Pocket wizards........somebody's making serious cash

[SeanH]

Just picked up 2 of these..........$188 bucks a piece. I was amazed how simple they are. Then they claim to be able to remote trigger a camera..........with another $90 cord. Where do I sign up.......LOL. Don't get me wrong I dig them, but it sure seems like someone could step it up with features, kits (so you can actually use all the features without a ton of other parts) and WAYYY better ideas for mounting them (other than none) and make a serious chunk of change.......IMO.

What do you guys think? Anyone one else kinda feel they started with something good and like stopped half way in to it?

[cosworth]

My remote cable cost me about $15. Adidt eBay cable and a 1/4 mini plug male to male from the electronics shop.

Anyone willing to part with $90 for a cable is fair game. Manufactured proprietary boxes with transmitters in them? Different story.

There are $40 eBay triggers that work just fine. Pocketwizards have flawless performance at up to 1000 feet. Price of doin' business.

[SeanH]

Anyone willing to part with $90 for a cable is fair game.

Trust me......... I didn't. I'll be making a few trips to radio shack and figuring out how to build a better mouse trap. Not to mention the same cable they come with..........except maybe 2 feet longer. That should be as simple as more wire, a soldering iron, and a couple piece of shrink wrap. Now if I can figure a way to make a belt clip holder (like a cell phone) for one that will really be trick........LOL :wink:

[cosworth]

search baby... search "adidt"

[SolidxSnake]

http://www.spikey-mike.com/eos/index.html

Have fun. Should be an easy mod :)

[gryphonslair99]

My remote cable cost me about $15. Adidt eBay cable and a 1/4 mini plug male to male from the electronics shop.

Anyone willing to part with $90 for a cable is fair game. Manufactured proprietary boxes with transmitters in them? Different story.

There are $40 eBay triggers that work just fine. Pocketwizards have flawless performance at up to 1000 feet. Price of doin' business.

Mine cost me about $35.00 total with this:
http://www.procameragear.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/30/products_id/157
and the 1/4" mini plug adapter. Plus I have a wired remote when I need it.

[ben_r_]

Yea I think they are way over priced too, but being that there is noting out there thats better you really have no choice...

[lowcrust]

It's one of those things that really surprises me.. Why is there such poor competition in this segment? I'm not saying PW aren't great (I've never used them) but first law of capitalism states that if someone is able to manufacture something and sell them with profit you will have someone else trying to beat them at either price or performance. Of course it will happen, and soon, but I guess what I'm saying is; I'm surprised they were allowed to reign supreme for as long as they've had.

[gryphonslair99]

One of the biggest reasons is that Pocket Wizard builds a very good product that the industry has adopted. Sekonic has PW transmitters built into or available for several of their meters. Several of the strobe manufacturers offer their heads with PW receivers built in. No need for a lot of seperate transmitter/receiver units. Just one on the camera. Every sports venue I have shot in with sports strobes uses PW because of their reliability.

The found a niche, built a great product and got it in place with a vast majority of the industry. They will be hard to unseat now.

[cosworth]

If I won the lottery I'd fly to Taiwan and make them build me radio ETTL. They have it done in a week and the prototypes would fail badly due to them cutting corners. Then I'd complain and they'd say "$1 more per unit for good stuff". That would be week 2.

Then I'd sell them and make 3 times my money.

[lowcrust]

LOL, a man with a plan... sign me up!

[Curtis N]

If I won the lottery I'd fly to Taiwan and make them build me radio ETTL.What a coup that would be! All the inconsistency of E-TTL, and you could take it anywhere!

[cosworth]

I'd to all my testing on white guys with white shirts in dark rooms.

[Ray Marrero]

I know a few guys that want pocket wizards, just because that's what "the pros" use. I guess it make them feel better.

[picturecrazy]

I have 7 of them, and yes I feel they are expensive.

For that price, I would have thought they could build a more robust shoe.

that being said, I'm pretty rough on my gear and none have broken on me. And they've continued to trigger while shooting in rain and getting soaked. Not recommended but it still worked.

I would LOVE to see a better mounting solution for them. Often I use a PW with a flash already on the hotshoe. Currently my only solution is a big bracket.

[michael_]

im happy to pay the 180 for the PWs, just purchases 3, but yeah $90 for the cords, no thanks, im sure an electrician could make it for less then $10, $20 if you use gold connectors?, friend is making me 1/8" to 1/8" mono cords for the PWs to ABs for little over $1.50 AUD with gold connectors, PW sell them for $20 USD each

[Village_Idiot]

Just picked up 2 of these..........$188 bucks a piece. I was amazed how simple they are. Then they claim to be able to remote trigger a camera..........with another $90 cord. Where do I sign up.......LOL. Don't get me wrong I dig them, but it sure seems like someone could step it up with features, kits (so you can actually use all the features without a ton of other parts) and WAYYY better ideas for mounting them (other than none) and make a serious chunk of change.......IMO.

What do you guys think? Anyone one else kinda feel they started with something good and like stopped half way in to it?

Mpex.com has kits and a newly developed case that attaches to the PW and lets you mount it on the stand without having to worry about it falling off. Of you can blow $2 on 10" ball bungees from walmart and use those to attach it to the flash.

www.strobist.blogspot.com (http://www.strobist.blogspot.com) all kinds of PW related stuff there.

[ben_r_]

Mpex.com has kits and a newly developed case that attaches to the PW and lets you mount it on the stand without having to worry about it falling off. Of you can blow $2 on 10" ball bungees from walmart and use those to attach it to the flash.

www.strobist.blogspot.com (http://www.strobist.blogspot.com) all kinds of PW related stuff there.

Huh, Ive never seen that one before! I think Im going to buy a couple of those. Thanks! Link (http://www.mpex.com/page.htm?PG=PW%20Caddy)

[Village_Idiot]

Huh, Ive never seen that one before! I think Im going to buy a couple of those. Thanks! Link (http://www.mpex.com/page.htm?PG=PW%20Caddy)

I think they've only been selling since the past month. Relatively new product that one of the people on strobist (that's an engineer for the day job) created.

[sfaust]

Reliability is king IMO. There isn't anything better out there that works as reliable.

I have seen a post somewhere, that shows a plastic hot shoe that is exposied to the back of the PW case, which allows you to mount it on the hot shoe horizontal on the camera. It seems to make sense in that if you broke it off accidentally, you would only have to replace the battery cover door and re-glue the hot shoe mount. It also make it less likely to bang the PW since the profile is lower. I was going to modify one of mine and see how it works.

There are also a few mounting kits with clamps for mounting the PW to a light stand. I think Manfrotto makes them. I'll try to look up the link.

[Village_Idiot]

Reliability is king IMO. There isn't anything better out there that works as reliable.

I have seen a post somewhere, that shows a plastic hot shoe that is exposied to the back of the PW case, which allows you to mount it on the hot shoe horizontal on the camera. It seems to make sense in that if you broke it off accidentally, you would only have to replace the battery cover door and re-glue the hot shoe mount. It also make it less likely to bang the PW since the profile is lower. I was going to modify one of mine and see how it works.

There are also a few mounting kits with clamps for mounting the PW to a light stand. I think Manfrotto makes them. I'll try to look up the link.

Every Elinchrom review that I have seen has been favorable.

[jrsforums]

Obviously the PWs are robust. However, if all you want is a nice wireless shutter release, I have found these to be pretty good...and reasonably priced.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Phottix-Wireless-Remote-C3-for-Canon-1D-1Ds-Mark-II-III_W0QQitemZ200184147094QQihZ010QQcategoryZ43443Q QtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

[bagtagsell]

I love me some PW. Right now I have 5. Worth the money although if I were doing it again I would take a long hard look at skyports.

Concerning the cables... You can make any cable you want if you just practice soldering. I use to be a locating audio engineer and I would make high end cables for pennies. I then started working on PC boards, and eventually making my own circuits. I knew nothing, but just played around.

[sfaust]

Every Elinchrom review that I have seen has been favorable.

Yea, I've been watching too. A good contender for sure.

The only disadvantages to them I see are a shorter range, and only 4 channels vs 32. For me, the range is the only issue that would concern me since I do sometimes max out the PWs when doing remote camera triggering. I don't shoot in environments where 4 channels would be a limitation. But I do like the form factor of the Elinchroms.

If I were starting from scratch, it would be a tougher choice. But I think the range would still lean me toward the PWs.

[Village_Idiot]

Yea, I've been watching too. A good contender for sure.

The only disadvantages to them I see are a shorter range, and only 4 channels vs 32. For me, the range is the only issue that would concern me since I do sometimes max out the PWs when doing remote camera triggering. I don't shoot in environments where 4 channels would be a limitation. But I do like the form factor of the Elinchroms.

If I were starting from scratch, it would be a tougher choice. But I think the range would still lean me toward the PWs.

Plus only being able to recharge the transmitter can be a real downer. A lot of people like that PW's use everyday AA batteries.

[sfaust]

Plus only being able to recharge the transmitter can be a real downer. A lot of people like that PW's use everyday AA batteries.

Ouch! I never realized that. Thats a sure killer. Thanks for the heads up.

Can you picture it when I tell the art director on set that we have to stop shooting while I charge my wireless transmitter :oops:

I prefer AAs rechargeable batteries in all my equipment, so I have the option of using off the shelf AAs in an emergency. But at minimum, it needs replaceable batteries of whatever type it uses so that I can have enough charged and ready to go batteries on hand.

[René Damkot]

Then again, for the money you can get a spare set Skyports ;)

[sfaust]

And if one set fails, I'd be back to recharging. So I'd really need three or more sets to feel comfortable and get the same amount of backup I'd get with 3 or 4 PW transceivers and a bunch of AA's. And I'd still have better range, and more channels.

[transcend]

Pocketwizards have flawless performance at up to 1000 feet. Price of doin' business.

1600 feet, and beyond. I was triggering flashes across a Valley in Whistler this summer.

[cosworth]

1600 feet, and beyond. I was triggering flashes across a Valley in Whistler this summer.


You must have fresh batteries in there! I can get %100 fires from 1000 feet. After that it gets dicey in the city.

Up near Whister like you or when I was in Turks & Caicos... almost zero RF interference and the range is INSANE. Far enough I'd not leave my gear alone that far away!

[transcend]

You must have fresh batteries in there! I can get %100 fires from 1000 feet. After that it gets dicey in the city.

Up near Whister like you or when I was in Turks & Caicos... almost zero RF interference and the range is INSANE. Far enough I'd not leave my gear alone that far away!

Yup fairly fresh batteries and above the peak chair at whistler. The very, very top. Probably close to zero interference besides our emergency radios.

I believe this is at 420mm??
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1397/957760016_af2b4b5f79.jpg

[Curtis N]

Can you charge the Skyport receiver while it's in use? That might make the battery thing less of an issue as long as you have a power source.

[coorz]

Can you charge the Skyport receiver while it's in use? That might make the battery thing less of an issue as long as you have a power source.
Yes that is possible.

[Village_Idiot]

Then you'd be tethered to a wall.

It's not really that big of an issue unless you get a defective battery from everything I've heard. As long as you remember to keep them charged, you should be good. If you're like me and forget to charge things, then you're going to be SOL after your tenth shoot or so when they stop working.

[Curtis N]

Then you'd be tethered to a wall.Or a Vagabond II. ;)

[SeanH]

Hey thanks guys, lots of good info in here.

I'm no stranger to soldering things considering I've raced RC cars, but does anyone have a set up & source for creating the cord that fires the camera. I seem to be striking out and I want to take family photos this week when we fly to Ohio. That is without doing the 10 second self timer sprint....LOL :wink:

[transcend]

There's some good info around on hacking the wired remote, I am thinking of doing that myself.

[coorz]

Google '80n3 connector' and you'll get loads of DIY hits.
I'm getting a cheapo 80N3 knockoff and interface it to the Skyport receiver, should be dead easy.
edit: 80N3 is for the 5D/30D/40D don't know what connection the 1D has.

[sfaust]

Or a Vagabond II. ;)

Hmmm. Hauling around a 20lb Vegabond to make your wireless slave system work!

Wouldn't a couple PW's and some AA's be easier :) :)

[Curtis N]

Hmmm. Hauling around a 20lb Vegabond to make your wireless slave system work! Wouldn't a couple PW's and some AA's be easier :) :)Yeah.

I guess my point is, if you're using studio lights then you've got access to power if you need to plug the charger in (even if you're using a vagabond). If you're using battery-powered flash units then you're usually going to charge the flash batteries ahead of time and you may as well charge the skyports then too.

It looks like Elinchrom went with the Lithium battery to save size & weight. Differentiating your product from competitors is usually a good thing - it gives customers a clear choice. I see B&H sells replacement batteries for the Skyport receiver but I don't know how practical it would be to try to change them in the field.

[sfaust]

Sorry Curtis. It was tongue in cheek. I did get your point.

I really do like the form factor for the Elinchrom's, but I think they made a mistake making the battery non-interchangeable in the field. The problem for me is that I would have to buy extra transmitter, or packages of Tx/Rx units just to resolve the backup power. That just doesn't make sense financially or logistically. With an interchangeable battery, that wouldn't be the case.

With PW Transceivers, they each unit backups all the others since each can be a Tx or Rx, and the AA's solve the power issue as well. A much cleaner solution. But, yea, the form factor is awful.

Eventually, someone will come with with a great form factor, the same or better range, and interchangeable power. But even then, like VHS and Beta, I still think PW's will dominate because they are capturing the market by having the manufacturers of meters, strobes, and I've heard cameras, integrate the PW technology into their units. That makes it a very elegant solution.

[dmwierz]

Mounting solution:

http://www.hildozine.com/

[sfaust]

Thanks. I just ordered 4 and will see how they work out before ordering for the rest of my PWs.

[jmb4370]

This is a pretty nice simple product: PW Caddy ( http://www.hildozine.com/ ) and can hold the PW in all sorts of angles without any fuss! I have a bunch of them already!

[KennethPhotography]

Anyone following the Radio Poppers products (or soon to be products :))

www.radiopopper.com

Seems like a decent solution for Radio E-TTL. While the radiopoppers will probably be "cost effective" you still have to have all the Canon IR gear too.

But, as far as I can tell the JR Radiopopper seems equivalent to the PW? Manual radio flash right. :)

[shooterman]

Anyone following the Radio Poppers products (or soon to be products :))

www.radiopoppers.com

Seems like a decent solution for Radio E-TTL. While the radiopoppers will probably be "cost effective" you still have to have all the Canon IR gear too.

But, as far as I can tell the JR Radiopopper seems equivalent to the PW? Manual radio flash right. :)The correct link is http://www.radiopopper.com/

[Curtis N]

as far as I can tell the JR Radiopopper seems equivalent to the PW? Manual radio flash right.You're comparing an actual, well-known and highly regarded product with press release full of promises. It's a bit of a stretch to call them "equivalent" at this point.

But I do think there's room in the market for a reasonably-priced yet reliable radio flash trigger system. If/when they actually start shipping products, we'll at least have something to talk about.

[Blackey Cole]

One way to recharge would be to use a Quantum battery to supply th ecorrect voltage. Before I new better I bought a QB5 off ebay. I tried to use it to poserthis or that that had some draw but the onboard circuit shut it down so I began playin gwith it and found it was great for rechargin gmy Cell phone and Ipod. I charged my Ipod and it never evne dropped and charge. I figure if you needed to recharge a cell or Ipod or other recharble electronic device it would last a week or so if it was in good condition. It puts out 12vts so I just made and cable with a 12vt power recepticle like a cig light reciever in the car. And plug the car chargers in it. It wouldn't power my laptop or CPAP machine. I haven't tried powering my old Canon C-80 printer yet.

But it should power/recharge the remotes easily all day.

Depending on the voltage of the device it may require building a cable that has a voltage regulator in it.

[KennethPhotography]

You're comparing an actual, well-known and highly regarded product with press release full of promises. It's a bit of a stretch to call them "equivalent" at this point.

But I do think there's room in the market for a reasonably-priced yet reliable radio flash trigger system. If/when they actually start shipping products, we'll at least have something to talk about.

Point taken. Perhaps I should have said similar but I did use quotes around equivalent to show that I wasn't using the word to it's full extent (a nearly equal sign in the math world). :P

Anyway, only time will tell but the Radiopopper JR product seems like it will be MUCH more reliable than the Ebay products (Cactus?) and priced similarly. Plus it will be FCC certified per the "press release." I'm willing to give it a shot. It's too early in my photography career to be outspending my income from photography so I am looking for products that are inexpensive but will allow me the creativity to learn and grow.

The "press release" says the JR product is for you over the "leading brand" (PW) if:

You’re short on cash and big on vision
You’re experimenting with light and any reliable wireless trigger will do
You won’t shoot in large gatherings with others (press conferences)
Two channels is probably one more than you actually need
Going wireless on the cheap may spark a career of growth and inspiration


The radiopopper website gives full credit to the "leading product" in terms of professional use but for a wedding photographer for instance, having tons of channels isn't going to mean too much if you've made a proper contract for exclusivity at the event.

Again, time will tell. No doubt that the PW are expensive but they are marketed towards pros who will pay for it. I'm just glad there may finally be "competition" (note the quotes :)).

[kevbailey]

I have three of them and they work flawlessly. I did pay the big $$ for the cord and have not regretted it. I have shot several events where I had a second camera setup on the tripod as a backup. I set the PW to fire that camera, so that every time I shoot my main camera, the second one fires, even on burst mode. works perfect every time and it's saved my butt on at least one shot! (btw-that one shot paid for all three pw's plus the cord and put some $$$ in my pocket at the same time)

[GerBee]

Absolutely, they are scandalous.

And the USA versions are worse. OK that's a sweeping statement, I bought 2 from HK and one from B&H NY. I have already posted about the sloppy foot, but low and behold the USA version can almost U-Turn in the shoe, it's so bad. I cannot tighten the USA foot at all and it falls off the shoe with just a breeze. I can tighten the HK units, not well but the difference is extreme.

I have 7 of them, and yes I feel they are expensive.

For that price, I would have thought they could build a more robust shoe..

[Village_Idiot]

Strange. I've not had problems with the feet on either of the two I own.