Pocket Wizard Question

I am looking to add soem pocket wizards to my light for in door shooting. I ordered the new wireless Alienbee system and it seems to work just fine. However, I am finding it to be a pain to meter with with my light meter. Have to unhook the wireless, plug in the sync cord to a unit meter then unplug and plug everything else in again.

So my question is can i just order the transciever unit for like $188 or whatever it is or do i need a multimax thing for $300 and a reciever and or transciever? I know I need one fo rthe camera and one for the lights. I plan on using one on the lights and letting the striobes fire the rest for now. Since it is all in door shooting I figured it would be fine for now till i can order for the other strobes.

TIA

I had the AB rx/tx system. It did work well but was not flexible enough and I want to fire the strobes from my meter without the AD transmitter appendage hanging off of it.

I'm looking to do something similar to you using the PW Plus II transceivers. One on the camera and one for the strobes, and one AB can fire the others or I can distribute sync to their inputs, allowing me to toggle them on and off for independent adjustments.

Ok, I take it the multiplex PW is not necessary and from reading all i can find i can not really tell a big use for it over getting two normal transcievers. I am still keeping the AB wireless stuff also for when I go outside or on location that doesnt lend very well to strobe firing via the auto light sensor or whatever it is called.

That's how it looks to me too. I'm told the build quality is not as good on the Plus II's but I'm not too concerned about that, and I like the idea of the auto senseing tranceivers rather than dedicated transmitters and receivers. For my purposes they look like they would do just fine.

Well i did get my Plus II's lastnight and it is so much nicer being able to fire the strobes with the meter rather then plugging and unplugging cables.

Steve Beck wrote in post #2482129
Well i did get my Plus II's lastnight and it is so much nicer being able to fire the strobes with the meter rather then plugging and unplugging cables.

Hi Steve,

Did you get 2 Plus II's? Can you tell me what you got and how you have it set up. I'm thinking of moving in this direction as well. Any pics would be welcome too.

Well if you invested into the Sekonic meters, you can trigger them from your meter. Purchase the aditional module for the L358 for like $45, of the 55x or whatever model it is already has the transmitter built it. I have the Plus IIs and they are phenomenal. Flawless. Best investment for my lighting rig was these triggers and the meter module. No wires, quick readings.

Are you using one Plus II for each of 2 strobes? or one to fire the first strobe, slave trigger to fire the second and the other Plus II to trip the shutter? I know about the PW module for the Sekonic but I was curious as to how you are using the 2 Plus II's.

will try to take some pics tonight if I can. I called AB and the nice lady told me the radio shack part number for the cable and the sekonic part number for the cable. The Radio Shack 6ft cable is $3.99 and the Sekonic cable is $19 at B&H. I think 6ft is definatley long enough and at the cost difference is almost a no brainer. The Plus 2's come witht he cable to go from the module to the camera pc sync plug but not the cable to the strobes as soem strobe plug sizes are different. BTW the 6ft cable part number from Radio Shack is 42-2420A...


Really simple actually, I persoanlly took the hand strap for one put it on the wizard and hung it over the top tightening knob for the third extender for now (I did not want ot velcro it down to the tripod,so I just hung it by the hand strap). Set it to channel one and left the mode switch to both (transmit and recieve). Plug in my trusty $3.99 Radio Shack cable to the wizard flash plug hole and the other end on the strobe). I put the other wizard on the camera, plugged the cord provided in to the camera PC Sync plug on the camera and the other end in to the camera hole on the wizard. I also left the one on the camera set to both transmit and recieve.

Make sure they are both on the same channel and thats it. When you push the meter button it fires the strobe. The one strobe and wizard had no problem firing the other three strobes via the optic ligth sensor or whatever it is. I have no doubt using them outside or in larger rooms i will need more wizards.

I now understand the multimax over the plus 2's. The plus 2's only have 4 channels where as the multimax has 32. So if you are using them in public you might have interference with other wizards, with the multi you have more channel options to avoid this. But I think for home sutio use two is probably fine and Plus 2's is adequate I think.

Hope I wrote it out clear enough to understand. If you need pictures or diagrams i will try to get them for you.

sboerup wrote in post #2484097
Well if you invested into the Sekonic meters, you can trigger them from your meter. Purchase the aditional module for the L358 for like $45, of the 55x or whatever model it is already has the transmitter built it. I have the Plus IIs and they are phenomenal. Flawless. Best investment for my lighting rig was these triggers and the meter module. No wires, quick readings.

Yes ssir I have a Sekonic 758, thats why i got the wizards to make my life easier and my customer not have to wait so long for changing cords around.

I still kept my AlienBees wireless stuff for doing stuff outside with multi strobes etc.