Basic Pocket wizard Question...

[Dunkyboy]

Sorry for asking, but i just can't seem to find a clear answer to this question.

I have three Dlite 4 strobes, which i use with the skyport flash trigger system.
I wish to change to the pocket wizards as the skyports have let me down twice now,( they just refuse to fire, and a hour later they work fine):cry:.

Do i need to get a transciever for each strobe and the camera, (ie. 4 in all )

Thanks for your patience..

[pprice]

I would think you would need a receiver for the strobes and only one transceiver for the camera.

[Matthew Patrick]

the latest PW's are the Plus II's . They are transceivers, so you don't have to worry about receivers/transmitters. You need one for the camera and one for each strobe. You can save some money if you use the optical slaves on the strobes, then you won't have to buy 4 PW's. You can get buy with 2 or 3 to start out with, then add more later.

[scotteisenphotography]

they all work the same..just buy 4 pocket wizards

[Scott McLoud]

Make sure you buy PW Plus II's

[PacAce]

Sorry for asking, but i just can't seem to find a clear answer to this question.

I have three Dlite 4 strobes, which i use with the skyport flash trigger system.
I wish to change to the pocket wizards as the skyports have let me down twice now,( they just refuse to fire, and a hour later they work fine):cry:.

Do i need to get a transciever for each strobe and the camera, (ie. 4 in all )

Thanks for your patience..

How many Skyports (Tx and Rx units) are you using now? You will need the same number of PW units to set up a similar configuration.

[dshankar]

That's not necessarily true....you can use Y-Splitters to use one Pocket Wizard to receive the signal and trigger everything, and one Pocket Wizard on camera to transmit the signal.

It requires wires stretching around the studio but you don't have wires connected directly to the camera body.

Standard miniphone Y-splitter..

See: http://flickr.com/photos/denniskatinas/2113457618/

[PacAce]

That's not necessarily true....you can use Y-Splitters to use one Pocket Wizard to receive the signal and trigger everything, and one Pocket Wizard on camera to transmit the signal.

It requires wires stretching around the studio but you don't have wires connected directly to the camera body.

Standard miniphone Y-splitter..

See: http://flickr.com/photos/denniskatinas/2113457618/

Most strobes have built-in optical slave triggers and I'm sure the D-Lite strobes do, too, so why even bother with splitters and wires? ;)

[SkipD]

That's not necessarily true....you can use Y-Splitters to use one Pocket Wizard to receive the signal and trigger everything, and one Pocket Wizard on camera to transmit the signal.

It requires wires stretching around the studio but you don't have wires connected directly to the camera body.

Standard miniphone Y-splitter..

See: http://flickr.com/photos/denniskatinas/2113457618/
Connecting more than one flash to a switching device is not a good general recommendation without a lot of specfics attached.

One can cause all sorts of problems by connecting two significantly different flash circuits to one switch (whether the switch is in a camera or in a radio remote makes no difference).

In addition, some folks might get the idea from what's in the quote above that they can connect as many flash units as they have to one switch. There will definitely be a point at which the current load of all the flash units will exceed the capacity of the switch, causing the switch circuit to fail.

[Dunkyboy]

ok,
at the moment i have 1 transmitter on the camera hot shoe, and 1 reciever connected to 1 of the D-Lites, and this triggers the other 2 D-lites.
Does this mean i only need to get 2 transcievers, sorry for not getting this.

[jcolman]

ok,
at the moment i have 1 transmitter on the camera hot shoe, and 1 reciever connected to 1 of the D-Lites, and this triggers the other 2 D-lites.
Does this mean i only need to get 2 transcievers, sorry for not getting this.

Yes. You only need two for your setup. The transmitter triggers the receiver attached to the strobe. The other strobes fire via the optical slave.

[Dunkyboy]

Thankyou jcolman, this is what i wanted to know. Hope this helps other people.
Will order some asap..

[dshankar]

Connecting more than one flash to a switching device is not a good general recommendation without a lot of specfics attached.

One can cause all sorts of problems by connecting two significantly different flash circuits to one switch (whether the switch is in a camera or in a radio remote makes no difference).

In addition, some folks might get the idea from what's in the quote above that they can connect as many flash units as they have to one switch. There will definitely be a point at which the current load of all the flash units will exceed the capacity of the switch, causing the switch circuit to fail.

Could you explain that more? I currently trigger a 580 EXII and a 550 EX off the 1 Pocket Wizard. Is that bad?

Is it bad if I hook up two cameras together onto one Pocket Wizard acting as a transmitter so that if either one fires, the Pocket Wizard triggers?

[aram535]

Could you explain that more? I currently trigger a 580 EXII and a 550 EX off the 1 Pocket Wizard. Is that bad?

Is it bad if I hook up two cameras together onto one Pocket Wizard acting as a transmitter so that if either one fires, the Pocket Wizard triggers?

You need a minimum of two PWs. One for the camera, one for whatever you're going to use as a "master". The rest of the "slaves" will go off of the "master".

I, personally, say spend the money and you won't be sorry. With PW, you don't have to worry about distance, slave missing the flash, something blocking, something not reflecting or something double reflecting, someone else setting off your flash, etc....

[dshankar]

You need a minimum of two PWs. One for the camera, one for whatever you're going to use as a "master". The rest of the "slaves" will go off of the "master".

I, personally, say spend the money and you won't be sorry. With PW, you don't have to worry about distance, slave missing the flash, something blocking, something not reflecting or something double reflecting, someone else setting off your flash, etc....

I'm not talking master/slave...

I have 3 Pocket Wizards so I know I need one for camera and one for what you call "master." But I'm not talking about slaves optically being triggered.

I'm talking about using a Y-Splitter on the top of the PW receiver. The receiver receives the signal, and sends current out of the miniphone port. The y-splitter send the signal to TWO strobes, that both fire.

It works. It's how I do studio strobing, arena strobing, etc. 'cause I can't afford more PWs.

My question was related to my proposition of having just one PW on camera, and one PW for all the Dlite 4 strobes that the thread poster owns.
SkipD stated that my method is risky and not advisable.

I want to know more. That's all.

No master/slave optical junk ;).

[SkipD]

Could you explain that more? I currently trigger a 580 EXII and a 550 EX off the 1 Pocket Wizard. Is that bad?

Is it bad if I hook up two cameras together onto one Pocket Wizard acting as a transmitter so that if either one fires, the Pocket Wizard triggers?Chances are that the two Canon flash units have very similar triggering circuits, operating at roughly the same voltage.

If, on the other hand, you had two flash units with radically different triggering voltages such as 5 volts for one and 200 volts for the other, for example, connecting them together could be disastrous to one or the other of the flash units.

If a triggering switch (a camera's switch, a radio remote, or whatever) had a design limitation of .5 amperes, for example, and you hung enough flash units on it that, when combined, drew over an ampere then you could destroy the triggering switch.

[dshankar]

Wonderful. That could explain why my PW MultiMax died and doesn't trigger anything any more.

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't think about the PW current draw limitation...

I guess I'm safe for 2 flashes though?