Pocketwizard for Nikon

<p>Has anybody had a chance to use the Pocketwizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 for Nikon yet? I have been using them for about a month and have had some reliability issues. I was wondering if anybody had any similar experience. I haven't heard back from support on my inquiry.<br>

<br />Thanks,<br />Matt</p>

<p>I know Ellis Vener, a longtime contributor here, has been experimenting with these. </p>

<p>I'm wondering if you know where I can get these in the USA? I've seen them backordered everywhere, but nowhere in stock. Are they really /out/?</p>

<p>I must have gotten lucky when they first came out. Check B&H every day, because I think they come and go quickly.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I've not had a chance to use mine in the field yet, but in testing I've noticed that the flash is sometimes fired a couple of times when I first turn the system on, and have had a couple of times where it was not triggered.</p>

<p>What sort of problems are you experiencing?</p>

The flash is meant to fire when you connect it up, it shows the system is ready and says so in the manual.

<blockquote>

<p>The flash is meant to fire when you connect it up, it shows the system is ready and says so in the manual.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>+1</p>

<p>I was fortunate to be a beta tester for the Mini and Flex for Nikon, so I have been using them since about September of this past year. The only issues that I have ever had was when the battery for the trigger was getting weak, there was some inconsistency in the remote units firing. My advice is to keep freshly charged batteries in the units and make sure that they are turned off when not in use. Otherwise, in my experience, they are flawless.</p>

<p>I'm having two problems with inconsistency:</p>

<p>First, the remotes (set to manual) occasionally do not flash. I find this happens most often when I have gone a few minutes without shooting, as if they have gone to sleep and need to wake up. <br>

Things also get screwed up when I go from master to normal mode on the SB-900, and then back to master. PW tells me that I should never switch over to normal, because it's meant to be in master all the time. Kind of unfortunate, because for wedding work, sometimes I don't want the remotes to fire, and need to turn them off quickly.<br>

The other problem I seem to have, which I can't explain is that the TTL metering for the master flash in the hot shoe varies wildly sometimes. I don't know why there would be a correlation, but when I remove the mini, my TTL metering is as expected.<br>

My batteries have been good for the most part, but I'll make sure they are always full.<br>

<br />Thanks,<br />Matt</p>

 

<p><em>" I don't know why there would be a correlation, but when I remove the mini, my TTL metering is as expected."</em><br>

- just a guess, when you place the mini transmitter in the camera hot shoe, your remote flashes are no longer in Remote CLS mode, and must be in the iTTL mode, or in manual.<br>

When you use Nikon commander, your remote CLS flashes, when set in Remote mode participate in Nikon pre-flash testing, and the visible light ie evaluated in the camera trhrough the lens. So, this is the CLS metering that is acurate.</p>

<p>So, when under PW control, your remote flashes, not being really Remote CLS, use some other method of evaluting designed by PW, and abandon the good CLS pre-flash testing with remote flashes in CLS Remote mode.</p>

<p><strong>Please, someone explain how the Pocket Wizard remote light estimate is done ?,</strong> does not seem to use the Nikon good and acurate optical pre-flash evaluating, since the PW uses radio triggering, and not optical mean. Radio cannot be used through the lens, so ...we need to know how that really works?</p>

<p>I had a whole bunch of problems including your mode switching problem and your sleep/wakeup problem. More here: <a href="00YFys">http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00YFys</a><br>

.</p>

<p>When using a D80 the two pocket wizards you mention did not fire consistently. I have always had bes tof luck with the Pocket Wiizard Plus(s) I use with any of my three Nikons, D50, D80, D700 and they have always fired.</p>

<p>Not sure anyone is reading this thread anymore, but I can not get consistent firing with SB800 on the FlexTT5 with either an SB800 or SB900 on the MiniTT1/D700. I video taped the slave system and while the red light flashes on the Flextt5 and the amount of light on the video does not seem too bad, on the D700, it is grossly underexposed. Might be a sync problem. I have tried everything I can think of... upgrading software, fresh batteries and nothing seems to help.<br>

Suggestions or ideas?</p>