What am I doing wrong?

I just got a Norman 400B which I am super psyched to get into. I used one at work for years and finally got one of my own!! I also bought a Pocket Wizard PlusX to fire it with. Now I'm trying to set the channel and have the Norman pop a flash to say 'Yup, we're synched!" and I'm getting nothing. Reading and re-reading the instructions isn't giving me much more "enlightenment". Does anyone have any on the ground experience with either of these units or even more hopefully, as a pair? I'm shooting with a Pentax K-5II if that makes any difference.

Congrats on the gear pickup. I'm no expert on these things, but I do use PWs with Calumet (Bowens) monolights, so I have some experience at troubleshooting the connections. First of all, you need to make sure the flash works on its own connected and sync'd straight to the camera. Assuming that's fine, you then need to diagnose each individual connection (and setting) one at a time to see where the problem is. I'm also assuming you already have the proper connecting cords for your flash and camera model, and that the batteries in the PWs are fresh.

While the connections at first glance appear pretty intuitive, I know from experience that it's easy to mess one of them up. Make sure both units are set to the same channel, the transmitter is connected to the camera's sync, and the flash connected to the "flash" plug on the PW. Both units on, and the flash should fire when you hit "test".

I'm guessing you already know all of this, so I hope my advice doesn't sound too condescending, but I don't know what else to tell you without more information. You need to be methodical when setting up and connecting the flash to your camera using PWs.

Let me know how it goes...

Thanks for getting back Steve! The Norman was just bought used from B-H and delivered Monday night. I called up there this morning to see if they could offer any insight. My suspicion is that the head won't work with this model of PW. The rep at B-H said he was going to call PW and find out if this is a compatibility issue but that's what he thinks too. We'll see. Thanks for holding my hand it felt cold and lonely out there for a minute. :D

Ah, I see. "Compatibility" can be a very ugly word in this business. And it's hard to know ahead of time what works with what. Thing is, as these electronic devices (like PWs) become more and more sophisticated and dedicated to cameras and flash hardware, the backward compatibility becomes less and less.

What you might want to do is look for an older model of PWs. Might be someone giving them away for a song on ebay or Amazon...

Good Call!! I'll start looking.

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Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

Ah, I see. "Compatibility" can be a very ugly word in this business. And it's hard to know ahead of time what works with what. Thing is, as these electronic devices (like PWs) become more and more sophisticated and dedicated to cameras and flash hardware, the backward compatibility becomes less and less.

What you might want to do is look for an older model of PWs. Might be someone giving them away for a song on ebay or Amazon...

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Steve's advice is good. I've been using the same, cheap PocketWizard Plus units for over ten years and am still pretty happy with them. They don't have all the fancy new features but they get the job done.

Just curious - is that Norman lamp head one that has a built-in PW connection. Because then I could really see compatibility being an issue.

Yep. But we're not sure that's the problem. I was on the phone with Pocket Wizard and Norman. Both of them think the problem is actually in the transceiver in the head. Pocket Wizard gave me a run through of steps and none of them worked same with the Norman tech. B-H took it back to test it and if it doesn't work for them using similar conditions they're sending it back to Norman for repair. It's under 90 day warranty so I'm happy and practicing patience. Luckily I have my brand new Pentax K-5II to play with until it comes back! :cool:

P.S. I love that I can come back to this site as a known and trusted resource where I can ask such a diverse source of photographers a question and can trust the feedback I get. Thanks folks!

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Originally Posted by CLKunst

P.S. I love that I can come back to this site as a known and trusted resource where I can ask such a diverse source of photographers a question and can trust the feedback I get. Thanks folks!

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I'm glad you feel that way! Please spread the word and tell other photographers you know. It's been a little slow in the forums lately and it would be nice to have some new blood to stir things up :)

I also can not do something.