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Archive 2015 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures

  
 
alpinekiwi
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


I was on a shoot in a forest recently where my PW Plus iii units were behaving very erratically.

I have 3 PWs covering 2 off camera flashes (both 580 EXii).
I am standing within 10-20m of flashes with a direct line of sight (no obstructions).

Put my camera to my eye, shoot - no flash.
Hold camera away from my eye, shoot - flash.

While not consistently working like this, we definitely noticed this behaviour problem.

If this was just a model shoot, I wouldn't have worried so much. However, I was with one of the world's top mountain bike athletes and was having to repeatedly ask him to push his bike back up and do it again simply due to flash failure. This is something I simply will not want to do ever for equipment failure reasons and I was constantly quietly fuming at Pocket Wizard.

I swapped out batteries (always fresh batteries) and swapped out cables (always take extras). I rotated the PWs from flash to camera and in short, tried every solution available to me.

I am pretty furious about how a highly paid job could be nearly ruined by something like this and am ready to throw the Pocket Wizard towel in and try a new brand. I have to have a system that can be 100% relied upon.

Is there something i am overlooking? I don't have metal plates in my head, I'm not wearing a lead hat or emitting weird radio signals (that I know of!). I just can't figure this one out.

Cheers for any input.



Jul 03, 2015 at 01:34 AM
Andrew Pece Photography
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


Sell the pocket wizards. I get the same, if not better performance out of yongnuo gear, and a backup system I keep in my bag for insurance costs me 40 bucks. Range wise my yongnuos outperform the Wizards too. who cares about the better build quality, I would rather have a cheap backup system any day as you have experienced.


Jul 03, 2015 at 02:17 AM
Conner999
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


No idea on what caused your issue, but understand the frustration.

I use Profoto AiR along with some left-over PW IIs and Xs. The PW units have been ok, but the AiR system is my hands-down fave. They're dead nuts reliable, long range, no worries about position of radios, interference, etc. They trigger every time, all the time.



Jul 03, 2015 at 05:27 PM
alpinekiwi
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


Just had this email from Pocket Wizard:




Thanks for your email, I'm sorry to hear you were having trouble with your radios. I'm sure you don't have a plate in your head or emitting weird radio signals yourself, but there's a very good chance your flashes could be the culprit.

Range and reception are constant battles for any radio manufacturer, and we have done our best to create reliable products that work well in a variety of situations. This reliability, however, can be compromised by certain Canon flashes that emit a significant amount of RF interference (“noise”) right around the frequency range that PocketWizard radios use.

The flashes that are the most likely to emit this interference are the 430EX (but not the 430EX II), 580EX, and 580EX II. We've developed a number of range-extending solutions for these flashes, which can increase the useable distance and reliability of triggering.

The amount of "noise" the flashes emit can vary wildly. We've had customers who have flashes that pose no issues whatsoever and flashes that only let the radios get about 5 feet away before they cause a problem. Most fall somewhere in the middle.

We have compiled a detailed list of our range extending recommendations here: http://www.pocketwizard.com/inspirations/technology/range/

Here are a couple ideas that are a little more specific to using the Plus radios:

-You can use a ferrite choke (most likely available at a place like Radio Shack) on the PC cable.

-Be sure to mount your radio's antenna above the flash, keep it as vertical as possible

-Be sure no metal is touching your flash-if you have it in a bracket or hot shoe of the camera, the flash may think it needs to receive information from the camera and not want to receive it from the cable. You can use a piece of gaffer's tape to cover the contacts.

One other thing to keep in mind: high water content items can absorb radio waves-trees are mostly made of water.

And did you have the flashes mounted low to the ground? The ground tends to soak up radio waves as well.

Setting the radios to Long Distance mode might have helped in this situation.

A couple other things to check: if you have not yet updated the firmware in the radios, please do so, here's a link: http://wiki.pocketwizard.com/index.php?title=Getting_Started

And if you have already done that, a good reset is always a good idea. Hold in the test button as you turn it on, you should see TxRx Ch17, with all 4 Zones active.

I'm so sorry you had trouble on a shoot, but hopefully this will help solve the issue.

Please let me know if this helps, thank you.




So there you are. I'll give it to PW, they are great at getting back to customers. That was a good detailed response in a very short time.

However, it has brought to light an issue I was not aware of with my 580 EXii flashes. I have done a bit more research now I know what the problem is and I find myself with wanting to not only sell my Pocket Wizard radios, but also my Canon flashes.

For the price, I am looking at Yungnuo's entire TTL system. The ability to control up to 3 flashes directly from the YN 622N transmitter is amazing. Add to that the fact that I could buy a controller-transmitter, 3x recievers (with ETTL) and 3x flashes all from Yungnuo for the same price as a single Canon 580 EXii.

How screwed up is that?!!!



Jul 03, 2015 at 07:32 PM
docholliday
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


The 580EXII's are horrible with noise. The 430EXIIs were great. I have delegated all my PW gear to use in studio only now and use 600EX-RTs in the field with a ST-E3 transmitter. Not a single problem, and I can do full configuration changes to the flashes from camera position.

Even with the noise reducing items, the 580s just aren't reliable. And, if you use the socks, they'll overheat if in the sun.

Yongnuo? I have a colleague who used a set of them - they kept failing on him at critical times. He kept his PWs as backups - they were more reliable at least physically. The YNs were returned 3 times for random failures. None of them are good solutions, PW or YN!



Jul 05, 2015 at 06:13 AM
fqo63ta
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


Yongnuo stuff is junk, both flashes and triggers. I switched to Cactus triggers, have used the same set for years and they have never failed.


Jul 05, 2015 at 07:49 AM
Tom Robinson
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


I feel your pain. After years of using QUANTUM Radio 4i slaves I "upgraded" to Pocketwizards. Initially to take advantage of the syncing technologies aND control of my Ranger flash from camera position.
The Multimax units were used extensively by pros to trigger fill flash inside helicopters flying by, taken from ground level. Stories abound about their reliability. But I've gotten inconsistent results from my TT5 and Plus-X units from the start.



Jul 05, 2015 at 11:29 AM
Gregg Heckler
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


It seems the real problem is Canon not PW. Anything that emits noise like that is going to be a problem for any trigger receiving a radio signal. I wouldn't trust cheap Chinese flashes either. For what it's worth I have no reliability issues with PW TTl-5's and Nikon SB-900 or 910's.


Jul 06, 2015 at 02:09 PM
biogon2128
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


Upgrade to the Canon 600 EX RT and STE-3 and forget about the rest of the remotes. The 600 and STE-3 just work! If you are shooting for money upgrade to the Canon or pick up one of the small Profoto or Elinchrom systems. They just work! It's a lot less stressful on a paying assignment!


Jul 28, 2015 at 08:24 AM
Tom Robinson
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


Im using Elinchrom, Quantum and Einsteins. Canon flashes aren't powerful enough for my needs. My issues with reliability and PW are using with those systems.


Jul 28, 2015 at 11:00 AM
biogon2128
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


My coment was directed to the original poster and he is using speedlites for his work. The 600EX RT series eleminates 98% of sync issues using a Canon Speedlight system off camera. Try the skyport for the Elinchrom, Cyber sync for the Einstiens. Quantums the freewire system. They all have there issues. You can always go back to using a Long PC cord for packs or mono lights whatever it takes on a paying job to get it done.


Jul 28, 2015 at 10:59 PM
Andrew Pece Photography
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


Gregg Heckler wrote:
It seems the real problem is Canon not PW. Anything that emits noise like that is going to be a problem for any trigger receiving a radio signal. I wouldn't trust cheap Chinese flashes either. For what it's worth I have no reliability issues with PW TTl-5's and Nikon SB-900 or 910's.


Assuming other cheap triggers don't have the same problem, which I don't think they do, I would blame the pw.

Everyone has their opinions. I personally think pocket wizards are good solid pieces of gear that came out early and have been priced way too high, especially in the past. There is a video on YouTube of a yongnuo built in trigger just destroying Pw when it comes to range.



Jul 28, 2015 at 11:10 PM
PhilF
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


PW IIs never failed on me. IIIs eat up batteries FAST too


Aug 30, 2015 at 10:40 PM
tmalone893
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


I've been using the Yongnuo yn622c with no issues on both my 580exII, Godox AD360, Flashpoint ad360, for a couple of years now. I don't know why people would say they are junk. I have 5 of them and no issues what so ever. The range is great and no issue when I mount my flashes on metal railing at basketball games.


Sep 02, 2015 at 05:20 PM
PhilF
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Pocket Wizard Plus iii failures


tmalone893 wrote:
I've been using the Yongnuo yn622c with no issues on both my 580exII, Godox AD360, Flashpoint ad360, for a couple of years now. I don't know why people would say they are junk. I have 5 of them and no issues what so ever. The range is great and no issue when I mount my flashes on metal railing at basketball games.


I have 3 of them and all three have hotshoe mounting issues....sometimes it works,,,sometimes you have to jiggle and reinstall it again and again until it works.



Sep 06, 2015 at 03:51 AM





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