Pocket wizzards anyone?

[islandphoto]

I dont' know much about these but it seems that lots of people rave about them. HOw exactly do they work? Is it easy to use for event/wedding photography? Is it more sufficent than just slaving 580 flashes? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[PacAce]

Since all the PW is going to do for you is to remotely fire the remote flashes, you'll need to set up each slave so that the light output by each is what's required for a proper exposure. If the subject is pretty much fixed at one spot, that's not a problem but if the subject is going to be at varying distances from the flash, then you'll need to make adjustments on the camera (the aperture) to compensate since it'll be a pain to adjust the remote flash output every time. This, of course, assumes that you are using direct flash lighting. If the flash is going to be bounced so that it covers a wider area, subject distance will be less of an issue, especially if you have several remote flashes spread throughout the room.

As for how they work, it's pretty straight-forward. You have a PW transmitter attached to the camera (on the hotshoe or connected via the PC terminal) and a PW receiver into which the remote flash is plugged in. When you fire the camera, the PW Tx sends an RF signal the the PW Rx to fire the slave flash.

[islandphoto]

sounds easy enough - what do you mean by making adjustments in camera - would you just widen the aperature when it gets too dark?

So what is the benefit of using pocket wizzards over just slaving your flashes?

[TMR Design]

There are 2 things that come into play when using Pocket Wizards. The first is the cool part, whereby you don't need cables and can trigger any and all lights wirelessly. The other is the issue of being able to control your strobes as you could with a Speedlite or small flash where you can dial in FEC on the fly to adjust for camera position and other light being contributed. That ability goes away with a wireless non-ETTL trigger and Leo is saying that within reason you can make your adjustments in camera by controlling aperture, but that may not be desirable. If you're using mono lights then you would have to make adjustments to the lights anyway but with small flash you have to decide if maintaining ETTL is importatnt to you. If it is then your available options are to use either an ST-E2 or built in IR communication between Speedlites. For some I don't think Pocket Wizards are the answer but for anyone that uses a meter and knows how to take readings and make adjustments as needed, the wireless trigger is a dream.

[islandphoto]

THanks! I don't use a meter... what are some other alternatives that are easier to use?

[TMR Design]

Well, I'm not at all an expert in this area but if you're not using a light meter then you might be better off with something like the ST-E2 or multiple Speedlites using the built-in IR system but it has its flaws.. distance and line of sight being the primary issues. You do maintain ETTL control but if you read reviews and check this and other forums you'll find large numbers of people that do not like the ST-E2 or Speedlites in a Master/slave setup.

There are pros and cons of each system.

[th3r0m]

If you haven't already, check out strobist (http://strobist.blogspot.com) and it's corresponding flickr discussions. Lots of info about all types of off camera lighting including pocket wizards usage and canon wireless.

[RichNY]

THanks! I don't use a meter... what are some other alternatives that are easier to use?

QFLASH

[Titus213]

Actually I think the term/name Pocket Wizard must refer to the wizardly way they get so much out of your pocket.