Wein infrared for outdoor flash?

[lowep]

I have been using a Wein Pro Sync 2 transmitter and receiver for outdoor flash with fairly reliable results and this encouraged me to add an additional Wein XL8 micro ultra slave for my other light. But when I tried the XL8 it responded very unpredictably to the Sync 2 infrared transmitter (sometimes not going off at all, sometimes going off every 2nd time I fired the transmitter, sometimes going off after my main light that has a Sync 2 receiver, and only working whatsoever when the trigger was pointed straight at the XL8) plus I also noticed there is condensation inside the glass dome of the XL8, even though the weather is mild.

I would have thought that even if the XL8 did not respond to the infrared signal coming from the transmitter it would at least be triggered by the flash going off on the main light about 4 meters away but this was not the case.

The same flash works fine when I hook it up to my camera via a PC sync cable. So I am trying to figure out if I have got a dud XL8 unit or if the problem is the compatibility of the XL8 with the Sync 2 system or... Maybe it is not a good idea to try and use this kind of micro ulltra system outdoors, even though it is designed to do so?

[HarperPhotos]

Hello,

I scrapped using infrared transmitters years ago as they are to unreliable. Now I only use Pocket Wizards as they are radio transmitters and are not affected by daylight as the infrared’s are.

Cheers

Simon

[lowep]

Thanks for this good advice.

Do pocketwizards have a maximum flash voltage they can handle?

I am using an old Sunpak 611 that has a high voltage and suspect this may be part of the problem, so much so that I am not even sure if it is safe to hook up this flash via a pc sync cable to the pc sync socket of my Contax 645.

[Alan Smallbone]

Another one to look into is the Cactus v6, uses radio and allows adjustment of power even in fully manual mode. Some nice features. I have had problems with PW and some cameras, there are alternatives out there.

Alan

[Ellis Vener]

Do pocketwizards have a maximum flash voltage they can handle?

I am using an old Sunpak 611 that has a high voltage and suspect this may be part of the problem, so much so that I am not even sure if it is safe to hook up this flash via a pc sync cable to the pc sync socket of my Contax 645.

According to the manual for the older Pocketwizard Plus II: 200 volts.
According to the manual for the Pocketwizard MultiMAX : 250 volts
According to the manual for the current Pocketwizard Plus III: 300 Volts

[lowep]

thanks Ellis, looks like this is doable since Sunpak 611 potato masher only goes up to 190 volts that is probably more than enough to fry most modern cameras without something in the middle if not quite enough to fry a fish.

[Ellis Vener]

"thanks Ellis, looks like this is doable since Sunpak 611 potato masher only goes up to 190 volts that is probably more than enough to fry most modern cameras without something in the middle if not quite enough to fry a fish."

Nikons have always been good up to 250v, Canons? Depends on the body; for a lot of them for a long time the upper limit was (as I recall) 12V. No idea about Sony.