to someone. When I told the idea to my girlfriend her first reaction was: “You keep complaining about these triggers, why would somebody want these?”. Poor girlfriend, she is totally missing the point!
Using such unreliable triggers has been of great help for me through the years. See how they can help you:
- There is nothing like having to take the same shot 5 times in a row to learn the true meaning of patience.
- UFitF (Unpredictable Flashes in the Face) also helps to build retinal light resistance which might prove useful if you ever have to duel Jessica Alba in an eye starting challenge.
- Limited transmission range ensure proper training in the ancient art of eyeball measurements.
- Finally, if you ever needed a reason to buy a real set of remote triggers, playing with these for a few months will.
I am telling you, this is the one contest you want to be in! Forget Drobos and expensive software contests, this is the real thing that the whole internet will be buzzing about!
So how can you participate? Easy! Just link to this post from Twitter, forums or your photography related blog. I will pick the winner at the end of the month (of August) based on referrals coming from links to this page. I will pay for shipping and the winners has to agree to write a short blog post about how ‘happy’ he is to get these.
Price details: 1 hot shoe trigger + 2 flash triggers, each with batteries.
Notice: I do not, and never will, waranty that these remotes can will work. Actually, you can be sure they wont at the worst possible time!
Quick update: the Pocket Wizard FlexTT5
Warning: Because the MiniTT1 only has the choice of 2 channels while the Plus II has 4, it might cause a problem in a multi photographers environment but that is about it. I tested it through multiple walls and around corners and they triggered every single time. I will do some long range testing soon but so far, so good.
While a few of my friends tried to convince me to get Radio Poppers, I stay away from these. I do not like the fact that they require a flash on top of the camera to operate. Too much gear to carry around!
This is the fourth time I am writing this post and it is going to be the last. Between the time I received the Pocket Wizards, did some test in my kitchen and finally tried them out in the open, my perception of the product changed drastically. To make it short, the ETTL Pocket Wizards are going back to the store and will be replaced by the old school PW that actually work as advertised.
Of course, as faith would have it, I have the worst possible flashes to work with the MiniTT1
To be fair, the remotes work perfectly as advertised, when I am 15” away. After that, it is hit or miss until 30” which is the point where they are less reliable than my eBay triggers.
After reading the documentation, it seems like Pocket Wizards is blaming the IR from the flash as the source of the interferences. Since the IR is used only for ETTL data transmission (as far as I know), switching to manual mode should solve the issue and give me the fantastic range I was expecting when I bought these. But, nope, it does not change anything. I did some test by changing the position of the antenna of the TT5 without much success and needless to say that I never managed to shoot around corners!
The suggested alternative is to buy a hot shoe cable (OC-E3
So, unless one of you, knowledgeable readers, has managed to have these things working with the same equipment as mine, I am going back to the technology from the 90s (aka walkie talkie PW).
