Wireless Flash Trigger Systems

[dergiman]

Hi,

now that summer finally arrives, i want to use my Sinar Hy6 outdoors and use its´ability to sync with flash faster than 1/250 sec. Currently i have a set of Elinchrom Skyport triggers that are not up to the task. I am also looking for a battery generator and i am wondering wether the new Profoto AcuteB 600 AirS is worth it. How are your experiences with wireless triggers like Pocketwizards and the Profoto Air system? I know cable is best but it´s a hassle and long cables are expensive and heavy.

Philipp

[Dick Roadnight]

Hi,

now that summer finally arrives, i want to use my Sinar Hy6 outdoors and use its´ability to sync with flash faster than 1/250 sec. Currently i have a set of Elinchrom Skyport triggers that are not up to the task. I am also looking for a battery generator and i am wondering wether the new Profoto AcuteB 600 AirS is worth it. How are your experiences with wireless triggers like Pocketwizards and the Profoto Air system? I know cable is best but it´s a hassle and long cables are expensive and heavy.

Philipp

I have pocket wizards, but have not used them yet.

I am thinking of using two pairs of them to fire the camera from the (hand-held) remote flash position, and to fire/sync the flash,,, for layer-merge-add in interiors etc.

Range can be a major issue - what range do you think you might need?

If one needs to light up a dark corner or waterfall in the middle distance of a landscape, or town-scape, a range of hundreds of meters might occasionally be beneficial.

[UlfKrentz]

Hi,

now that summer finally arrives, i want to use my Sinar Hy6 outdoors and use its´ability to sync with flash faster than 1/250 sec. Currently i have a set of Elinchrom Skyport triggers that are not up to the task. I am also looking for a battery generator and i am wondering wether the new Profoto AcuteB 600 AirS is worth it. How are your experiences with wireless triggers like Pocketwizards and the Profoto Air system? I know cable is best but it´s a hassle and long cables are expensive and heavy.

Philipp

Hi Philipp,

bear in mind that the flash duration has to fit in the shutter time window, even using sync cables you will probably reach limits very soon. Using wireless triggers will add some delay, especially when they use channel separation. We are using broncolor systems and cannot specify for the air but I would expect it working like the RFS which is quite fast. Battery powered packs are usually not the ones with the shortest flash duration, I do not know how much light you will need and would recomment to make a test under your specific conditions. Don´t expect too much, if you need some power you will probably end up using something between 1/250 and 1/500sec (If I remember correct 1/320 is the limit for us, using our H-System)

Cheers, Ulf

[EricWHiss]

I shoot with the Rollei 6008 AF so close to the same camera as you and the lenses are the same.   It's easy to get 1/500 with the pocket wizards.  I used to think I was getting a real 1/1000 sync with the PQS lenses and a pocket wizard multi-max but actually I'm not really so sure. It's yes with handle flashes and small flashes with short duration but with the profotos I think the duration is actually longer than 1/1000 at higher power settings.  Anyhow hard to test for that reason.  You can use the multi-max PW to tune the sync timing but...    Anyhow with my testing its easy to get the 1/500 sync with the pocket wizards.  I've not tested other brands.

[dergiman]

Ulf, i did some test myself too, with the cable i can go quite fast with the Pro7a, it get´s darker at 1/800th. Using the Skyports is another story, going past 1/320 and i can see some darkening already. I guess i loose more than 2 stops of flashpower at 1/1000th sec with the Skyports. So i am looking for a better system. Comments on how the Profoto Air System fares are welcome!

[marc gerritsen]

Hi,

now that summer finally arrives, i want to use my Sinar Hy6 outdoors and use its´ability to sync with flash faster than 1/250 sec. Currently i have a set of Elinchrom Skyport triggers that are not up to the task. I am also looking for a battery generator and i am wondering wether the new Profoto AcuteB 600 AirS is worth it. How are your experiences with wireless triggers like Pocketwizards and the Profoto Air system? I know cable is best but it´s a hassle and long cables are expensive and heavy.

Philipp

got 3 pocket wizards
one for the camera one for the flash unit and one handheld to trigger both
works really well!
m

[Graham Mitchell]

My Skyports seem safe up to 1/500 but not 1/1000. I would recommend you try any alternative before you buy because specifications don't tell the whole story.

[Snook]

Pretty sure the Pocket wizards MULTIMAX's are able to do this...
I sync at 400/th with Multi's no problem....
Snook

[Dustbak]

I can sync with the skyports up to 1/800th (body doesn't go any further), I am pretty sure it will do 1/100th as well. Depending on which flash and at what output I use I see it start loosing light from 1/350th. At 1/350th just a little bit with my slowest light (none with the Ranger AS Speed or the RX600).  At 1/500th I loose a bit more until about a stop at 1/800th I guess.

[dergiman]

I can sync with the skyports up to 1/800th (body doesn't go any further), I am pretty sure it will do 1/100th as well. Depending on which flash and at what output I use I see it start loosing light from 1/350th. At 1/350th just a little bit with my slowest light (none with the Ranger AS Speed or the RX600).  At 1/500th I loose a bit more until about a stop at 1/800th I guess.

yes, it is as you describe! hence i am looking for alternatives.

[Dustbak]

The point is that it just might be the light you are using that is the culprit and not the skyport. Changing to PW's would do you no good in that situation. You need faster lights. Lights that release the majority of their power within 1/1000th

edit: though I figured the Pro7A is pretty fast so that is weird. 1/1600th at full power. I recall Broncolor mentioning somewhere that most brands mention that for releasing 50% of their power. If that is the case it might very well be that the 2nd  50% takes longer than 1/1000th thus loosing you light. I always figured that being the case of the darkening with my skyports, I might be wrong here.

[dergiman]

The point is that it just might be the light you are using that is the culprit and not the skyport. Changing to PW's would do you no good in that situation. You need faster lights. Lights that release the majority of their power within 1/1000th

edit: though I figured the Pro7A is pretty fast so that is weird. 1/1600th at full power. I recall Broncolor mentioning somewhere that most brands mention that for releasing 50% of their power. If that is the case it might very well be that the 2nd  50% takes longer than 1/1000th thus loosing you light. I always figured that being the case of the darkening with my skyports, I might be wrong here.

I tested the Skyports and i am loosing roughly 2 stops by changing the shutterspeed from 1/320th to 1/1000th sec. I also tested it with a sync cable and the lightloss is maybe 1/3 of a stop! So the Skyports are to blame!

[UlfKrentz]

Ulf, i did some test myself too, with the cable i can go quite fast with the Pro7a, it get´s darker at 1/800th. Using the Skyports is another story, going past 1/320 and i can see some darkening already. I guess i loose more than 2 stops of flashpower at 1/1000th sec with the Skyports. So i am looking for a better system. Comments on how the Profoto Air System fares are welcome!

Hi Phillip,

I´m sorry I don´t have experience with profoto air or pocketwizzards, but every wireless trigger will add some delay, some more, some less. For timing reasons between transmitter and receiver you cannot even be sure it will be the same delay from exposure to exposure. As I wrote before, try before you buy and keep in mind the battery powered packs don´t have the short flash duration of your Pro7A.

I hate cable sync too, but for this application it might probably be the best (and cheapest) solution. If you achieve 1/800sec with only 1/3 stop light loss that is a great result and it will always be better than any wireless trigger. Did you try microphone stage cable? If it is equipped with professional plugs and proper wire it will last for ever and won´t give you trouble. We used those before we got the RFS trigger.

Cheers, Ulf

[Frank Doorhof]

This week the new Elinchrom skyports will be delivered, they are rated "speed" and can use much higher sync speeds.

[UlfKrentz]

This week the new Elinchrom skyports will be delivered, they are rated "speed" and can use much higher sync speeds.

Hi Frank,

I could only find
http://www.elinchrom.com/products.php?p_id=216#content
Do you mean this ones? They only specify a 1/250sec in speed mode :-(

Anyway, if somebody has a solution that gets close to cable, I would really like to know!

Cheers, Ulf

Edit:

Philipp,

I just looked up the specs of the pocket wizard multimax, that snook suggested, they specify 1/1000th in speed mode, so this should be worth a try.

Cheers, Ulf