PocketWizard Flex TT1 and TT5 - first look by TriCoast - Pros and Cons to System

[Mike Fulton]

Alright with all the talk about PocketWizards new product for TTL wireless flash, Flex TT1 and TT5 units I wanted to take some time and post our (TriCoast) first "out of box" experience with the units.

In the very near future we will be posting our findings while testing these units out first hand in live shooting situations AND comparing it DIRECTLY to the RadioPopper PX Units.

As many of you know TriCoast has very good knowledge of the RadioPopper Units which until now were truly the kings on the block in the TTL method of wireless shooting or manual method of wireless shooting. Giving you complete freedom in your work I simply can not see why anyone would still use the older units of PocketWizards and now with the release of the Flex sets I am guessing PocketWizard felt the same way.


TriCoast has several units (2 mini TT1 transmitter with control TL and 4 Flex TT5 transceiver with control TL)

Here is a photo of both in the box - simple snapshot to show you what they look like


As I broke the clear plastic sticker seal from the boxes here is what each unit has inside the box

The Mini TT1 has the user guide and a information flier on what the FCC wants you to know laying on top of the units and is the very first thing you see when you open up the box. Removing these fliers one sees the MiniTT1 unit, the battery for the unit in the lower left corner of the box and a supplied USB cord for future updates which will be many I am sure, especially here at the beginning.



The Flex TT5 is very similar in packaging except it has 2 AA batteries on the right side of the box.


Here are the two units side by side


Here are the two new PocketWizard units with a RadioPopper PX Unit sitting in between them for a good start of the comparison. As one can see the PocketWizard units are quite larger in the receiver aspect and about the same size for the transmitter.


Now off to go test these guys with RadioPopper and PocketWizard units side by side doing the same identical task or test. Our goal as educators is to show you the professional photographer the pros and cons of each unit, and let you decide which one you would like. Our 3 day hands on TTL wireless flash workshop in KY this weekend is going to really but these guys to the test along with the RadioPopper PX units. Our students will use them in their sessions with us recording the results, which of course we will be posting.

WE ARE NOT SPONSORED BY EITHER COMPANY so let me make that VERY CLEAR.

Yes we are friends with the RadioPopper guys and of course we are friends with the PocketWizard people, but we have NEVER TAKEN ANY MONEY FROM EITHER OF THESE COMPANIES and many of the people who have spoken for one of them on the forums and other places on the net do. This is by design so we can give as honest and truthful side by side comparison which I feel TriCoast has one of the best, if not best chances to do that due to our knowledge of both companies and units.

So again we truly want our future posts to be clear and honest and have no bias involved.

Until our next post

[Mike Fulton]

Wed. Feb 25th - Afternoon and Evening Testing

Pocket Wizard TT1 and TT5 Testing in our Studio

VERY BASIC start to our research and experiments with nothing really set forth in a manner to release yet but I wanted to share what we have found so far.

We could not get Alien Bee’s to fire at all using the new units. When mixed with a Multi-Max as a receiver plugged into an Alien Bee and using either the Mini TT1 or TT5 as a transmitter we did get the Alien Bee’s to fire. So due to this problem we went to our Denny Mfg Safari 320 Lights which fired using any combo we tried and below are the results we found using those light strobes inside our studio.

MarkII
• Did not get it to fire on Channel C1
• On Channel C2 it worked fine – got black shutter bar at 1/250 of a second
• Fired as fast as your lights would charge though could not get it to work with our Alien Bee Strobes
• Camera would not trigger the lights above 1/500 of a second

5D MarkII
• New units did not work at all

5D
• Got black shutter bat at 1/250 of a second
• Channel C1 and C2 both fired the units.
• Camera would not trigger the lights above 1/500 of a second

40D
• Only works on Channel C2
• Got black bars in the photo at 1/200 of a second, again lower than the actual sync speed of the camera
• Camera would not trigger the lights above 1/500 of a second

30D
• Only works on Channel C2
• Got black bars in the photo as low as 1/200 of a second, so lower than the actual sync speed of the camera.
• However unlike other bodies we were able to trigger the lights all the way up to 1/8000 of a second but of course getting the black shutter bar in our images after 1/200 of a second

20D
• Only works on Channel C2
• Got black bars in the photo as low as 1/200 of a second, so lower than the actual sync speed of the camera

G10
• High speed sync was found to work. Our tests show it worked with our studio strobes up to 1/500 second and dimmed out at 1/600 of a second but could be usable.
• Only Channel C1 functioned

Lots more coming your way in much more details but I wanted to show what we found so far inside the studio. Up next - wireless flash and HighSpeed Sync.


NOTE: We just now need to adjust the Hyper Sync slider to fine tune the shutter speed for future testing. Since Pocket Wizard did not send us the Disk with the software on it, we were limited in our studio research. Now that we have it via online download we will return to the studio aspect soon with more updated information.
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5:04am central time early this morning Jordan wrote this entry into our research blog.

Originally Posted by Jordan Chan

For a better part of the day, Mike and Suzy had been pulling their hair out trying to sync the PW units and the 580s for TTL. Mike, being almost bald as it is, took the brunt of most of the stress. So an hour's drive later, I was doing the same thing. But as those who know me, know I have a lot more hair to go before going bald.

After the whole Alienbee fiasco was somewhat resolved, I moved on to tackle the TTL portion. Ok, now I'm going bald. The PW units are rather simple. 3 groups, 2 custom functions and a test button. How complicated can that be? Right. Here's the scenario. Imagine monkeys and a football.

For close to 3 hours, I tried different combinations of groups, custom functions, master, commander, wireless slave, ratios, channels, old priest and a young priest. The wireless slave just will not go off. If the PW units are turned off, then the flash works through IR. So we know the flash is functional. But once the PW is turned on, the flash doesn't respond.

So here's what we found out. When you have the 580 mounted on the Flex TTL5, the flash goes into standard non-wireless ETTL mode. Even if the physical switch on the 580 is toggled to "slave". But even then, the flash does not emit when triggered. I thought that was very strange.

Hours later the solution hit me. The problem wasn't so much that we couldn't get it to work with the 580 using TTL, but rather the PW units doesn't work with the 580. If you watched the PW promo video, you'll notice that the flashes they are using are 430s and 580s. 580ex II to be precise. I dug out my 580IIs. Hard reset the PW units, and voila! Blinding myself with PW ControlTL. I was able to get to 1/1000th and possibly higher if I pushed it. I haven't tested the accuracy of the TTL yet, mainly because it's 4am.

I'm assuming PW will have updates for this later on. One of the neat features on the PW units is that it can be updated or programed via a mini USB connection. I must have missed the cd that came with the demo units, but I'll search for it in the daylight. Hopefully this issue will be resolved, since the majority of flashes TriCoast as a whole owns are 580 version 1. This would put a cramp in out shooting style if we use the Flex and Mini systems.



edit:

A side note on Mike's post on the combination of C1 and C2 with different camera bodies. The more I think about it, the more I wonder what the C1 and C2 are really for? It's possible that C1 is reserved for controlTL but why would a custom programmable button be only for cTL? Was I incorrect with the preliminary results? Why would C1 consistently not work with most of the SLRs except for the 5D, while C2 works with all the units if it is indeed a custom function?

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Thursday Feb. 26th Morning and Afternoon Testing


WE just got off the phone with PocketWizard people for over an hour. End story none of our 580exI will work with the current system.

We have the updated firmware
Pocket Wizard took us step by step through all of the possible trouble shooting with ZERO results using the 580exI.

Also I found out the Mini TT1 has 32 channels built into it BUT due to the tiny watch battery it runs off of, they did not put in a LCD in order to switch the channel. So your only option is to have a computer around to plug your transmitter into it and change the channels.

So after we made sure our firmware was the newest (which it was) we changed channels - still no luck

Did EVERYTHING which they told us to do - no luck.

They took our number down - we are back to square one now!

I do want to say their customer service has been wonderful - they are going over every aspect to help us out and going beyond what I expected. I feel we will get this situation worked out sooner or later due to their positive attitude. Nice product when it works and being new there is always bugs, so again in time it should be a fun and useful tool.

More updates soon!

[Mike Fulton]

I know I have talked to several photographers around the country and they have had luck with the same set up we have had but they also were not getting good TTL results and some were. So far out of at least 4 photographers we have all gotten different TTL results. Since most PocketWizard users do not use TTL many are not sure of what to expect either being in such a manual mode they told me.

It is fun and interesting so far on the results we have had.

Out of the 6 units we have nothing worked with our 6 580exI's.

We have gotten HyperSync in the studio (1/500 of a second) when plugging the units into the computer and programming them, so that could be helpful for sports shooters as you do on the ice, but honestly if RadioPopper units get 1/8000 of a second using AlienBee's I would rather use those and FREEZE everything including the puck and not just the people which would be at 1/500 of a second.

[Mike Fulton]

TriCoast just posted an update on our results on our BLOG. We are still researching but I must say I am getting wild and crazy TTL reading using only the MiniTT1 and a 580exI wireless flash mounted on the FlexTT5 unit.

The histogram even shows it to be the same output on -2 to even flash comp then jumps way up in the +1 range. If I step back a foot, changing the TTL equation since the distance from camera lens to subject is different the exposure has been right on or completely and totally blown out to where I can not even see my subject.

Again so much more testing needs to be done. We are heading to KY to teach our three day hands on TTL wireless flash workshop tomorrow morning. We plan on just giving these items to the students and letting them play with them, mount and shoot and we will record the events as they unfold and report back. We truly want to see others experience the pros and cons of the system and to give everyone a better understanding of the units besides just the TriCoast point of view.

[Killjoy]

Thanks for the in depth review.

Please keep us up to date with what you find.

[Abel]

good info... thanks

[billybassphotography]

There are no cons.... I have wanted a product like this for years. Size, durability, function, style, and price..... it's the perfect solution.

[Snarfy]

lol aside from the fact that it didn't perform anywhere near what it was supposed to when originally tested... no cons.