Wireless flash

My question is: I know the canon speedlights are not the best suited for these and I am wondering what others use to with their pocket wizards. I am currently looking at the 383's from sunpak. What do you all use?


Thanks

The new 580EX II that is just announced now has the proper connection points to support the use of the Pocket Wizards. I currently use a connection unit that I bought from Paramount Cords on my 580's and/or 550's. They work fine as far as sending and receiving signals.

When you use pocket wizards, all you get us basic flash sync. So, connected to any of the recent Canon Speedlights (via relatively expensive adapters) all you will get is a basic manual flash mode (but nothing wrong with basic manual flash).

But if all you are going to have is basic manual flash, why pay $350.00 for a Canon 580EX? A Sunpak 383 has about the same power as the Canon 580EX, but only costs $80.00. In addition, it has a sync port that the 580EX lacks, so it will be less expensive to connect your pocket wizard (no expensive Paramount adapter required).

The new Vivitar 285HV has like attributes and sells for only $90.00.

Buy the way, the 580EX II mentioned above will be selling for $500.00, this is enough cash to buy 6.2 Sunpak 383 flash units.

Enjoy! Lon

The Canon Speedlites with manual controls (currently 430EX and 580EX) work fine with PocketWizards. You'll need hotshoe adapters for them, but these adapters have threaded holes in the bottom for mounting, and you'll need a way to mount them anyway.

But since most of the advanced technology that makes these Speedlites rather pricey is not utilized when you trigger them with PWs, there are certainly less expensive alternatives for this sort of use. Consider the Sunpak 383 or the Vivitar 285HV if you don't plan to use them on the hotshoe and don't need all of the E-TTL functions. These units won't recycle as fast as a 580EX, but they're priced in the $80-$90 range, pack plenty of power, can be used in auto mode off-camera, and have adjustable manual output.

Edit: Lon beat me this time.

I added an 1/8" mono phone jack to my 580 and 550(DIY tutorial here). I use to screw around with the hotshoe adapters but never liked them- seemed too flimsy to me.

The 550 was kinda tricky, but the connections are the same. I found room for the jack on the side...

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I use an old Nikon SB-24. They used to be cheap before strobist made them popular, maybe $60-$70 now.

The 580EX is nice when you don't have time to set up off camera flash. I just like the AF-assist light, and maybe a Sigma would have done the job as well. The 580EX does work with PW + hotshoe adapter ($10 via ebay) but the alternatives work just as well off camera and for cheaper.

Thank you guys for the help.... I was looking exactly for what you guys recommended. I already have 430ex's and 580ex's for my wedding stuff. But I don't really want to have them in the line of fire of a downhill mt biker crashing down the hill. So I am looking at picking up a few of the sunpacks or vivitars.

Nice mod to the 550/580ex. too much work for me, but cool non the less.

thanks a ton guys.