I called PW tech support... (they are very nice BTW).. and he stopped me in sentence as soon as I said Canon 580EX II. He said there IS issues with interference... and more distance away from the flash seems to be the key. SO.. I asked him (as I was driving) if I stopped in a radio shack.. and got a 1/8 mono extension would that do the trick. He said yes.
SO.. I got a 6' extension MONO cord. Lets see.....
What if I bought a small wooden dowel, (paint it black if need be to match stand) and use a small "C" clamp to attach it to the light stand. Maybe make the dowel 4' in length... and attach the PW to the very end... thus I would have MAXIMUM distance away.. and I can keep the PW elevated...
I have not used my PWII in a paying situation since this post, but will be in a week. The extension cord made all the difference in my tests, so I am not too worried about it anymore. But it is a pain to have to do that. Let me know how your test go T.
I tried the extension cord route as well but did not find that it helped greatly. I gave up and bought a Nikon SB flash for off-camera use -- works perfectly.
You extension cord would make the PW lower on the light stand... correct? Thus, it is farther away from flash. So, lets say the stand is extended to six feet... now I have a six foot cord.. so I could maybe mount the PW three feet below the flash.. (also three feet from the ground).. and still have about three feet in slack in the cord extension... Is a few feet off the ground too low...
See.. this is where I was thinking about a wooden dowel mounted high.. but far out away from flash....
OH... and I just had yet another idea... (not that I have become abscessed or anything ; )
The flash clamp that is screwed a top of the light stand is made of metal.. and when it clamps to the bottom of the 580EX.. it is not touching the contacts (obviously) BUT it clamps the metal sides of the shoe on the bottom of the flash... maybe noise is flowing through the flash, into the clamp, and in turn turning the entire metal light stand into a noise amplifier... When the PW is "dangling" from the light stand the antenna is very close to the stand pole.. hummm
I am still at work thinking.. and not with my flash... I was wondering I read in another forum that the flash needs to be put in "slave" mode when using PW's? I thought this is only if I wanted to use Canons IR trigger for another flash? All I do to my 580EX II was disable Auto Power off.. I turn on the PW then I turn on the flash.. and I put the flash in manual mode.. set power output.. and away I go (or don't in this case : )
Is the above correct? OR do I need to be putting the flash in SLAVE mode in addition. ? I guess when I get home I can see.. but confirm if you know..
The 580EX II and Pocket wizards DO NOT MIX. WE DID EVERYTHING to make this work.. to no avail.
1. We bought the 6' extension cord for the PC connection and PW... mounted the PW away from the 580.. and still crap results.. we did foil around the flash. ect.. things got better but not where we need to be.
This was soooo frustrating.. I went to the local camera shop and did tests in the store with Nikon flash, and it did work better.. but.. not perfect.
Finally hooked them up to a interfit studio strobe.. PERFECT every time.. hundreds of feet away....
After talking to the people at PW, and through my own testing I can 100% say that there IS RF noise issues with using the new 580EX II flash , and PW's.
Use at your own risk... and be PREPARED to go through a few days of high frustration, and aggravation.. only to learn they don't play well together...
I had trouble with 580EX (first generation) and was also told about the interference problem from PW support. I bought several Nikon flashes on ebay and still had trouble. I sent my Plus IIs (three of them) back for service. They acknowledged a problem and replaced the circuit board on one of them. I got them back and still had trouble. MAC replaced all three and I haven't had trouble since.
If I have any trouble going forward they will be sold and I’ll move on to something different. For me, they always worked until I need them the most. At home practicing they would perform perfectly… go on a shoot with clients and I’d end up needing to use bounced on camera flash to finish the shoot. Very frustrating!
So.. your saying it was the PW that was at fault. You ended up getting new ones.. and all is well?
See.. I feel if the PW was defective.. then it would not fire the studio strobe reliably... as soon as I took it off the 580 and went on a strobe.. all is well
This is why I think the issue is just RF noise from the 580... no?
I never fully understood the extent of my problem/problems. I think it likely there were several problems... I have not had a location shoot since I had trouble. I've used them throughout the holidays for family shots and in my house for practice, but my first paid major gig will be in a couple weeks. I know for sure that the PW were not working properly. I know for sure that they still were not working after the first repair. I also learned that the support/repair force at MAC is thin and that the manager could only rely on one tech to possibly identify my intermittent problem.
Once they were repaired, I was doing a product shoot in my house for a client and they acted up again. This was only a couple days after getting them back from MAC. I called and spoke directly to the manager that I had been in contact with all along. I spoke to her while they were still set up and failing. She agreed to replace all three because they had failed to repair them.
How much of a problem was attributable to my Canon flashes? I'll never know for sure because I bought three Nikons and don't intend to use Canon flashes with PWs again. So far they have not misfired in about 300 shots. All 300 shots were taken in close proximity and not in a very demanding environment. I sure hope all is well, but once confidence is lost it takes a while to get it back.
I called MAC tech support again today.. just to see if there is anything else I can do before I send them back and get some Alien Bees.. They told me that a RF line ferrit ring (clamp) might do the trick. We both agreed on the phone that the RF noise the 580 is emitting *might* be going through the PC cable, and right into the PW. This makes sense because longer cable did not "really" change much...
I bought the RF clamps... tonight I will see... if no avail.. then I have no choice but to return the flash(s) to BH and order some AB's!
I called MAC tech support again today.. just to see if there is anything else I can do before I send them back and get some Alien Bees.. They told me that a RF line ferrit ring (clamp) might do the trick. We both agreed on the phone that the RF noise the 580 is emitting *might* be going through the PC cable, and right into the PW. This makes sense because longer cable did not "really" change much...
I bought the RF clamps... tonight I will see... if no avail.. then I have no choice but to return the flash(s) to BH and order some AB's!
Those that talk about not getting good range outside. Is this all the time or only during wamer/colder weather? I've also noticed this, but can't nail it down either.
I was shooting a client indoors one time and we decided to move outside to a wooded/creek area. I didn't think to turn off the Pdubs.
I'm not positive on the distance but it was easily 100 yds and it was firing the strobes back inside the house through the sliding glass doors and there was a curtain on the doors as well.
Okay.. here is the final straw... we went to radio shack, and bought some line RF Noise reducers.. they clip over the 1/8 wire close to the mini plug next to the PW. It was like flipping a light switch.. we got MUCH better performance.. HOWEVER still not more then 50-ft. SO.. we then plugged in the studio strobe in the same location.. and we got hundreds of feet.. so.. all in all..
THE NEW 580EX II does NOT play well with Pocket Wizards. The techs at MAC are also trying to work a fix.. but the RF shielding on the 580's are very very poor...
I am sending back one 580, and keeping the other for on-camera work.. and going with Alien Bees's x2 800's
Just to update... I got my new AB800's yesterday.. and they work GREAT with PW. I have no more range issues.. and all is well. The 580 is and was without doubt interfering with PW's... if your thinking about using them with a 580 II then I would re-think your plan!
Just thought I'd mention that I had a new PW I needed to test out, and a 580EXII sitting here, so I thought I'd check into this particular combo myself (even though I have no plans of triggering the Canon flash with the PW).
Seems to work fine in my house, using the very short cable that comes with each PW, even from a couple of rooms away. Not sure if that's not far enough to reproduce the problem, but it does work OK for me.
Kind of nice not to have to get an extra cable to trigger something, actually. It would be nice if PWs came with a couple of other short cables--e.g., miniphone to miniphone, miniphone to HH....
