Pocket Wizard prices

[devilgas]

was looking to get a pair of the FlexTT5 pocket wizards, but the current 'exchange' rate of £229=$219 is kinda putting me off. does anyone know where these can be gotten from, preferably in the UK, at a fairer price?

given that $220 is about £140, why do we pay another 65% ?

[Ian]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

was looking to get a pair of the FlexTT5 pocket wizards, but the current 'exchange' rate of £229=$219 is kinda putting me off. does anyone know where these can be gotten from, preferably in the UK, at a fairer price?

given that $220 is about £140, why do we pay another 65% ?

Ebay seems to be the cheapest, though these are HK sellers so you may have to add duty and VAT. Prices are around £169 for a single unit, or £300-ish for a pair.

Ian

[devilgas]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

thanks ian. have opted for a cactus v4 transmitter and 2 receivers for $70 from gadgetinfinity. they get decent enough write-ups and allegedly have sufficient range for my needs. time will tell......

[Ian]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

thanks ian. have opted for a cactus v4 transmitter and 2 receivers for $70 from gadgetinfinity. they get decent enough write-ups and allegedly have sufficient range for my needs. time will tell......

Do let us know how you get on with them!

Ian

[devilgas]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

Do let us know how you get on with them!

Ian

well, i'm working on the basis that i'll eventually have to splash the cash on the wizards, but thought these'd be worth a punt first as i don't need the mega distances that the PW's allow....20-30m is ample.

i did have some of the cheap ebay transmitter / receiver sets, but other than the very first set i acquired, have been disappointed with them. spent several hours adding aerials of the appropriate length, but that didn't improve matters much.

have never tried the cactus or the PW's, so things should only get better....

[devilgas]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

cactus triggers received today from HK. have only had a very quick play, but so far they have been 100% reliable. i've not tried a range test as yet. will give that a blast tomorrow.
max sync speed on the 40d (with 550ex) was 1/250th, on the 10d 1/200th/ beyond this the frame is partially obscured. the new pocket wizards can sync at higher speeds, however 1/250th is ample for my needs.

top marks for gadget infinity. i wasn't sure if they were HK or USA based. was hoping the former as anything i've ever bought from the states takes at least 2 weeks to be delivered unless it's intercepted by customs in which case you're talking 4-6 weeks.

so, initial impressions are that they are great bits of kit and well worth a punt at the price.

[devilgas]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

disappointed with the range. tried them in the garden this morning and was only getting reliable triggering with distances of <10m. beyond 10m and there was a rapid drop off in reliability, with no triggering at 12m. i'd seen a report in that there interweb of someone getting reliable triggering at 60m.

so, if you want distance, then it looks like it's the pocket wizards. if distance isn't a problem, then the v4's will do the job.

[devilgas]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

in what seems a never ending quest to NOT buy the pocketwizards, another forum i use pointed me to the yongnuo RF-602 radio triggers.

well, took delivery and tested them. they work on the 2.4Ghz band and are supplied with cables to connect to studio flash and another camera (you specify the type). the ones i have are for the canon 40d and are coupled to a 550ex flash (notorious for being 'noisy' thus reducing receiving capabilities). they feature a half press function if you are radio controlling a camera and want pre-focus etc or for waking 'sleeping' flashes.

anyways, did the garden test and got 100% triggering at about 20m. 25m was the point at which triggering stopped. these are claimed to work up to 200m using line of sight, although i'm sure the limiting factor for my setup is the 550.

as with the cactus, max sync speed (on the 40d) is 1/250s

£28 delivered for a Tx/Rx pair from [ame]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150404925352[/ame] and by far the best triggers i've got so far.

[kennykodak]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

i did a father-daughter dance friday night using elinchrom's micros controlled by a pw mini on camera and a pw flex on each mono head. 2 miss fires out of 284 exposures, not bad. since this shoot was on manual using elinchrom, there was no e-ttl sync.

[kennykodak]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

installed the pocket wizard module in the Sekonic L-358 meter. i currently can not make it trigger a Flex-5 transceiver.

[Ian]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

When I was at PMA last week, Samsung took us to see an NBA basketball match at the Staples stadium in Los Angeles. We watched the LA Clippers narrowly beat Charlotte.

Anyway, next to us was a photographer using a Nikon D3 and he appeared to have a Pocket Wizard fitted. Every time pressed the shutter release, the whole basketball court was clearly flashed. We were half way up the one corner of the stadium in a private box, so he was maybe a hundred feet or more from the play. I guess he was a stadium pro and was linked into a permanently installed array of strobes situated around the court. He was allowed to flash the players during play and presumably they are used to it...

Ian

[kennykodak]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

it's not uncommon for a "house" photographer to hard wire a venue with radio controlled lights. my problem is that i want to use the Mini - Flex system in a manual mode with my Elinchroms. it does that perfectly but i bought a Pocket Wizard transmitter module for my Sekonic L-358 meter and it does not trip the slaved flash units for metering. all i want to do is stand where my subject is to be, push a button and get a meter reading.

[kennykodak]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

Pocket Wizard now has a devise that they show as a demo at WPPI that plugs into the hot shore of a Mini. the Mini will still transmit and E-TTL signal to Canon or Metz 58AF-1C flashes connected by the Flex receiver but will also trigger standard non ttl flashes equipped with older Pocket Wizards. these unit will have to be adjust manually with a flash meter but will work in unison.

[kennykodak]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

talk about silly looking. i have the ac5
Review

[USAolyFreak]

Re: Pocket Wizard prices

why do we pay another 65% ?

I thought We as in US citizens were the only ones getting the shaft, Now I see we are just getting the shaft from Oly. I would gladly send you some PW's as a gift from the US. Based on your exchange rate you will get a good deal.