Archive for February, 2009

WOW, what a grueling 24 hrs trying to get these things working.  I want to start off with a big thanks to the MAC group for supplying some test samples and some tech support.

What’s wrong?

The most common question we’ve been bombarded with is, “Does this system work?”   20 hours ago, my response would have been, no.  Pocket Wizards have always been a reliable product, and we (Mike, Cody, Suzy and I) just would not take no for an answer.  It’s obviously something we’re not doing or something missing out of the equation.  The units are supposed to work straight out of the box, but they aren’t.   We’ve also had several people asking if we’ve read the instruction manual.  Techno geeks would never admit to reading the manual.  But after the debacle last night, we’ve combed through the full manual several times.

Click to continue reading “Preliminary findings on Pocket Wizard Mini and Flex”

Eric Koch Photo: Thanks for your work. I can't wait to get my hands on them to have a go.

Simon: Thanks - I just want something that works as easily as the IR system ... hope you get it sorted

Craig Single: Great findings guys...seems like they rushed this out to market...you guys should have had these with a ND agreement and tested these 6 months ago...or at least 6 months before they announced them...I'm confident that PW will work it all out..hopefully :)

Minghao Yang: Jordan, thanks for this insightful test and information sharing. Please help me to understand this better: if I put a 580EX II on the flex tt5, it will be triggered by tt5, however, the high speed sync will work but not the compensation? Have you guys tried the grouping and ratio on tt5? How do you set the different 580EX to different group if their backs only show the master mode?

Shawn Bumgarner: Just wanted to say thanks for the write-up! I was wondering how you guys would feel about the minis in comparison to the poppers... seems a bit inconclusive still? Seems I'll need to wait til the Nikon versions ship so I can test for myself! Thanks again for taking the time to write about your trouble shooting... I'm sure that will prove useful for others! As always, thanks fro sharing so much of your knowledge!

Peter Holcombe: Thanks Jordan, Great as always.....

Alan Nielsen: Thanks for the review. I stumbled across it looking for reviews on the PW. I'm going to check them out in person at lunch today and hopefully this review combined with what the store can show me, I'll have some new toys.

Last night Suzy and I along with my daughter, Meghan and my niece Dakota went to see Disney High School Musical preformed by our local High School students at Brazoswood High School.    This is something we have all looked forward to for sometime, especially with so many of our Seniors acting in the performance, including the lead female role Gabriella.  Using our 5DmkII Suzy and I took snapshots throughout the evening from our chairs about 20 rows back in the venue.  Again nothing special here on the images but we wanted to show and tell our seniors just how proud we are of them and in all honestly the performance and production was MUCH BETTER than either one of us thought would happen.  From the music, sound, singing and yes dancing all the students really preformed amazingly well.  Heck I even found myself laughing a time or two throughout the Acts.  Both my girls were worn out after wards being a school night and the performance did not end until 10pm but both also said they were so happy they went to see it.

So congrats everyone for putting on an amazing performance of Disney High School Musical, you all did one amazing job!

Claire our Senior as Gabriella in High School MusicalClaire as Gabriella

Click to continue reading “High School Musical well at our local High School”

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.

Click to continue reading “Preliminary Test Results with Flex TTL5 and Mini TT1″

Shannon: Thank you for all your sharing. I so value your opinions and will use them as I plan to purchase either these or the new radio poppers this year.

Dave Janaskie: Hmmm. Interesting info. looking forward to the full review/comparison with RP. Thanks guys.

David Croxford: Aloha ... I searched the web for anyone working on the new PW's b/c they were getting to me too. I bought two flex 5's and a min to use with a small Strobist-like kit I carry to assignments. Like you, I'm fairly familiar with wireless systems but I can't quite get this "system" so if you guys figure it out drop me a heads up. I'm shooting with 1dMkII's and III's, 580's and 580 MkII's, a 40d, and a G9. And I can't seem to hit consistent operation no matter what I try.

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

Click to continue reading “PocketWizard Flex TT1 and TT5 out of box first look by TriCoast”

Gil jackson: I have 2 Flex TT5 and I'm not a happy camper. I can't use them with my 5d MkII and they are doing a poor job on my 50D. They are not consistant, they often grossly over expose as well as grossly under expose. and many times they don't fire at all. Was on the phone with tech support twice, tried a few things and got nowhere. I'm thinking about returning them. even though I really want them to work.

Gil jackson: They are defective and Pocket Wizard/Mac Group, is replacing them. Sorry for the previous post.

Jordan: Keep us updated Gil. I heard there is firmware coming out soon with some fixes but I don't know what it includes.

Dino Petrocelli: I will be using my TT5 to see how many times I can skip it across the lake!!!!!! I had the mini, nothing but problems, I call tech support they helped me out, it worked for a bit, then started crapping out again. They upgraded me to the TT5, I did all the upgrades, but when in the studio and clients are watching you fumble with your equipment, or in the field on a wedding shoot and you don't have time to fart around with its underexposure, misfires, overexposures and everyone is watching you scratch your head and your missing shots its time to throw it in the lake. Piece of crap. IM sad it doesn't work, I bought it for the reason to use it on my 5D mark II. I was going to use it so I didn't have to velcro a pocket wizard to my on camera flash and have a sync cord go from the wizard to the camera, because the sync on the camera also suck, you spend 4 grand on a camera and you would think the sync terminal would work right, (finally got smart and got a threaded sync cord and it work pretty good) any way that was the reason, get rid of the sync cord, so I got the mini for that reason, and no go, worked good for a while and no good, over and under, then they upgraded me at no charge, but not worth it. Back to using my regular pocket wizard on my on camera flash with a sync to fire my send flash which is a mets ct4 and it works fine. Wasted 250.00 BUCKS!!!! Oh to put the icing on the cake, I sent all the over and under exposed shots to pocket wizard, and asked why, one is on the money, the next is way over or under the next is on the money, and no response. Thanks Pocket Wizard!!!!

Mike: DINO - thank you for the indepth review on the new units. Its funny when we released our videos we shows everything holding nothing back, - our faults - the products faults - I mean no one really had these at that time so there was nothing to base our method of set up and product testing by. When the videos hit YouTube it was not shortly there after I started receiving death threats, even some saying they were coming by to blow up my house, etc. I was shocked since the videos we showed had no trick science or anything just the facts we found. Now that the products have been out a while the death threats have been reduced to hate mail (about 5 a week at this point) but I am guessing since others are experiencing problems as we did (such as yourself) it is making people aware our findings were very close to across the board no matter what people are being told. Sure some will have better results than us, and some wont, it just depends on the RF noise and all the extra gadgets you need to make it work better. So sorry you had such a horrible experience I really wanted the PW units to work, these tests were the final thing we needed as a company to choose which product we wanted to support openly. I am sure PW will get the bugs worked out but it is clear they released this product WAY too early due to the pressue RadioPopper created by inventing the first IR / RadioWave product.

Derek Smith: I purchased the MiniTT1 in hopes it would release me of many cables etc. I am using 5D MarkII with the latest firmware. The on camera 580EXII constantly under exposes with the Mini attached. It does fire my other older wizzards but I can't have my on camera flash drastically under expose on TTL. No matter what exposure compensation I set the on camera flash to the out put is not change. Sample shots available.

TriCoast crew, Rich and Allison Reisz, Bo and Maureen Wilkinson, and Ted Unruh from Millers Lab hit Fremont St in style and just in time for Queen.

Cody and Ted demonstrate their air guitar skills.


Maureen: So much fun!!!

Mike: Hey girl we really enjoyed meeting you and your hubby and hanging out with you guys. Lets try and do it before the next WPPI! Remember Suzy and I will be doing the LA guild tour down South of you next week! New Orleans - 16th Baton Rouge - 17th Lafayette (which is hosted at a friends studio) 18th Love to see you two if possible at one of the engagements, Suzy is speaking on her program "If your a bird I'm a bird"

Just a couple of images thrown in together.  Good times with old friends and new friends!  I might have to throw these up on facebook and see if anyone want’s to help tag them.

Click to continue reading “WPPI ’09 ReCap with random images”

Alanah

February 23, 2009

What happens when you get a model for a workshop that knows a bit more about a camera than what she lets on?  How about a random surprise image in your cf card :)

Here’s a shot of her during a lighting demo.

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Click to continue reading “Alanah”

curtoneil: Does that say loser or lover. That middle letter is tricky. If lover, well played ;) Although looking at the previous s - not so well played.

Jordan: Sadly, I think it's Loser as well. LOL!

Alanah: I definately wrote LOSER.... =] bahahha look at my miget thumb... <3 ALANAH

elissa: way to go alanah! bahaha.

Angi: I would bet it's "S" based on how rotten you were that day, lol

Jordan: You do have a midget thumb! LOL!

female: nice...