So far so good. Unlike the Pixel King "King", every exposure has been spot-on and the user interface is very simple to use.
Triggers my 580ex, my alien bees and my photogenic with ease. Haven't read the manual yet, it was very easy to set the channels and configure flash exposure compensation from the transmitter LCD panel.
ETTL is working perfectly with this setup. Quality is much better than the Yongnuo units but of course it's way more money.
update - The receiver will not trigger a hotshoe mounted "manual" flash. I works fine with my 580ex but will not trigger my Yongnuo 460. The 460 works fine in the hotshoe of the 5d. I tried several different transmitter settings for syncing but did not have any luck. Yes, I could use a hotshoe with a pc cable connected to the external sync of the receiver but I shouldn't have to do that.
Additionally, there is supposed to be a hypersync option in which you are able to sync the camera with a studio flash at shutter speeds greater than the camera's normal high speed shutter. It does this in theory by adjusting the start time of the external trigger when the transmitter is in HS mode but no ETTL flash is detected on the receiver.
However, this does not work with either my photogenic PL1250s or my AlienBees.
I emailed their tech support but if this isn't resolved I'll be returning it as even the $22 cowboy studio trigger works in that mode!
Still haven't heard back from Phottix but I did get a contact number for the USA distributor OmegaBrandess. That is very good news IMO. Hopefully they can help me work through the issues.
Pixel is the company (Pixel Enterprise Limited, in full), and they name their different models after chess pieces; King, Bishop, Rook, etc.
jzucker wrote:
The receiver will not trigger a hotshoe mounted "manual" flash. I works fine with my 580ex but will not trigger my Yongnuo 460.
According to the Phottix specs: "Compatible: Canon EOS Digital Cameras and Flashes. Some third party TTL flashes may function with the Phottix Odin. Due to the vast number of third party alternative Phottix will not test, support or troubleshoot third party flashes."
It sounds like the Yongnuo isn't counted among the "some" that are supported.
Sorry to hear the Odin isn't working as expected. Hopefully you can get it all sorted out.
Brian, the compatibility you speak of is meant in response to flash units that emulate ETTL. The Yongnuo is a manual flash and should be compatible with the hot shoe of the receiver. This was verified today in a tech support call. I was also told that the 5d shutter is very slow and that it may not be able to sync at higher than it's rated x-sync speed. I will retest the HS with my 10D and Xsi just for informational purposes.
I was also told to retry the yongnuo and to turn everything off before installing the flash and then one by one turn on the receiver and transmitter.
jzucker wrote:
...I was also told that the 5d shutter is very slow and that it may not be able to sync at higher than it's rated x-sync speed.
That's true, and in fact with some triggers and some strobes, some 5D users have reported shutter shadow at speeds above 1/160. (Hopefully the HS mode of your triggers will bring that closer to 1/200, or above.)
Because the The tail of the flash duration is too long on those strobes, HSS is the pulsing of the OEM speed light, It works with all others using a tail sync,
akfreak wrote:
Because the The tail of the flash duration is too long on those strobes, HSS is the pulsing of the OEM speed light, It works with all others using a tail sync,
Hypersync is different than HSS. In Hypersync the Odin TCU attempts to change the timing of when the manual flash unit fires. It does not and cannot pulse the outputs on a manual flash unit.
Anyway, I've decided to hold onto these. I am very happy with the ETTL performance and after talking with tech support, it seems that the Yongnuo flash units have a electrical tip that is very short and problematic with certain hotshoes.
It'd be nice to have the hypersync working but to be honest, there is no mention this anywhere in the manual. Lots of talk about this on the flickr blog page but when I asked what flash units it works with, the only reply I got was "canon 580". I'm not sure why you'd run the canon in manual mode and then use the hypersync option on it...
Again, keep in mind that HyperSync (HS) is different than High Speed Sync (the latter being pulsed flashes)
jzucker wrote:
It'd be nice to have the hypersync working but to be honest, there is no mention this anywhere in the manual.
The word Hypersync is a registered trademark of PocketWizard. It has disappeared from sites that previously used the term, quite possibly under rights pressure! We need another word for the generic process.
jzucker wrote:
...I'm not sure why you'd run the canon in manual mode and then use the hypersync option on it...
More output power.
High Speed Sync drops the power by about two thirds in order to get the 50kHz (if I recall) pulsing. With Hypersync or other brands' sync speed optimization, you get full output* and still get a little bit faster shutter speed than the usual 1/250 or 1/200 limit.
You could also then use the flash from the optimized 580EX to trigger the optical sensors on studio strobes, and the latter would then also be triggered with optimized timing. With the 580EX in Manual mode there'd be no preflashes to confuse the remote strobes.
* Although the 580EX fires at full output, there is still some loss at the camera, because the sync timing is changed and the sensor is picking up the tail end of the pulse's curve.
[Edited a typo. I burned myself making Pommes Anna for Christmas dinner, and I literally "fat fingered" my typing.)
Actually the power drop with hypersync and the Odin is quite similar to that of FP HSS so theres no real advantage there with a 580ex. As I've said to Jack a number of times the only reason I mentioned the 580ex is becasue we both own it and I know it works. I don't have a studio light here to try right now (but I know from experience if the 580 works studio lights will atleast to some degree).
Quote BrianO - "With Hypersync or other brands' sync speed optimization, you get full output* and still get a little bit faster shutter speed than the usual 1/250 or 1/200 limit."
This only works with the PocketWizards version of Hypersync. They have 2 methods, Peak and Tail. The difference is just the timing. The Peak method is picking up the regular peak of the flash pulse, adjusting the timing slightly so its closer to what you can get with a PC sync cable (which is usually just above your cameras x/sync).
The Tail version is what the Odins, Kings (or simply hacking the a Nikon camera gives). Its picking up on the tail of the flash pulse which acts as a continuous light, But its much reduced from the peak end of the flash, at least a couple of stops loss.
elv000 wrote:
...The Tail version is what the Odins, Kings (or simply hacking the a Nikon camera gives). Its picking up on the tail of the flash pulse which acts as a continuous light, But its much reduced from the peak end of the flash, at least a couple of stops loss.
Yes, and that's why I also said, "* Although the 580EX fires at full output, there is still some loss at the camera, because the sync timing is changed and the sensor is picking up the tail end of the pulse's curve."
" you get full output* and still get a little bit faster shutter speed than the usual 1/250 or 1/200 limit"
This sounds more like the Peak method, with the Tail method you can actually go all the way to 1/8000th not just a little over usual sync speed.
With the Peak method you don't actually loose any flash power (at the camera or anywhere), and it would be an advantage with the 580ex (or any other flash or camera you can get it to work with). The problem is Odins don't have a timing adjustment so you can't do this Peak method. Its also limited to the right gear, usually 1D III or IV.
But Hypersync in general has a lot of limitations and its only an advantage in certain situations, you really need to do some reaserch to understand if its going to suit your needs. The Odins don't have any timing adjustment so they are not something I would be buying if hypersync was a big priority, its just a bonus if it does work with your gear.
The Odins have been brilliant triggers though so far otherwise.
BrianO wrote:
Yes, and that's why I also said, "* Although the 580EX fires at full output, there is still some loss at the camera, because the sync timing is changed and the sensor is picking up the tail end of the pulse's curve."
that may explain why the odin does not work with most modern studio lights which have a light duration at 1/1000 or less. There's not going to be much of a tail on those.
I've been trying to pin the folks down on the flickr forum about what specific camera and studio strobes *DO* work with the odin phottix but obviously nobody has really tried it successfully because despite asking 5x, nobody has responded a single time with anything other than 580ex in manual mode. Which is fine because I didn't buy the odin to use with studio strobes in hypersync mode but it does seem somewhat dubious to repeatedly hype this as a feature when it seems unverified with any particular piece of hardware.
At any rate, the basic features of the odin (that are listed in the manual) do work and that's the important thing.
elv000 wrote:
...with the Tail method you can actually go all the way to 1/8000th not just a little over usual sync speed.
Do you find that you can get decent flash exposure when you go all the way to 1/8000? I haven't used radio links much, but in my limited use I found that I could only go a little past 1/250 before my flash became ineffective for the type of shooting I do.
Are you using full power on your studio strobes to test? You won't be able to push the x sync much above ratings without increasing the power to the strobes each time. The easiest way to test is to set the strobes on full power and incrementally increase shutter speed.
Using the PW Flex system, I got my Alien Bees 1600 all the way to 1/5000th--where I stopped testing. But I had to use full power.
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