PowerMC2 and SU-800 and Mini-TT1

[lornesunley]

<p>I was pleasantly surprised to find that when you control a Paul Buff Einstein flash using a Pocket wizard PowerMC2 unit with a Mini-TT1 using a Nikon SU-800 to control the lighting values, you get control of 8 stops of lighting as opposed to 6 stops with the Pocket Wizard AC3 unit.</p>

<p>The Nikon SU-800 will set the power from 1/1 to 1/128 and it works very well. Also, you can manually set the power on the Einstein up (or down) by a stop to use the lowest 8 stops of the 9 stop range, or the highest 8 stops of the 9 stop range of the Einstein unit.</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>You have me completely baffled Lorne. How can Nikon's SU-800 <em>optical only</em> commander work with the <em>Radio Frequency only</em> PW PowerMC2 and Flex TT1?</p>

<p>Is this a leg-pull to see if we're awake?</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>No, it works fine, the Mini TT1 unit that is mounted in the camera hot shoe captures the commands from the SU-800 that would normally go out over the optical output and puts the commands out over the Pocketwizard radio channel.<br>

<br />The same thing happens if you have an SB-800/900/910 mounted on the Mini-TT1 that is in Master mode and controls remote flashes mounted on Fles-TT5 units through the radio channels.<br>

The Pocket Wizard TT1 and TT5 units act as the carrier for the CLS commands through radio channels rather than using optical transmissions. The SU-800 does the same thing that the Pocket Wizard AC3 unit does to control the flash units. </p>

[paul_k1664875007]

<p>deleted</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>Right. So the SU-800 is piggy-backed into the top shoe of the TT1, correct? How on earth did you discover that? Since it's not the sort of thing one would normally do.</p>

<p>Interesting. I would've thought that communication between SU-800 and camera was unidirectional, with the camera merely giving the "fire" signal to the SU-800, but I suppose the SU-800 has to "amplify" the camera's I-TTL signals, and has to set up the camera in the first place.</p>

<p>So PW could easily have added the extra power level control to their AC3 in that case. I wonder why they didn't? Maybe they'll write a firmware update. Or maybe not. I wonder how many people want 1/64th to 1/256th power from a studio flash?</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>I had purchased the TT1 and some TT5 units to control my Nikon speed lights using the SU-800, and when I had purchased an Einstein flash, I encountered a thread here on Photo.net talking about the use of an AC-3 and a TT1 to control the output of an Einstein that had a PowerMC2 hooked up to it. The Pocket Wizard web site indicates that an AC3 and a SU-800 are interchangeable for control of lights so I decided to try it out. The fact that an SU-800 allows an extra stop over the AC3 is a bonus.<br>

The AC3 7 stop limit is probably more in line with the limitations of most studio strobes, Elinchrom are 7 stops maximum. As far as I know only the Einsteins have a 9 stop range.</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

Great find Loren! Thanks for sharing.