Nikon SB800 Flashgun and Pocket Wizard

[mike_doyle2]

Hi, Picking up from another thread, I have no experience of using Pocket

Wizard's and wish to seek the advice of anyone who could offer me an answer to

my question. I am at present using a Nikon D200 with an SB800 flashgun with a

stroboframe T Pro bracket, the Camera and Flash are attached by an SC 29 lead,

and though I find the combination works really well with most situations I

encounter in my varied work, I often wish I did not forever have to make sure

the lead was not getting tangled up with the constant changes from portrait to

landscape format requiring me to swing the flash into the appropriate position.

Could I fix the Pocket Wizard in the hot shoe of the D200 and dispense with

the SC 29 lead altogether? And if the answer is yes, how does this combination

work? I look forward to your informed answers as usual, regards

 

Mike

[Two23]

It would work, but I think I've found something better than the Pocket Wizard. Those are fairly big in size. I've been using the new Elinchrom Skyports on my D80. They are tiny! They have a 400 ft. range. The sending unit attaches very neatly into your camera's hotshoe, and the very small receiver I just velcro to the side of the flash. Note that you have no TTL with a radio slave though. You adjust flash output manually with all of them. It has been 100% reliable for me though.

 

 

Kent in SD

[Matt Laur]

Kent's point is the most important one: you're going to lose all of the sophisticated communication between the camera and the strobe. You could regain much of that by jusing the D200's pop-up as a commander for the SB-800 in CLS slave mode, but that introduces some shutter release lag time, and can make people blink.

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

Your flash will still work in "Auto" or "Manual" with PW's. Pop your flash into "Auto" mode and see how that works for you. I've found that the "Auto" mode is very good for many shots.

[Ed_Ingold]

The Pocketwizard has a wired foot that works in an hot shoe. The SB-800 has a PC port on the side from which the flash will fire if attached to the PW with the proper adapter cable (3mm phone plug to PC).

 

PWs simply fire the flash - no TTL control is possible. You can use the built-in photocell in the SB-800 to control the exposure by selecting AUTO mode on the flash.

 

The Pro-T bracket has a cable clamp which you can use to keep the cable from tangling. You can also buy straight and shortened cables from Paramount and others. Personally, I wouldn't bother with a flash bracket unless using a large, heavy flash like a Quantum. The SB-800 diffusion cap does a good job of eliminating shadows and red-eye without all the fuss.

[douglas lee]

Another idea, although I have not tested it, wold be to put an SU-800 in the camera's hot

shoe to trigger the SB-800 on the bracket. That would eliminate the flash from the D200. I

know this works with the Canon system (STE-2 on camera, 550EX on bracket.) Indoors with

reflective surfaces should work, outdoors, I am not sure. Just a thought.

[gdw]

I use both Pocket Wizards and the SU800 and I?m with Douglas on this one. The SU800 is a much better choice than the Pocket Wizards in your situation for a little less than the cost of two PWs. You are still going to have the dangling cord from the PW attached to the flash on the bracket, not as long but still dangling.

 

I do not have a bracket, but I tried holding the SB800 above the SU800 at about where I suspect your flash would be and it works fine. Indoors it even works when held well behind the SU800, because the IR does reflect off walls and ceilings. I did not try this outdoors. With the SU800 you still have the Nikon CLS and no cords.

 

Pocket Wizards, according to the manual, also need at least a twelve inches separation between the antennas of the two units which you might not have with your bracket set up. I did not try the PWs but I suspect they will work, however with the possibility of creating radio interference that might affect other objects in the room.

 

The downside of the SU800 would only occur if you needed greater distance between the flashes. Outdoors the distance the SU800 will work is considerably shorter than the Pocket Wizards

 

A less expensive alternative would be to purchase a package of plastic or Velcro cable ties or even the wire ties from trash bags to secure the cord around the bracket to keep it from dangling.

[randmcnatt]

<i>"I often wish I did not forever have to make sure the lead was not getting tangled up with the constant changes from portrait to landscape format..."</i>

<p>

Really, the simplest solution is to go to Radio Shack and get some <a href="http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=velcro&origkw=velcro&sr=1">Velcro wire ties</a> and some <a href="http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=wire%20guides&origkw=wire%20guides&sr=1">wire guides</a> and attach that SC-29 properly so it stays out of the way and doesn't get tangled.

[mike_doyle2]

Hi everyone, many thanks for the feedback and I have now discounted the PW, I feel the SU800 is the way forward, and of course as someone mentioned it is useful for the CLS if and when I ever get time to experiment with it, finally I do have velcro tabs holding the SC29 in place, but even so the constant changes between viewing portrait and landscape still makes for a loose lead, but I may have over exagerated that point, what I really hoped for was a way of firing the SB800 in its dedicated mode without any leads, and that is clearly not as simple as I thought, but as usual the responses have been varied enough to not only answer my question but have given me other ideas, thanks to everyone for taking the time to offer me a way forward, regards

 

Mike

[randmcnatt]

So, Mike, be sure to let us know the solution you come up with. There's bound to be lots of folk who have had the same problems. Good luck with it.