Hot-shoe flash with Pocket-Wizard fired by something else

I rented a pair of Pocket-Wizard to shoot photos of a Children X-mas party which

had near two hundred participants, kids and their parents, a few days ago.

During the event in the main room, I noticed my hot-shoe flash was triggered by

something other than my camera. The consequence was missing firing from time to

time. When I pressed the shutter button right after the flash was triggered by

others, the flash could not fire since the batteries had not gotten fully

recharged.

 

Someone said that happened since I set the flash in the slave mode and it was

triggered by others? flashes. I can?t agree the theme since my flash didn?t fire

every time when someone else?s flash fired. Is a usage problem or a equipment

problem?

w/o knowing the equipment you used and what the guest used this is only wild guess.

 

If you have a Nikon SB600/800 and it was in a mode to work remotely, and one of the guests also had a Nikon with an SB600/800, there is a remote possibility that the guests Nikon could be communicating with your flash.

 

You need to make sure that your flash is not in a mode that the remote receiver on the flash is active.

 

The other option is some RF interference affecting the PW. In that case, you simply change the PW to another channel where hopefully the RFI is less.

I used the Sigma EF 500 DG Super.

I did change the channel from the channel one to the channel four once I noticed the flash was triggered by something else. That, however, did not help at all.

Look like you do not get firm grip on your equipment, or are withholding vital information to really help you.

 

You are using "Pocket-Wizard" right ?, with a Sigma flash, and are changing channel on the Sigman flash, and NOT on the Pocket Wizard ? I believe most popular Pocket-Wizards operate via radio, but I could be wrong, though.

 

Are you triggering your remote flash via radio signal? or via optical signal?

 

Once you are sure how you trigger your remote flash, start looking for reason in proper subset of possible causes.

 

Who else had another Pocket Wizard there to spoil your fun?

Or else, was there another optical flash or a commander that caused your optically triggerred flash misfire ?

 

What was your flash setup ?

About 2 uears ago I had Sigma flash for D70, that was supposedly Nikon iTTL mode compatible, but I had to return it and replace by SB-800. Sigma called that mode "NA-iTTL", which in my opinion stands for "Not Actually iTTL".

 

Sigma worked to some sort of satisfaction when mounted in the camera shoe (sometimes) and used as a single and alone flash. For remote usage reliability, or for multiple flash, the flash was no ready yet at that time. Let's hope Sigma gets iTTL/CLS technology license from Nikon, and do it right, soon.

Sigma seems to "reverse engineer" whatever they can, so I doubt they will ever get it right if they haven't by now. But my wife says I'm a pessimist. I still think I'm an oft discouraged realist. :)

 

Vernon, you need to set the Sigma in manual flash mode, not slave mode. Switching it to one of the slave configuration turns on the built in optical slave sensor, and that's not what yo want to do when using a Pocket-Wizard with it. This is what Frank was getting at. Using it in this way should fix your problem. And if it still misfires try changing channels on the PW.

Thanks for your folks' information.

 

A Pocket-Wizard transmitter was mounted on the hotshoe slot of my camera. I didn't plan to trigger my flash with an optional signal.

 

I don't believe the channel on the flash has anything to do with this issue since it is for communication between the master flash and a slave flash and the master flash was absented in this case.

 

Only one set of Pocket-Wizard presented at the time.

 

I need to remember to test the flash on the manual mode next time when I use the Pocket-Wizard again. One problem with the manual mode, I can't see the flash blinking and tell whether the flash still has battery power or not in a distance unless I need frequently push the test button on a Pocket-wizard transmitter.

If you shoot an event with 200 people. You might consider replacing the battery operated flash gear with some AC powered strobes. I couldn't imagine waiting for a small unit to cycle at that type of event.

<I>"I don't believe the channel on the flash has anything to do with this issue since it is for communication between the master flash..."</I>

<P>

Yes, but it's an optical slave device, and if there are other flashes being fired it could get confused and fire with them - perhaps). Also, the EF-500 DG Super has a generic slave mode that is very sensitive (pretty nice to have when you need it).