Alien Bees - Pocket Wizard

[huzzar]

Hi All, well I think I've just about got this down... the Alien Bees "Busy Bee" package (4 lights) - And a Pocket Wizard MultiMAX + Sekonic L358.

Question - will I need 4 Pocket Wizards to fire AB as a slave or will Single Pocket Wizard for each AB ??
Thanks, Raymond

[scottbergerphoto]

The Pocket Wizard comes with a receiver and a transmitter. You attach the receiver to one of your strobes and set the others to slave. No additional units needed. I highly suggest that if you do flash metering you get the Pocket Wizard module that goes inside the Sekonic L358 so that you can flash meter without a cord. You can usually get it for $25 when you buy the Sekonic meter.

[huzzar]

Went with the Busy Bee Package, Single MultiMAX, Seconic L358/w TransMod...
Thanks for the help guys...

[SpencerG.]

Scott,

Do I understand this to mean that you only need one transmitter and one receiver no matter how many strobes you have? If so, is that because of the Alien Bees configuration or the Pocket Wizard's?

Thanks!

Spencer

[slin100]

Most professional strobes, including Alien Bees, have built-in optical triggers, so it's just a question of triggering one of them. The rest will optically trigger off of the first. Hence, only one Pocket Wizard receiver is needed.

[scottbergerphoto]

Most professional strobes, including Alien Bees, have built-in optical triggers, so it's just a question of triggering one of them. The rest will optically trigger off of the first. Hence, only one Pocket Wizard receiver is needed.
Exactly! Just set the others to slave.
Scott

[4dphoto]

I am new to this so pardon me. When the slaves are optically triggered, that means no wiring needed bet main light and slaves, correct. Thanks

[jimcook]

Correct.

[Jack_10D]

If you're using 3 or 4 AB's, my guess is you'll never have the following problem with the slaves: I usually use 2 AB's and one or more reflectors. I often have one of the AB's on full power with a snoot, and the other at lower power for fill, and I use the reflectors to direct a little light into the shadows. The lights are usually set up across from each other with the subject in between. With this arrangement, attaching a PC cord (or in your case a wireless unit) to one of them won't work, because the slave sensors on the AB's are on the backs of the units, facing away from each other. If I put my PC cord on the snoot unit, it contains the light to the extent that it doesn't get noticed by the sensor on the fill unit, despite being on full power. And if I connect to the fill unit, it's light is at a low enough power and obscured by the reflectors that the sensor on the snoot unit doesn't see it. I use a setup with a PC cord to each.

The point is, there may be exceptions to what's been said here. You'll probably have great success using all 4 lights, the sheer amount of them should mean that something's triggering something else. Just be sure to hook up to the AB unit that's most likely to be "seen" by the others.

Regards,
Jack

[crc_408]

Went with the Busy Bee Package, Single MultiMAX, Seconic L358/w TransMod...
Thanks for the help guys...

Mind if I ask where you ordered your equipment from? Thanks.

[Maeglin]

Do I understand this to mean that you only need one transmitter and one receiver no matter how many strobes you have? If so, is that because of the Alien Bees configuration or the Pocket Wizard's?
Alien Bees... with their equipment you can do things one of two ways:

With their LG4X remote (http://www.alienbees.com/wired.html), included in the Busy Bee package, you can connect one sync cable from the Pocket Wizard receiver, and it'll forward the signal to up to 4 AB strobes connected to it. You also get the ability to control the power of all 4 from one spot.

There's also the optical slave trigger that's already been mentioned.

[trickyp96]

I'd like to make one more point for those looking to remotely trigger their Alian Bees. I believe it's best to go with the Alien Bee/White Lightning remote controllers. Those allow you to control the flash power remotely.. which makes a huge difference!

If you want more information check out:
http://studioepic.com/alien_bees_white_lightning_eos.php

Thanks!

[PacAce]

I'd like to make one more point for those looking to remotely trigger their Alian Bees. I believe it's best to go with the Alien Bee/White Lightning remote controllers. Those allow you to control the flash power remotely.. which makes a huge difference!

If you want more information check out:
http://studioepic.com/alien_bees_white_lightning_eos.php

Thanks!
OK, I clicked on the link you provided but I didn't see anything there about the AB remote controller. What am I missing? :confused:

[SkipD]

In addition to the wired remote, AlienBees (and White Lightning) have a 4-channel RADIO remote that will not only trigger the flash units but also, VIA RADIO allow you to adjust the power levels of all four (up to four, that is) flash units that you have receivers on. They have a terrific package price for a single transmitter and four receivers. Here's a link to their site: http://www.alienbees.com/wireless.html . The package deal for $515.00: http://www.alienbees.com/remote_package.html

[blundar]

I purchased an inexpensive 4 channel wireless radio trigger. I also bought 2 additional receivers. I got my setup just like this one from ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/4-Channel-Wireless-Flash-Trigger-for-Film-or-Digital_W0QQitemZ7568239091QQcategoryZ30087QQcmdZV iewItem

I've heard many good things about this unit from many users. The price was so inexpensive that I figured if it quits working or is unreliable, I would not loose much money anyway.

It ended up being an excellet purchase. I have not had any problems with it at all. I have even used them at basketball games to trigger the lights high up in the bleachers (approx. 100 ft away) with no problems whatsoever.

I really like the fact that I do not have to worry about batteries for the receivers.