# New Wireless Flashes or Pocketwizards



## NathanDemeny (Sep 28, 2011)

Hi, I am Nathan and I have a question.

I have now a 7D and a 430ex ii.
I want to buy 2 FlexTT5s and a miniTT1 and a 580ex ii.

I have read on canonrumors about the new bodys and new flashes with wireless.
Here is my question: The new system would allow me to go with the new flesh and body to faster shutter then 1/250? I mean will be possible to shoot with flash in the sun with f/2.8?
Or a pocketwizard would be a good choice anyway?

You know I just dont want to spend 600 dollars on PW and 500 on a flash when shortly I could buy a new system with dont need PWs.

Sorry for my bad english!


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 28, 2011)

NathanDemeny said:


> Hi, I am Nathan and I have a question.
> 
> I have now a 7D and a 430ex ii.
> I want to buy 2 FlexTT5s and a miniTT1 and a 580ex ii.
> ...



Canon Rumors has no inside information about possible new products. Its primarily here to discuss possibilities of a new product. Most rumors you read about turn out to be false, so never make a buy or sell decision based on a rumor.

So, no one can give you advice about a product that does not exist.

As far as pocket wizzards, they work far better on Canon 430 EX II than with the 580 EX II. They have a range of about 40 ft with a 580 EX II unless you use the rube goldberg RF shield with it. Even then, they are known to burn out 580 EX II's in a unusually high number of cases.

A flash is not going to overpower the sun in direct sunlight, but will fill in shadows.

Using a slow shutter speed and wide aperture in bright sun means you will need ND filters to reduce the light, so be prepared to spend $$$ on ND filters if you want a 1/250 shutter speed in bright sun. I find that 1/8000 sec is sometimes not fast enough with a wide aperture prime wide open.


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## neuroanatomist (Sep 28, 2011)

NathanDemeny said:


> I have read on canonrumors about the new bodys and new flashes with wireless.
> Here is my question: The new system would allow me to go with the new flesh and body to faster shutter then 1/250? I mean will be possible to shoot with flash in the sun with f/2.8?
> Or a pocketwizard would be a good choice anyway?



Ahhh, the good ol' Sunny 16 rule. On a sunny day, you'd need approximately a 3-4 stop ND filter to get you to f/2.8 and 1/250 s (assuming ISO 100). Now, if you want to overpower the sun with your flashes, you'll need to knock the ambient down below metered exposure by 2-3 stops, so you're probably looking at a 6-stop ND filter, or consider one of the variable ND filters (as long as you're not shooting wider than 24mm FF-equivalent, where the variNDs start to get the maltese cross artifact). 

But wait, you say - you don't need to get to 1/250 s, if your remote triggering system supports high-speed sync. The PWs do support HSS. The problem with HSS is that it costs you about a stop of flash output. Then, you probably don't want the harsh light of a bare flash, so you'd want to add a modifier, which would cost you another ~2 stops of flash output. Now, 3 stops down, does your pair of flashes have put out enough light to overpower the sun? Probably not.

So, the best way to overpower the sun is with one or more monolights. You could do it with Speedlites, but you'd probably need ~6 of them with a pair of Lastolite TriFlash mounts and softboxes. 

Personally, I considered a 580EX II, but for less than $50 more I went with the very nice Paul C. Buff Einstein 640 instead - the 640 Ws of power is plenty to overpower the sun (and the ND filter), and the softboxes from PCB are quite a bit cheaper than the Lastolite EzyBoxes that I use with my 430EX II's.


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## EYEONE (Sep 28, 2011)

I've heard that RadioPoppers are far superior to PocketWizards. But, I've never used either.
Just thought I'd share.


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## neuroanatomist (Sep 28, 2011)

EYEONE said:


> I've heard that RadioPoppers are far superior to PocketWizards. But, I've never used either.
> Just thought I'd share.



Not sure how, but OK. The main reason I went with PW instead of RP is that the RP system requires you to have a camera-mounted master (550/580/580 II/ST-E2), or the 7D/60D where the pop-up can be a master. With the PW system, I only need the tiny Mini TT1 on the hotshoe.


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## Gothmoth (Sep 28, 2011)

PW are the gold standard. if you buy one you only sell them to get a newer PW modell. 

as to the new flashes... nobody here knows when they will come and if someone would know he would not tell it.


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## EYEONE (Sep 28, 2011)

neuroanatomist said:


> EYEONE said:
> 
> 
> > I've heard that RadioPoppers are far superior to PocketWizards. But, I've never used either.
> ...



Perhaps, but RadioPoppers allow for high speed sync with the slaves. I don't believe PW does.


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## Gothmoth (Sep 28, 2011)

well believe is for church... 

http://www.pocketwizard.com/products/transmitter_receiver/flextt5-canon/

http://www.pocketwizard.com/inspirations/technology/hypersync_fpsync/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-BD_xD43oA&feature=player_embedded


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## neuroanatomist (Sep 28, 2011)

EYEONE said:


> neuroanatomist said:
> 
> 
> > EYEONE said:
> ...



PW allows HSS as well (they call it HyperSync). Works fine for me...


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## EYEONE (Sep 28, 2011)

neuroanatomist said:
 

> EYEONE said:
> 
> 
> > neuroanatomist said:
> ...



Oh ok, gotcha. I was told they didn't but I stand corrected. Thanks, for the info.


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## NathanDemeny (Sep 28, 2011)

Thank you for replays!
So it would be better to wait with buying a PW...and till than to buy a ND filter?
I dont know just I dont want to give 600 dollars and shortly the new FF camera (6D or 5Dmk III) what I anyway want to buy.... will have something similar....
In the new cameras, flashes I am interested in HSS more then the wifi trigger...do you think that will come or not? What are your predictions? They will built some kind of HSS in the camera, flash too?


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## neuroanatomist (Sep 28, 2011)

You have a 430EX II now. I'd say, get the ND filter now and see if HSS can overcome the sun in the way you want, using the flash on camera, just as a test. The 580EX II is only ~1 stop more powerful. Personally, I think a monolight is your best bet. The Einstein that I linked above is 8-10 times (~3 stops) more powerful than a 580EX II.


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