is the Pocket wizard Flex & Mini that bad?

my ones work very erratic and I am unable to use them in "real" shooting. the 550ex has a much wider range than the 580ex. but both work unreliable within their "comfort zone". I would never ever buy them again for that, although I think their functionality would be great.
200$ per radio - an expensive experience for me, for nothing. I wonder how long they can keep this business model going?

philllie1 wrote in post #8682943
my ones work very erratic and I am unable to use them in "real" shooting. the 550ex has a much wider range than the 580ex. but both work unreliable within their "comfort zone". I would never ever buy them again for that, although I think their functionality would be great.
200$ per radio - an expensive experience for me, for nothing. I wonder how long they can keep this business model going?

What's erratic about them - the metering or the triggering?

I traded in 3 of my 4 plus2 transceivers to purchase the mini and 2 flex's when they first came out. I was extremely happy with them in studio as just transmitters on my bees. But when I took them outside with my 580exii and 430ex the range on them was horrid. I was only able to get 10ft at most with 75% reliability with line of sight. I traded them to b&h and purchased 2 plus 2's and now Im back in business. Its a shame cause I really liked the mini's low profile.

Hermes wrote in post #8683158
What's erratic about them - the metering or the triggering?

triggering is the big problem for me. I really never know, if it will, the next time I press the shutter. Occiasionally I also get som full-loads of flash, but dont know why. I could live with the second one. But not the first.

I will see for myself, as I just ordered a Mini TT1 transmitter and two Flex TT5 Transceivers this afternoon so I could use 2 Canon 580 EX II strobes.

Thank you for taking one for the team!! I am planning to get it also but i am waiting for the AC-7 shield to come in and hopefully it will solve some of the problems.

GergReltub wrote in post #8683963
I will see for myself, as I just ordered a Mini TT1 transmitter and two Flex TT5 Transceivers this afternoon so I could use 2 Canon 580 EX II strobes.

Hope the best for you. and I suggest, that you test them quickly, so you could return them, if they don't work. I waited too long in the believing pw would fix the problems. now I sit on them, and can't use them.

No they are great the variation is in the canon flashes.

philllie1 wrote in post #8683946
triggering is the big problem for me. I really never know, if it will, the next time I press the shutter. Occiasionally I also get som full-loads of flash, but dont know why. I could live with the second one. But not the first.

When the PWs can't communicate well enough to share ETTL information, they'll default to full-power which would explain the second scenario. Suggests it's the interference problem that most 580 users are reporting. Have you tried out different channels to see if that helps?

Hermes wrote in post #8685051
When the PWs can't communicate well enough to share ETTL information, they'll default to full-power which would explain the second scenario. Suggests it's the interference problem that most 580 users are reporting. Have you tried out different channels to see if that helps?

tried several channels. and its not only the 580. i have to 550ex which have a better range but way inside this range in the very comfort zone they behave erratic.
after some bad experiences I went outdoors (different locations) with a friend and we tested:
pw flex, canon ir only, cheap cactus.
my friend was very happy at the end of this test because his very cheap chinese radios performed very well compared to the pw. pw were also worse than canon ir only.
as I said: the way the pw perform, it wouldn't even justify a few $ you pay for chinese triggers. at least you could throw them into the rubbish bin without bad feelings. but having paid 4x200$ for this unusable things makes me really angry. and when I read, that pw has stopped working on this product already, with quite a few people out here having massive problems, I can't really find words for that.

philllie1 wrote in post #8687333
tried several channels. and its not only the 580. i have to 550ex which have a better range but way inside this range in the very comfort zone they behave erratic.
after some bad experiences I went outdoors (different locations) with a friend and we tested:
pw flex, canon ir only, cheap cactus.
my friend was very happy at the end of this test because his very cheap chinese radios performed very well compared to the pw. pw were also worse than canon ir only.
as I said: the way the pw perform, it wouldn't even justify a few $ you pay for chinese triggers. at least you could throw them into the rubbish bin without bad feelings. but having paid 4x200$ for this unusable things makes me really angry. and when I read, that pw has stopped working on this product already, with quite a few people out here having massive problems, I can't really find words for that.

If even a 550EX won't work on its own, that suggests a broader problem to me. Even if it's too late to return them to where you bought them, they should still be under warranty. Have you got in touch with PW to see what they're prepared to do?

Admittedly I have the EU versions but I use multiple 550EXs with multiple TT5s and they do seem to work as advertised and trigger reliably enough. I should say though that they can appear not to trigger if the flash they're firing isn't recharged - I've already met one person frustrated with the triggers when in fact they just weren't used to the long recyle times of speedlites. The full-power default flash when communication isn't good just makes things worse because you have to wait for a full recycle (7-30 seconds with no external battery pack) before you can take another shot.

I don't remember whether we've gone through this or not, Phillie . . .

HOW TO TROUBLESHOOT YOUR MINI/FLEX

"Yesterday, I thought I had come across an issue.

I was on the riverfront, had a few specific shots in mind.

I get set up with my Mini on camera, my 580EX on the Flex. Test button works, everything's grand!

Then I set up the shot and no fire. Again, Again, Again . . . no firing of the flash when I take a shot, even though the test button works everytime.

Maybe it's my C1, maybe somewhere in my experimentation I changed a setting and didn't change it back.

so . . . C2 . . . no fire, no fire, no fire . . . bleh!!!

I try my second Flex on camera, test button works . . . but . . . NO FIRE!!

I make sure my "Flash Fires: Enabled" custom function is set right and it is.

---------------

If you find yourself in this situation, here's what you should do.

The flex and the mini have red lights that come on when they get a signal (Just like every pocket wizard ever made). The Mini lights red when it gets fired by the camera. The Flex lights red when it gets a signal from the Mini.

If you take a photo, and the mini and the flex light red but the flash doesn't fire it's either a real problem with your flash or it just isn't seated in the hotshoe correctly. Alternatively, if you have a Canon flash in the hotshoe but have dialed in a Hypersync delay and disabled HSS/FP with the checkbox then the Flex will know that it's timing will be off if it fires the Canon speedlight and it won't even bother. It will blink red, 4 times, in a way that I've only seen happen with this combination of factors. (I can't test right this second, but it might happen with a Delay set, but FP/HSS still *enabled,* I'll test later today and edit with the latest infos)

if you take a photo and the mini lights up but the flex does not it's probably a channel issue. The same applies if using a PlusII as receiver. If you're using a standard pocket wizard as receiver then make sure you're not shooting at a shutter speed above the HSS/FP cutoff, if you are the Mini stops sending the standard channel and the PlusII won't receive anything.

If your mini doesn't light red, then it's either a camera setting or a mini-not-all-the-way-in-the-hotshoe (I did this so many times during my first weekend with it).

If you're able to plug into the PW Utility, baseline your settings using this as a guide (or your own guide, you don't have to use mine. I'm just sharing what works for me).

www.kurtstrecker.com/i​mages/controltl_settin​gs.jpg

Or if you have really good eyesight

In the above situation I found that the Mini wasn't getting triggered by the camera (no red light on mini when I took a photo). I remembered I had been shooting out in the rain the night before, long exposures, camera on tripod. A thin film of dust had dried onto my hotshoe and blocked the signal completely.

Hotshoe cleaned, everything starts working exactly as it should . . .

Imagine if this had been my first experience with the Mini/Flex? How hard would I have tried to really figure out what's wrong after hearing the horror stories of the unit's reliability?? My camera was the last place I expected to find the problem . . . and yet, there it was, the simplest of solutions because I knew what to look for. Now, hopefully, you do too.


Anyway, hope this helps. Ask questions, request further clarity, or just add your own finding below.

Firstly, one must take a few calibration shots for on camera flash. After about four or five shots it should be in the zone.

HSS and HyperSync are two very different beasts.

I've found my Mini/Flex does HSS pretty well, 1/8000 sec will freeze anything.

HyperSync allows any flash to sync above its normal sync speed, typically about 1/500 sec ~ Rob Galbraith has this covered very well indeed. HyperSync only needs a Mini on camera to function to existing Plus IIs or MultiMax units.

However, I've suffered a few problems along the way too, replacement units are offered from PW so I'll try those when they arrive.

My problems includes the usual RF issues plus 1/2 used battery missfires, poor seating of flash on Mini or Flex, failure to wake up and sudden exposure changes.

GerBee wrote in post #8688608
Firstly, one must take a few calibration shots for on camera flash. After about four or five shots it should be in the zone.

HSS and HyperSync are two very different beasts.

I've found my Mini/Flex does HSS pretty well, 1/8000 sec will freeze anything.

HyperSync allows any flash to sync above its normal sync speed, typically about 1/500 sec ~ Rob Galbraith has this covered very well indeed. HyperSync only needs a Mini on camera to function to existing Plus IIs or MultiMax units.

However, I've suffered a few problems along the way too, replacement units are offered from PW so I'll try those when they arrive.

My problems includes the usual RF issues plus 1/2 used battery missfires, poor seating of flash on Mini or Flex, failure to wake up and sudden exposure changes.

Are you FlicBons19 on flickr.com?

If you're having range or triggering problems. Try out some of the suggestions in this article:

http://www.pocketwizar​d.com …rations/technol​ogy/range/

I set mine up like Figure 3. and I haven't had a problem using my 580exII.

Then again, I haven't tried to trigger it from 100 feet away either, but in my normal usage, I haven't had problems.