Speedlite 550ex & PocketWizards Question

To anyone who can help me,
I finally bit the bullet and bought a Pocket Wizard Plus slave kit. I already had a 550 ex Speedlite and so I was soooooo ancy to use the 550 from far away( for xsports shots on ramps and rails and such).
Now the problem lies in the fact that the Reciever has a cord which has an 1/8 inch jack (into the reciever) and a male PC hook up on the other end. The problem is that the 550ex has NO FEMALE PC JACK. It does have some crazy 3 prong jack on the side but that's the only input. I asked for help from BH but the sold me a hotshoe adapter which has a PC jack but only works on flash bodies with a single hot shoe connection!!! The 550ex has a 5 point hotshoe connection!
So $26 dollars later I still have no working lighting kit and time is running out for me to finish up my portfolio before internship time rolls around! So pleeeeeeaaassse, help me! I just want to take pictures! Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Justin K

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Originally Posted by JKeena

To anyone who can help me,
I finally bit the bullet and bought a Pocket Wizard Plus slave kit. I already had a 550 ex Speedlite and so I was soooooo ancy to use the 550 from far away( for xsports shots on ramps and rails and such).
Now the problem lies in the fact that the Reciever has a cord which has an 1/8 inch jack (into the reciever) and a male PC hook up on the other end. The problem is that the 550ex has NO FEMALE PC JACK. It does have some crazy 3 prong jack on the side but that's the only input. I asked for help from BH but the sold me a hotshoe adapter which has a PC jack but only works on flash bodies with a single hot shoe connection!!! The 550ex has a 5 point hotshoe connection!
So $26 dollars later I still have no working lighting kit and time is running out for me to finish up my portfolio before internship time rolls around! So pleeeeeeaaassse, help me! I just want to take pictures! Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Justin K

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This is why I use optical slaves. You can pick up a slave trigger on eBay for about $15 (including shipping) that can be used for a regular hotshoe flash. You attach the flash to the trigger, the trigger can mount on a tripod, and voila!! you're ready to go.

Actually, I started shooting with optical slaves made by Vivitar for the 285's a year or so ago, but then I wanted the option of having my slaves out of sight of the main flash. But thanks for the suggestion!

Try sending Photo John a private message. He's been pretty busy lately so I don't know how soon he would see it otherwise. I think he's got the same setup and could probably help.

Good idea. Thanks! -Justin

...the Wizards will work with your flash out of the box. I had to buy three seperate accessory cables for my various flash units.

Here's the link to the flash cable page from PW's web site:

http://www.pocketwizard.com/HTML/cables2.asp

Maybe you'll see one that fits your flash. Then you can get it from Calumet or BH. If not I'd use their customer support to get a specific model number for the cable that fits your flash.

Justin-
You've got it right. You can trust B&H. They know what they're doing. This photo is of my own equipment. I have some sort of Wein hotshoe with one big contact. The other contacts on your 550 are all for TTL and E-TTL communication with your camera. None of that will work with radio slaves. Your flash will be 100% manual with your PocketWizards. All the contact does is fire the flash. Exposure will be controlled with either flash output or flash distance.

That's what I have for a setup. What hot shoe adapter are you using? The one BH sent me doesn't really fit onto my flash hotshoe. The adapter will slide onto the hotshoe only as far as the first little connection pin. I don't want to force it any farther and I tried using it like that (halfway on) but it doesn't work either. Maybe it's just the adapters I have (HamaUniversal HotshoeAdapter and Vivitar Slave HotshoeAdapter), but neither one slides on with out assisting it with a hammer (which I haven't tried yet). I'm not sure exactly how to fix the problem save try a different hotshoeadapter? Thanks for your help, John! -Justin



Add On: Oh wait. Ok I saw it was a Wein hot shoe adapter and I did my research. IS it the "SafeSync" one for around $50? Thanks again! -Justni

Justin-
I'm not sure exactly which Wein hotshoe I have. It says "SHSH" on the sides and that's the only thing it says besides, "Wein." As far as the flash fit - mine is pretty crappy, too. It takes a bit of force to get the flash attached. There's also a Nikon hotshoe adapter. I haven't seen it, but there's a chance it has a better fit. I think mine is pretty cheesy - especially for $50. But it does the job.

I'll look into the Nikon adapter and see if that works. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the suggestions! -Justin

Here's the Nikon AS-15 that John talks about: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=37086&is=REG

The one John has may be the Wein Safe-Sync which will protect your camera if you're trying to use it to trigger a strobe with a higher voltage than the camera can handle (like connecting a monolight by cord). Using a PW system takes care of that problem with whatever type of lighting but it's not a bad thing to have as a backup - here the safe sync would take care of two uses. If you hook a monolight (or anything with a high trigger voltage to it) you could fry your camera without it - something to keep in mind if you ever use lights like this.

If you're only using a Canon flash on a Canon camera, you shouldn't have to worry about any voltage issues - always best to check the manual first though.

OK here's one more question. I managed to forcefully get my Vivitar SL2 optical slave (which has a PC sync on it) onto my 550. So first problem solved!!! woohooo.

When I first turn everything on (Camera, 550, Transmitter, and Reciever) it flashes fine when I use my Sekonic L358 to trigger it from across the room. However, it only works fine ONCE. For the first flash after I turn on the 550 it flashes and reads fine, then it won't go off a second time unless I turn the 550 off and back on. The Sekonic still works and makes the red test bulb on the reciever blink whenever I hit the flashmeter button but the 550 won't go off after that first POP. It has brand new batteries in it and I let it charge up for a long time after the first flash. I turn it off and back on, and BANG! works great one time, everytime I turn it off and on. Any ideas as to what my problem is?

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Originally Posted by FadderUri

This is why I use optical slaves. You can pick up a slave trigger on eBay for about $15 (including shipping) that can be used for a regular hotshoe flash. You attach the flash to the trigger, the trigger can mount on a tripod, and voila!! you're ready to go.

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But you can't place them out of the line-of-site, and they don't work from 50-100 feet away. I have two 550EX flashes so I can use the IR slave feature. But my radio slaves are a lot more reliable, flexible, and easy to set up. But optical slaves are a cheaper way to go. And they probably are a better choice for most photographers.

Justin-
It doesn't make any sense that the flash would just pop once. That sounds like an electronic flash issue. I don't recall that ever happening to me. I don't have the Sekonic, either. I have to trigger the flash from the transmitter. I'm not sure what the problem is. But here are a couple of things to check.

1) Is your 550EX set to manual? Check all of the settings and make sure the flash isn't set as a master or slave and that it's set for manual flash exposure.

2) Check the channel on your PocketWizard. I'm not sure how the Sekonic works. But make sure it's working on the same channel as your receiver.

3) Maybe it's a Sekonic issue. Try triggering the flash with the PocketWizard transmitter. If that works consistently, then the problem lies with your meter.

Let us know what the outcome is. You've got me curious. Radio slaves can be a pain in the ass. They are complicated to set up and meter. But you sure can do some awesome stuff with them if you're willing to invest the time and energy.

I think it is an issue with the flash mount he was sold at B&H, he needs to get one like the wein you showed him in the picture. I have read this is a problem on other forums and someone posted there that they taped up one of the pins or something to that effect.

I checked the that the flash is set to manual and that everything is on the right channel...so I'm not sure what the problem is. The meter seems to work fine too and the 550ex works fine when not a piece of this whole setup. I sent back the Hama hotshoe adapter to BH and I am going to buy the Wein one like John is using (on a whim and suggestion from Peter because I have nothing to lose with trying). I'm going to do some more testing until I get a new hotshoe adapter and I'll post what I find. Thanks for the help and suggestions! -Justin

I did some more tests and didn't use the light meter this time. I just set up the camera with the transmitter on it, then the flash with the reciever on it. I turn everything on, I take a picture, POP, the flash works fine. I try to take another pic, and nothing. No pop, until I turn off the flash and turn it back on again. What is up, does it sound like it is the flash's fault? I'm going nuts here!

Justin,

To me it sounds like the thing you have connected to the 550EX causing the problem.

have a look on www.dpreview.com in the lighting forum and do a search on that forum, I know I have seen disscussions about this very problem on there. If you can't find something, then post there and ask the same questions as you have been asking here.

I think the problem is, not that many are using this setup here in pr.com and I don't mean to stear anyone away from here at all, but am trying to help with advice that might help to resolve the problem quicker for you.

Justin-
You said you sent back the Hama connector? What are you using now, then? Peter's right about the connection being the most likely culprit. However, I would think that it would either work or not work. If it works once and then stops, my guess would be that electronics, rather than a simple conection, are involved. Have you tried it with another flash? At this point it's a process of elimination and the flash is one thing that hasn't been considered yet.

Sorry this is turning out to be such a pain for you. I wish I could be there with my own equipment so I could watch we could swap gear until it was all sorted out. I have to use my radio slaves tomorrow. So tonight I'll double-check my system to see if there are any details I've forgotten about.

Thanks Peter, I'll check that site out and see if I can find some solution. John, after I sent the Hama back I was using my old Vivitar SL-2 Optical Slave hotshoe adapter which has a PC output on it. I couldn't get the Hama to even go on the flash so I used a credit card to hold the extra pins up while I slid the SL2 on to it. I'm gonna test the setup with a different flash today and see what happens. I'll let you! -Justin

is for plugging in an external power source like the dedicated Canon packs or even better, the Quantum Turbo's.

OK, who knows what happened but I was able to get the whole kit to work! I set it up and used the test button (which didn't work before!) and it worked. So I was manually going over to my subject and getting readings with my light meter while I had an assistant hit the test button to set the flash off. It was working like that so I decided just to test the function on the meter which is supposed to set off the flash from where the subject is, and guess what!? IT WORKED! I have no idea why or how, either! I had the Transmitter PWon the camera and my Vivitar SL2 hotshoe adapter(which has a PC otuput on it) on the bottom of my 550ex connected to the Reciever PW. So, I did a role of Fuji Provia 36 on a shoot of bikers in a dark garage on a single quarter pipe against an old brick wall. I've been wicked busy with school finals and crazy hours at work due to the holidays so I dropped off the film at the lab but haven't picked it up yet so we'll see in a day or two if everything really worked. In an all dark garage save a lamp with 3 60 watt bulbs on it shining on the quarterpipe and the 550ex I was shooting around 3.5 to 5.6 at 1/15 to1/2 sec if that sound sright at all. So we'll see what comes out! Thanks for all your help!

P.S. What does everyone use for flash light stands for something like my 550ex if there is such a thing? These bikers are coming awfully close to running over my flashes

There are a whole bunch of different types of shoe adapters that fit onto light stands. Some of them even have an adapter so you can put an umbrella onto the stand with the flash. A local shop should have both low priced stands and the mount.