Ranger Quadra owners? Want to hear your experiences.

[picturecrazy]

Just wondering who's been using it, and how has it been. I'm asking because i've had mine for like two weeks. I got the double A-head set. Right out of the box, one of the heads constantly misfired. Missed more than it fired. It was annoying. I got it exchanged and it was good.

Then I was shooting casually one day and the skyport triggering totally stopped cold turkey. Wouldn't fire AT ALL. I tried two different skyport triggers, changed the group, but still no go. I had to finish the shoot with pocketwizards. I called the camera store I bought it from and asked them if they had trouble. They said they also had skyport misfires and had to change the frequency. It seems to work, but it's strange that it would work just fine and then suddely stop working halfway through a shoot.

Then at my last shoot, after about 20 pops, the recycling time suddenly got really looong. I didn't know why as we weren't even a quarter ways through it's capacity. Then I smelled a foul electrical burning smell, coming from the powerpack. I turned it off right away and disconnected the battery. I haven't tried it again since... I don't feel like setting something on fire.

So far I've been extremely frustrated with my $3000 investment into the Quadra system. I just want to see how other owners are faring with theirs. Is this a product that was released prematurely (i.e. new pocketwizards) or did I just get hit with bad luck?

[MR do little]

No problems at all, sorry to hear about your bad luck. I would demand a new set with heads, cables.. everything.

[TMR Design]

A foul electrical burning smell tells me that something is terribly wrong. As Paul said above, I would demand an entirely new kit and not settle for anything less. You don't want to play games swapping individual components, etc.

You want the system you bought to work flawlessly and anything else is unacceptable.

[fivegallon]

Just on the Skyport issue; i was suffering from misfires on one of my Fx400's, turns out it doesnt like the "straight" plugs, only the "right-angle" ones. Seems it may be too much weight pulling down on the plug.
This may/not be relevant to your situation.
I bought a right-angle adapter and no more issues.
(yes i did try all cables/plugs/configurations in each of my Fx's for process of elimination and proving)

[TMR Design]

Just on the Skyport issue; i was suffering from misfires on one of my Fx400's, turns out it doesnt like the "straight" plugs, only the "right-angle" ones. Seems it may be too much weight pulling down on the plug.
This may/not be relevant to your situation.
I bought a right-angle adapter and no more issues.
(yes i did try all cables/plugs/configurations in each of my Fx's for process of elimination and proving)

Wow, that's such a slight difference in weight or weight distribution. I'm surprised.

[fivegallon]

Just on the Skyport issue; i was suffering from misfires on one of my Fx400's, turns out it doesnt like the "straight" plugs, only the "right-angle" ones. Seems it may be too much weight pulling down on the plug.
This may/not be relevant to your situation.
I bought a right-angle adapter and no more issues.
(yes i did try all cables/plugs/configurations in each of my Fx's for process of elimination and proving)

Wow, that's such a slight difference in weight or weight distribution. I'm surprised.

Yeah Robert, i was very surprised also. Hence the reason going through all the different configurations to prove that was the issue.

[MR do little]

Not relevant to the OP though since the Quadra has a buildt in Skyport reciver.

[fivegallon]

Just on the Skyport issue; i was suffering from misfires on one of my Fx400's, turns out it doesnt like the "straight" plugs, only the "right-angle" ones. Seems it may be too much weight pulling down on the plug.
This may/not be relevant to your situation.
I bought a right-angle adapter and no more issues.
(yes i did try all cables/plugs/configurations in each of my Fx's for process of elimination and proving)

Hence the qualifier... ;)

[Rudi]

Sounds to me like you got a leman. It happens. Get it exchanged ASAP and put it behind you. :)

[Rai33]

First report i've heard of a dud after some pretty extensive research.

Please post back here and let us all know what the problem turns out to be.

[MR do little]

Hence the qualifier... ;)

Yes i understood that, my post was more to inform you then to correct you. :-)

Kindest

[fivegallon]

Yes i understood that, my post was more to inform you then to correct you. :-)

Kindest
Cheers Paul, always happy to learn. I didnt mean to sound like i was biting back.

[picturecrazy]

Interesting. So it seem so far that I have a dud but everyone else is happy with them. Not that there are many quadra owners that have chimed in... but so far that's the story.

I braved it and tried turning it on again. It seems to work fine now but that smell came out again after about 30 seconds. argh I am so frustrated. I would love to smash it on the concrete but then there's no chance of warranty replacement.

[MR do little]

Drawing any conclusion other then you have a dud is absurd, there are plenty of Quadras out there and people have had them long before you got yours, i havent heard a single report of anything similar to what you experience. I talked to the Nordic agent yesterday and he havent had a single return on the Quadras.


So what does your dealer say ? I would get it replaced instead of trying to see if your dud unit will come to life again.

Bad luck, pick your self up and get it exchanged or your money back if you doubt you got a dud.

[poopinmymouth]

Mine works flawlessly BUT the LED is very warm. I've informed the German dealer of this, they sent my comparison shot (of mine and another owner's head that is much closer to daylight than mine) but have yet to hear back. All the other heads this dealer had were the similar yellow/green of mine. It's more a manufacturer defect than something "not working" as all the triggering and controls work fine, just the color tint of the LED that is off. I don't really use the modeling light for my photography, just as a preview, so the color isn't really important, though I do want it fixed eventually. I just have the patience to wait for a fix.

Anyone else tested the color temperature of their LED modeling light? Mine had to be set to 4500k to turn white.

[MR do little]

How did you and your dealer measure them ?

[MazzaPix]

Sorry to here that, no problems here with mine, although it's only been 2 weeks and almost 1,000 triggerings since I got the 2 head kit.
Some shots in use here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mazzapix/sets/72157620242498135/
I had one of my heads on a stand tip over to the ground..........I saw it fall when it was half way gone. Tested it and not a scratch, works fine. That was my first heart attack ever.

[poopinmymouth]

If you're asking me MR, they were pretty clueless. I believe they just offer them for sale, but don't actually know too much. They tried to eyeball it. I photographed my head next to theirs, at f/32, iso 100, and saturation jacked to max. You can see both of them were the same yellow green. When I did the same with my friend's head (which came from a different batch from a different supplier) his was blue, while mine was yellow. I measured mine myself using lightroom. I photographed a greycard then white balance picked in lightroom, and it had to use 4500k to get "neutral".

I asked them a week ago about progress, and they said they had notified Elinchrom, and included my image of the yellow head next to blue head, but that he had not heard back from Elinchrom yet.

[MR do little]

Lloyd any update on how your dealer solved it for you ?

Kindest

[picturecrazy]

Lloyd any update on how your dealer solved it for you ?

Kindest


They have it right now and are looking at it. In the meantime, my local shop is letting me borrow their floor model for my weekend wedding shoots, which is really nice of them. But I have built a really good relationship with the store so they were willing to do that. I think they felt bad I dropped $3000 on the quadra system and it only lasted half a shoot.

[MR do little]

Well hope you get a replacement kit asap, let us knows how they handle it.

Kindest

[Rai33]

First full day using the quadra in anger today. I had the occasional misfire which either needed me to switch the pack on and off or press the test button on the transmitter. Maybe misfired 8 times in 550 shots. I just read the Skyport manual and they say the transmitter battery should be changed every 3 months ...its been 5-6 months so I think i'll start there.

[MR do little]

Hi Rai!

Did the distance matter? or was it consistently not firing regardless of distance.

Iv noticed that my skyport is more sensetive to interference, and that the Quadra (wich lacks a external antenna) is not as effective as the Ranger RX with the RX transciver.

Therefore i use PW for triggering and metering, and skyport only for power adjustments. Still if you have gotten satisfactory results prior to this, its most likley the battery.

Hope you get it sorted.

Kindest

[roanjohn]

One quibble I have with the skyport transmitter is the lack of battery indicator. I accidentaly left one of them under "ALL" this Sunday and it was not working as of Monday night (I think it ran out of juice), I guess I have to stock up on these batteries and make sure I have a spare or 2 for every event.

Might also be better if they have an auto-off function to conserve battery....... or maybe a charger so they can be fully charged the night of an event.

[Rai33]

Hi Paul - it was regardless of distance.... I was always within two meters of the pack. I think a couple of times I heard it beep when it misfired - reading the manual it states this can happen when you turn the power down and the capacitor heats up as it self-discharges... it then fired immediately for the next shot though. I note I was also giving it a good workout.

Will try replacing the Skyport battery and changing frequency (as Lloyd mentions in his first post) for the next time.

Roanjohn - yeah its a pain... I do that all the time. I think I read in one of the forums that Elinchrom is working on an updated version. Hopefully this is true and its an improvement.

[Rudi]

I think a couple of times I heard it beep when it misfired - reading the manual it states this can happen when you turn the power down and the capacitor heats up as it self-discharges...

I rarely use the auto-dump on my strobes. Coming from the old school (i.e. if you don't do it yourself, sh*t tends to happen :D), I always do a manual dump when decreasing power levels. Auto dump is there just as a backup, as far as I'm concerned.

[Rai33]

Rudi - so the sequence to manually dump is to simply reduce power to the required level then quickly fire the strobe manually?

[Rudi]

Rudi - so the sequence to manually dump is to simply reduce power to the required level then quickly fire the strobe manually?

Basically, every time I reduce power, I trip the flash to dump the excess charge rather than let the thing do an auto dump. This reduces the power quickly, and the next flash is at the correct power level. Hope that makes sense. :)

[Rai33]

It does... but whats the optimal sequence ie. reduce the power first then immediately trip flash? or vice versa

[Cathpah]

One quibble I have with the skyport transmitter is the lack of battery indicator. I accidentaly left one of them under "ALL" this Sunday and it was not working as of Monday night (I think it ran out of juice), I guess I have to stock up on these batteries and make sure I have a spare or 2 for every event.

Might also be better if they have an auto-off function to conserve battery....... or maybe a charger so they can be fully charged the night of an event.

that's odd....I seem to leave my skyport transmitters "on" on a regular basis (apparently I'm always out of it by the end of a shoot!) and I've never had a problem with the battery quickly discharging.

[Rudi]

It does... but whats the optimal sequence ie. reduce the power first then immediately trip flash? or vice versa

The first option. I reduce flash power, the readout starts to flash (indicating a dump), and I trip the flash. Done. :)

[Rudi]

that's odd....I seem to leave my skyport transmitters "on" on a regular basis (apparently I'm always out of it by the end of a shoot!) and I've never had a problem with the battery quickly discharging.

Me too. I'm forever leaving the bloody things on...

[picturecrazy]

Ok... well... they gave me a new one. Fingers crossed it works properly.

[thumphrey]

Mine has been flawless so far. Not one misfire. (Knocking on wood!)

[bobbyz]

Some guy over at FM is having problems with florida sun and humidity. His quadra stopped working. He got a replacement and now the new unit is doing same.

[Rai33]

I obtained a replacement unit for the one that was misfiring (just swapped it all - pack and head so don't know which was the problem). New one hasn't had a single misfire.

[Rai33]

More problems ... getting some misfires again. I don't think its the pack as I can get it to fire by sliding the trigger off and back onto the hotshoe.

I suspect its one of my two batteries -- under closer inspection one of the battery boxes has some black foam under the clips on each side thats starting to bulge out. The other battery has nothing of the sort - no foam under the clips, in fact no foam anywhere to be seen. The battery has always been difficult to clip on and off so I suspect the foam has always been stuck under the clips ....probably some refurbed battery box would be my guess. Looks like another trip to the dealer.

[Semmonka]

Rai, can you use triggering cable instead of skyport on your Quadra?
If you can that would help you to isolate the problem. Plug the cable and fire the unit few hundred times and see if you still get misfires. Wireless triggers are not always 100% reliable so I would start testing when I have physical connection from camera to Quadra.

Also do you hear that beeb sound after every fire? If not that means the caps are not fully charged and it could tell about various problems (battery, power management in Quadra etc)

[Rai33]

Vesa - after more testing looks like you're right ie. it's wireless interference. I hooked up a flash unit via sync cord to a Skyport Universal receiver ie. so there was a completely separate strobe and receiver unit. I then proceeded to move around my house triggering the strobes. The Quadra pack definitely misfired first but I could pretty easily shield more of the trigger using my body and the Universal unit would no longer fire either. I had a second trigger with a new battery inserted which rules out a faulty trigger. The annoying thing is on location sometimes i'm very close to the pack and i get the same problem - probably some device in the area causing bad interference would be my guess. If there's no interference then everything is reliable.

So looks like i have to live with it... and get PW's if I want more reliability.

PS. I just switched off the Quadra's wireless receiver and hooked up a universal receiver via sync port... and voila same problem.

[Semmonka]

That sucks if it misfires only few times out of 100. Would be easier to trace the problem if it does not fire at all. I use skyport on my ranger rx and one time it did not fire at all when the transmitter was in group mode, but fired fine in all mode. I changed the battery and then it worked fine. After that I havent had any misfire. Weird huh
Try to trigger the unit with bare sync cable. If it works fine then the problem is in wireless connection. Its just easier to explain to your dealer when you know exactly where the problem is rather than saying "it just does not fire".
Imo its not fair if you spend lots of money for your pack and then you cant trust when you are shooting.
If your unit triggers fine with cable, the problem can be as easy as local WLAN station, working microwave oven etc that works on 2.4G band
Next time when somebody nitpicks your shot, you can always say, I used skyport, it misfired and I missed the perfect shot :D