L-358 with RT-32 and Pocketwizard FlexTT5's: range?

Hi All,

This week, the UPS man has been nice to me: one Pocketwizard TT1, 2 FlexTT 5's, and one L-358 with RT-32. Happy days. I have two 580 EXII's without the AC5 or AC7's.

First - firing via ControlTl works just fine. Default settings on everything (latest firmware as of yesterday). The TT1 / camera will happily fire my RF noisy 580's without a problem. 5 feet away, 20 feet away, downstairs on a another story of our house - no issues.

I setup C2 on the TT1 and TT5's to use Channel 2 instead of 1, and on the TT5's I unchecked the 'Use ControlTl for Receive' checkbox for their C2 configuration. The L-358 is also setup to use Channel 2.

The results: the L-358 will only intermitently fire the flashes, and at extremely minimal range (no more than 5 feet or so). I have fresh batteries everywhere, too.

So - question is: is this to be expected? What are other peoples results with this setup? Is this because of RF / would it improve if I get AC5's or 7's for the 580's (been thinking about that anyway...at least AC5 for now while they potentially retool the AC7)?

Thanks for the help,
Per

Didn't your FlexTT5 come with the soft shield? It should have if it's new and you're in North America.

But, if they were working fine using the MiniTT1 as the Tx unit, I'd think that you shouldn't have any issues using the L-358 as the Tx unit using the Standard Channel. Are you having the same issue when you use the MiniTT1 set to channel 2 to trigger the flashes? If not, it could be the L-358 that's at fault.

I might be off on my thinking here, but what will metering your flashes actually do?
I thought by using the pw's, and ETTL, you were causing the flash to output based on the pre-flash and what the camera's metering tells the flashes to do.
So the flash is expecting a reply from the camera, which it won't get from the L-358.
Or am I wrong here?

PacAce wrote in post #11095358
Didn't your FlexTT5 come with the soft shield? It should have if it's new and you're in North America.

But, if they were working fine using the MiniTT1 as the Tx unit, I'd think that you shouldn't have any issues using the L-358 as the Tx unit using the Standard Channel. Are you having the same issue when you use the MiniTT1 set to channel 2 to trigger the flashes? If not, it could be the L-358 that's at fault.

Thanks for the thoughts. I bought them used, no soft shields.
I'll verify again tonight that MiniTT1 on channel 2 did fine. Agree that it would lead to L-358 being the issue, but have ordered the soft shields now to see if they have any benefit here.

ootsk wrote in post #11097819
I might be off on my thinking here, but what will metering your flashes actually do?
I thought by using the pw's, and ETTL, you were causing the flash to output based on the pre-flash and what the camera's metering tells the flashes to do.
So the flash is expecting a reply from the camera, which it won't get from the L-358.
Or am I wrong here?

When using the flash meter, flashes are not in ETTL mode, they're in manual.
When in ETTL, using a flash meter makes no sense, to your point.

In addition to unchecking the control box, did you confirm that you set the flex to operate on standard channel 2 instead of the newer control channel 2?

Peace
Mark

OldA1 wrote in post #11098621
In addition to unchecking the control box, did you confirm that you set the flex to operate on standard channel 2 instead of the newer control channel 2?

Peace
Mark

Not sure what you mean? The FlexTT5's can only receive on a standard OR a ControlTl channel, never both. Unchecking the box grays out the ControlTl channel number, leaving just the standard channel number available for change. It is channel 2 on both Flex's.

PacAce wrote in post #11095358
Didn't your FlexTT5 come with the soft shield? It should have if it's new and you're in North America.

But, if they were working fine using the MiniTT1 as the Tx unit, I'd think that you shouldn't have any issues using the L-358 as the Tx unit using the Standard Channel. Are you having the same issue when you use the MiniTT1 set to channel 2 to trigger the flashes? If not, it could be the L-358 that's at fault.

Just did some more tests, in a larger space. I can only guess RF noise is at play. I've now managed to show inconsistent results no matter if using ControlTl or standard channels with the MiniTT1, in addition to the Sekonic. I think the Sekonic's results are just exaggerated due to it having a weaker signal strength vs. the MiniTT1.

So - AC5 sock has been ordered, and I'll experiment again once they arrive.

Cheers,
Per

perfarny wrote in post #11099620
Just did some more tests, in a larger space. I can only guess RF noise is at play. I've now managed to show inconsistent results no matter if using ControlTl or standard channels with the MiniTT1, in addition to the Sekonic. I think the Sekonic's results are just exaggerated due to it having a weaker signal strength vs. the MiniTT1.

So - AC5 sock has been ordered, and I'll experiment again once they arrive.

Cheers,
Per

Good luck. Hope the socks arrive soon.

perfarny wrote in post #11099620
......I think the Sekonic's results are just exaggerated due to it having a weaker signal strength vs. the MiniTT1.
Per

That has long been my suspicion. The L358's PW module is really intended for studio type distances so it stands to reason that it has a weaker signal making it more susceptible to the RF interference.

...and what a difference a little 'sock' makes
Got the two AC5's today, and voila - everything works like a charm. Range is excellent now all the way around (Pocketwizards and L-358 ).

Whew

perfarny wrote in post #11108941
...and what a difference a little 'sock' makes
Got the two AC5's today, and voila - everything works like a charm. Range is excellent now all the way around (Pocketwizards and L-358 ).

Whew

Glad to hear that's all it was and that the socks took care of the problem!

I recently purchased 3 TT5's for my two 580EXIIs and 430EX along with a TT1 for my 7d. So far, I can't get consistent results within 10 feet, and frustration doesn't even begin to describe my experiences so far with PW's.

I did try adding the attached socks, but I've found that it makes no difference.

At this point, I'm not sure if i should either purchase the AC7 hard sheilds...or replace my flash units with 430EXII's which I've read don't have the issues of the 580EXII and 430.

if anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them

thanks

Are you using the shoe supplied with the TT5? That's needed to make the sock effective as it needs to make contact with the bottom plate of the shoe in order to ground itself (or something like that).

When sock and shoe are used correctly together, I've never heard of it not working (but perhaps there are cases of that).

perform wrote in post #11303381
Are you using the shoe supplied with the TT5? That's needed to make the sock effective as it needs to make contact with the bottom plate of the shoe in order to ground itself (or something like that).

When sock and shoe are used correctly together, I've never heard of it not working (but perhaps there are cases of that).

yes...after reading more, i went back and found that hotshoe adapter and after trying along with the sock....works like a dream.

Now i have to figure out how to use all this with my lastolite softboxes. The Flash on top of the adapter on top of the TT5 makes it too high to fit into the bracket now. *sigh*