Does the af assist module on the sc-29 require a battery?? And if not, is it powered by the camera it's attached to, or the flash on the end of the cord?? I'm wondering if i can run an sc-29 on camera, with a pocketwizard on the hot shoe on a bracket at the side of the camera....and still get the crucial af assist...

My understanding is that the assist lamp on the sc-29 is powered from the flash - however: I have neither used nor seen one of these cables, so I could easily be mistaken.

Apologies for the next-to-useless answer

Chris

No it's cool, someone else PM'd me, and we figured it out...long story short, you're correct, the SC-29's AF assist unit is powered by the flash on the other end....so putting a PW on the hot shoe end of the cord will not give you AF assist....apparently, the AF assist is powered by those 2 little gold contacts at the bottom/front of the sb-600/800/900/910.....the ones right in front of the flash's shoe....so yeah, i'm glad i didn't spend $155 on a shortened version of the SC-29 like i was about to! thanks!

If you streatch out the SC29 with a flash on it, I do get that part because the other end has to be in the hotshoe. If you also need the PW, plug it into the PC slot on the camera body. I use a flash bracket to do/hold all of that.

williamkazak wrote:
If you streatch out the SC29 with a flash on it, I do get that part because the other end has to be in the hotshoe. If you also need the PW, plug it into the PC slot on the camera body. I use a flash bracket to do/hold all of that.

it is too clumsy, i guess the idea was same as i wanted to use it, is to have PW in pocket (funny if you think about that it is named pocket wizard) instead on the camera. you can use PC cord, but then you lose TTL

williamkazak wrote:
If you streatch out the SC29 with a flash on it, I do get that part because the other end has to be in the hotshoe. If you also need the PW, plug it into the PC slot on the camera body. I use a flash bracket to do/hold all of that.

the point is to have AF assist, with NO on camera flash.....i shoot wedding receptions outdoors a lot, with off camera speedlights.....well, problem is, why waste batteries in my on-camera SB-800/600 by just bouncing light off the sky, if all i care about is the AF assist.....YES, i realize you can tell the flash to NOT fire, but then it turns the PC ports off as well.....so it's pointless...right now i basically end up setting the on camera flash to 1/64 or 1/128, and just run it like that, bouncing off the sky.....