Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hi Guys,

My current setup includes three pocket wizards plus IIs and one plus III. All of my flashes are Canon (580 II, 580 and recently stolen 430). I don't do any ETTL, I specifically do all manual flash settings presently. My two questions are this:

1. If I wish to bring in the ability to remote dial up or down the flash power on my Canon flashes (no ETTL; something equivalent to me physically walking over and changing the flash power on my Canon flashes to say 1/4 from 1/8 for example), is this possible at all with the new PocketWizards (TT1, TT5, etc.). My understanding is that this is only possible with ST-E2, or if I am using Canon's in camera flash trigger. I want to know if this is possible with Pocketwizards.

2. If I wish to make use of PW zones, say I have Flash 1, Flash 2 and Flash 3. Can I create Zone A, B and C such that
Zone A = Flash 1
Zone B = Flash 1, Flash 2
Zone C = Flash 1, Flash 2, Flash 3
Notice the overlap where Flash 1 and Flash 2 appear in multiple zones.

Regards,

Asad

I can't speak for Canon but with TT5s and Nikon you can control the flash power in manual from the camera if you get the AC3 controller. You get a spinny dial for three zones and a switch for each (off, manual, and iTTL). In TTL each zone has a zero position and +/- 3 stops in 1/3 stop increments. In manual the dials do full power in the +3 position, 1/2 at +2, etc down to 1/64 at the -3 position.

As far as I know there is no way to have one receiver as part of multiple zones; each TT5 has a three position switch for A, B, or C.

I suppose it would be possible to stack two TT5s beneath the flash, one in group A and one in group B, but I don't know if the correct info would be related to the flash.

If your goal is to switch groups in different shots to fire a different combination of flashes, then with the AC3 you can quickly turn groups off from the camera position. With three flashes, as part of group A, B, and C respectively, you can control the output of each one independently or turn them on/off quite quickly.

Interesting. Thanks for all the info.

Another question about AC3 then. So if I have a Nikon SB-24, and a Canon 430 and a Canon 580, all setup in manual. I can change their individual manual flash powers via AC3 if they are all connected via TT5?

The TT5s must be purchased in either Nikon or Canon versions and I don't think they are compatible with each other at all, except if you're using them in basic mode which wouldn't offer any functionality that your Plus IIs don't have.

Also, I believe the Nikon TT5s only work with iTTL flashes (SB 600, 700, 800, 900, 910). Not sure what functionality (if any) beyond basic triggering they would have with dTTL or older flashes.

Hmmm interesting - I don't plan on using ETTL at all. Manual only. I gather AC3 won't be able to speak to manual flashes via plus II.

Whether you put the flash in manual or TTL via the AC3 the TT5 still uses the eTTL protocol to communicate with the flashes, similar to how a commander flash or whatever the Canon equivalent of the SU-800 is would communicate with the flashes. Similarly, with those you can control groups and put them in manual power mode, only they use infrared instead of radio waves like the pocket TT5s.

You can program the TT5 to send triggers on the "old" PW frequencies as well as the new ones so that you can trigger Plus IIs along with your speedlights. You wouldn't have any control over power in this case though.

Thanks for all the great info and help!