REVIEW: PocketWizard Plus III–Too Little, Too Late

PocketWizard Plus III

When I first heard about the new PocketWizard Plus III, I thought – woohoo – I can finally get the power of the PocketWizard MultiMax for less than half the price! I also loved the new design, so as the (former) owner of three Canon 580EX II flashes and a ST-E2, I figured that for less than a new 600EX-RT I could radio control all of my flashes. Of course, I wouldn’t have ETTL like the MiniTT1 and FlexTT5  (review), but I appreciated that they wouldn’t be as bulky and hopefully not as problematic.

At first glance, they seem great. In fact, after watching this video I was convinced that they were so good that they’d be worth the hassle of not having ETTL:

Getting to Know the PocketWizard Plus® III with Mark Wallace from PocketWizard on Vimeo.

The video is spot on in that these units feature a great design, very easy to use group features, auto relay, high speed receive, and more. You can go to the Pocket Wizard Plus III Wiki and Mini Site (full of videos and more) to learn all about that. I’m not here to convince you that you need these – I’m hear to do what most web sites are afraid to do – I’m going to give you my real world impression of these.

Real World Testing

A lot of my readers are geeks, so what I’m often asked is how does one product perform versus another on a technical level. The actual act of taking a photo with the flash and getting great light is a function of the flash and the photographer, so the PocketWizard Plus III is little more than a tool to help make sure that the camera and flash can talk to each other in all conditions. As a result, I focused my energy in this review to simply seeing how it performs to some other products I’ve reviewed recently.

Outdoor Range Test

What I really wanted to see was how this trigger compared to the new Canon 600EX RT and ST-E3 flash system to see if I could get away with leveraging these with my 580EX II’s instead of buying the more expensive flashes. Sadly, I wasn’t expecting the results that I observed yesterday.

Here’s what I typically saw when I tried to take a shot from about 80 feet away from my flash with a PocketWizard Plus III in TxRx mode (as well as LX – made NO difference):

About 80 feet was doable but very sporadic
The optical trigger built-in to the 580EX II was more reliable at this range

Yeah, that’s a picture of a flash not firing. While I could reliably tap the test button and get it to fire up to about 90 feet away, using my camera I got about 5 flashes out of 50+ shots at about 80 feet. It seems my face causes interference because if I moved my camera away and shot the ground or something else it would fire with no problem. To my right were some hedges and a fence, but if I went past that barrier to my right then there was no getting the flash to fire – even if it was closer in than 80 feet.

Thinking that it might be my hot shoe, tried removing (and even swapping) the units – but no luck. I had fresh batteries in all my devices and even a Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack with fresh batteries. Finally out of desperation, I just went to the optical trigger of the 580EX II (the built-in system) using another 580EX II to trigger it and I easily and reliably got 80 feet – over and over again.

YES, you read that right – the built-in optical triggers of the 580EX II were more reliable than the PocketWizard Plus III in my testing. However, the range of 580EX II’s were the same as the PocketWizard Plus III’s. The next two shots show the range of the 600EX RT first using another 600EX RT as the trigger and second using a ST-E3 as the trigger:

Max distance with the 600-EX RT was about 115 feet as shown here.
Notice the sewer cover, hydrant and lamp post.

216 feet was the farthest distance that I could reliably shoot with the ST-E3 RT.
FWIW, I’m shooting at 200mm for all of these shots!

I was pretty dejected after my testing because I had such high hopes for these new PocketWizards. I even searched the web, re-read the manual, wiki, and more trying to find out if I was doing something wrong. Heck, I even contacted my photographer mentor thinking that I must have made a mistake. As far as I can tell, I didn’t – but even if I did, the fact remains the only device that has let me down thus far was the PocketWizard Plus III.

Now, some might blame these results on the fact that I was using a 5D Mark III, but everything I’ve read on the PocketWizard web site says that my camera is compatible with these (but it still has issues with the MiniTT1 and FlexTT5). Others may ask about the LR (long-range) mode and using Tx Only and Rx Only, but I tried that and still the results did not change. Finally I even tried a new location thinking that the light pole or hydrant might be causing interference, but I got identical results.

Indoor Testing

Indoors I expected things to get much better, but sadly they didn’t. In my testing the PocketWizard Plus III’s required direct line of sight (which the manual also states) in order to fire. WTF???? – That’s the same limitation of the 580EX II’s optical trigger system, so really using these on my flashes just added bulk and reduced reliability!  Compare this to my Canon 600EX-RT Wireless Real World Test where I reliably shot with my flash complete obscured – ALL of these tests failed with the PocketWizard Plus III!

This is NOT what I was expecting! Of course, if I was close in proximity then they worked very reliable – just like the 580EX II’s themselves.

The only benefits of the PocketWizard Plus III’s found during my testing were:

• Ability to remote trigger the camera (including half-press wakeup/focus – SWEET)
• Repeater Mode
• Much better burst mode (using HSR mode) where the flash fired reliably at 7fps for 49 flashes in a row before I stopped testing.
• Very nice design for quick access to group selection

Conclusion

Flash technology has improved so much recently that I thought these would just be my answer for remote triggering using my existing flashes. Sure, I’d lose ETTL (which is a big loss), but I can dial back the power and get good results in manual (which I have to do on studio lights anyway). However, these units really let me down. They are dinosaurs in a sexy new suit, but they won’t end up in my studio.

My advice to Canon and Nikon shooters using the previous generation flashes – don’t be envious, what you have already is way better than these. You can try for yourself, but unless my units were defective I think you’ll find that there’s really no point in using these with 580EX II’s or SB-900 or SB-910’s. This is really for the strobist of the world using cheap Vivtars or other knockoffs that don’t have radio or optical triggering.

I do not recommend this product, but if you think I’m full of crap you can click here to buy them here at B&H.

Other Articles You Might Enjoy

• Pocket Wizard Mini TT1, Flex TT5 and AC7 (I do recommend these, but they don’t work with the 5D Mark III yet)
• First Look: Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT Flash
• Canon 600EX-RT Wireless Real World Test
• Ask Ron: Canon 600EX-RT Radio Wireless and High Speed Sync on Sunny Days
• REVIEW: Canon ST-E3 RT Speedlite Transmitter

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using products featured in my blog, I may make a commission . This means that it is in my best interest to tell you these are great and to buy them, but I can’t in good conscious do that.

My business partner, B&H, was kind enough to loan me two units for this test.

Canon 600EX-RT Wireless Real World Test

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no Joe McNally or Syl Arena, so when my second Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT flash arrived from B&H today, I did what I think most of my readers would do – I asked my wife to walk outside with me (with no explanation so should couldn’t say no <g>), and I took her to a spot where I asked her to take a photo of me. I set the camera up and ran to the other end of the block and yelled “okay honey, shoot.” Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. <g>

I’m standing at 115 feet (35 meters) which was the farthest I could go to get a reliable flash
My 24-105mm lens was zoomed to 105mm so this was a decent range

Unbeknownst to my lovely wife what I was really doing was a quick distance check with the radio wireless range of the new Canon 600EX-RT flash system. I had one mounted to 5D Mark III (with the 24-105mm lens zoomed out to 105mm) as the master and the other in my hand as a slave for a very unscientific, but practical real world sanity check.

My test shots outdoors were taken during a light on and off drizzle near sunset (7:00 PM Pacific). What I discovered is that I could reliably get the flash to fire at a straight-line distance up to 115 feet, and a maximum of 125 feet. Now I’m not sure how much that lamp post was interfering or how the rainy day may have impacted things, but overall I thought this was reasonable for my needs. It was shorter than I expected though, so I was a little disappointed. I’ll try again with a new set of batteries (these batteries were 1 year old Enloops that had been fully charged the night before), but I’m not expecting something drastically better here. I may try a park to see if it helps to have less interference.

Around the house

With the obstructed flash in the downstairs living room I went as far as I could go upstairs
and fired the flash – worked 100% reliably and ETTL was bang on

Inside I just tossed the flash in the formal living room in the center of the room then went upstairs as far away as I could. I fired and it worked flawlessly – repeatedly. In fact, I found that the ETTL behaved better than the Pocket Wizard MiniTT1/FlexTT5 system I reviewed. The shots above and below are the same room just from different angles upstairs where I was shooting. Try as I may, I could never trip it up.

The formal dining room (aka the playroom) next to the dining room was well lit too

The Closed Door Test

Solid doors – no problem

I figured if that worked well then I should see what it did behind closed doors, so I tried both the french doors and solid doors – again it was spot on every time.

French doors – ha, ha, ha – don’t insult me says the 600EX-RT!

Conclusion

I had to go back to being dad and spend time with the family, so I didn’t do as much testing as I would like. However, I learned what I wanted to know – the wireless system works pretty darn well. No shields or any fancy stuff was needed – this is a straight out of the box test so you should easily be able to mimic my results in your environment.

These flashes are also growing on me too as they are very well built and everything is integrated, so durability and weather resistance are a given. In fact, I was testing in the rain today with a 5D Mark III and everything worked fine – no leaks or malfunctions.

At this point I’m giving these flash a highly recommend rating with the only gripes I have are the obscene price and the lack of gels included with the adapter. For those coming from Nikon, these are basically like SB-910’s with wireless radio triggers built in, so they are pure goodness.

Order your Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT flash from B&H today!

Related Articles

• Pocket Wizard Mini TT1, Flex TT5 and AC7 (I do recommend these, but they don’t work with the 5D Mark III yet)
• First Look: Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT Flash
• Ask Ron: Canon 600EX-RT Radio Wireless and High Speed Sync on Sunny Days
• REVIEW: Canon ST-E3 RT Speedlite Transmitter
• PocketWizard Plus III Review

Disclosure

I was provided units to review from B&H that I returned when I was done. I may get a commission if you make a purchase using the links in this article.

NEW: Pocket Wizard Plus III–Only $139 and SanDisk Specials

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• SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO Compact Flash Memory Card - up to 100MB/sec write speed - reg 849  special 819  will expire 2/29/12
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• SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro CF90 Compact Flash Memory Card  reg 134.95 spec 99.95
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Disclosure

I may get a commission if you make a purchase using links in this article.

B&H REVIEW: Pocket Wizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5 & AC7

I’m tired of spending money on Photography gear (or should I say broke) so I’ve been very reluctant to buy wireless radio transmitters. B&H was nice enough to send two sets of Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 (for Canon ETTL-II System) radio controlled flash controllers for me to demonstrate during my recent workshop. They also sent the AC7 RF Shield for the FlexTT5, but I never got around to using any of them due to the fast pace of the workshop.

I own three Canon 580 EX-II’s for my flash needs. When my flashes go off camera I use either one of those flashes or my ST-E2 to trigger them. I’ve only had one case where the Canon system failed miserably, but I know the limitations of the system so I never put them into a situation where I knew I was asking for the impossible. As a result I have limited myself from doing some of the cool things you see in Joe McNally’s books The Moment It Clicks or Hot Shoe Diaries. After attending his Flash Bus Tour I decided to join the world of the Strobist minions give the radio triggers a shot.

I used the MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 units as well as the classic Plus II at the Bryan Peterson Workshop and at the workshop I actually had a preference for the Plus II because it allowed me to use Nikon SB-900 flashes remotely with my Canon camera. However, I had a feeling I’d miss not having E-TTL after reading Speedliter's Handbook by Syl Arena so I decided the MiniTT1 and FlexTT5’s were the way to go.

Why Do I Need Wireless Radio Transmitters?

This shot would not be possible without wireless transmitters
Canon 1D Mark IV and 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM at 100mm
f/3.5 at ISO 320 for 1/125 sec
Dutch Angle done for fun

One of the questions I get from my students is why do I need wireless radio transmitters? The answer is simple – because they allow your off-camera flash to still fire when it doesn’t have direct line of sight with your camera. Here’s a good example of environment where direct line of sight is not possible:

Notice how both flashes are in separate areas blocked by walls

For this shot I need the green to fill the background, but if I get any spill from the main light it will wash out the green Rogue Gel from the rear flash. To avoid this problem I tucked the 580EX II with the FlexTT5 in the alcove so the walls would act as flags. This takes care of the background, but I still need to put light on my model so I elected to use an umbrella with another 580EX II on a FlexTT5 that was stuffed into the children's playroom at the bottom of the stairs. To avoid lighting up the column next to the umbrella I just used a little gaffers tape and taped the black umbrella cover on so that it would cover the left half (as shown above).

In the the photos above and below you can see where I’ve put black markers where the model needs to stand. If you look below you’ll see that camera is located in the kitchen dining area next to the bar where there is no line of sight to either of the flashes. Radio transmitters are the only practical option in this case as direct line of sight is impossible and running PC sync cords would be a mess.

Notice how the camera (where the MiniTT1 fires) has multiple walls blocking it from the flashes

The last thing you’ll notice in the shot above is the reflector that I used to throw some additional light on the dark side of the model’s face. This allowed me to get the light I needed without introducing another flash which would have caused challenges with light contaminating the background color.

For this test I used E-TTL for the flash on my model and manual for the flash with the gel. I felt this worked best for my scenario as I didn’t want the flash with the gel to change power yet I was happy to let E-TTL do its magic for the flash on my model. I even experimented in another test with a on-camera flash on top of my MiniTT1 using E-TTL and that worked fine also.

Using the AC7 Accessory

The AC7 accessory is designed to provide better performance of the FlexTT5’s (up to 500% longer distance) when used with Canon flashes. It’s first purpose means you don’t need to use the included sock and you’ll get a longer shooting range and its second purpose is to give your flash a better shooting direction into the umbrella.

The way you’d think that you use the FlexTT5 is like this:

This works, but RF interference can cause occasional misfires and reduce wireless distance

However, you’ll get much better performance if you use the RF sock like this:

The sock improves performance,
but notice how the flash doesn’t hit the bottom portion of the umbrella in this configuration

The AC7 increases range by up to 500% over the configuration shown above and it acts as a better umbrella adapter so that your flash fires in the center of the umbrella as it should:

The AC7 allows for a better center hit of your flash into your umbrella

Here’s another view of how your flash inserts into the AC7:

580 EX II flash shown inside of the AC7 with a FlexTT5 attached

In case you are wondering, the AC7 does work with battery packs. You’ll notice the bump in the top in the photos below where the included adapter goes to allow for battery pack attachments. You can also rotate your flash head and point it at a 90 degree angle if you want to use the AC7 without an umbrella.

While this device is designed mainly to deal with the RF interference issue with Canon flashes, it is really the improved performance in umbrellas that makes it worth while.

Additional Resources for Off-Camera Flash Fun

Joe McNally’s books The Moment It Clicks or Hot Shoe Diaries have lots of great photos which show off the cool things you can do with off-camera flashes and gels. It is very Nikon biased so Canon shooters will also want to look at Speedliter's Handbook by Syl Arena to learn how to do the same things with their Canon flashes. I’ve also reviewed Off-Camera Flash Techniques which is a great resource to show you how to put the lighting principals of Light, Science and Magic (a must read) into practice.

The hottest place on the web for more info on this is also Strobist.com or if you prefer to watch videos then KelbyTraining.com (discount on this blog).

Conclusion

The MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 worked great and I never ran into any of the problems I’ve seen reported on the web even when I didn’t use the included sock attachment. The AC7 offered a better solution for use with umbrellas and better performance, so they seem like a worthwhile accessory.

Overall this system worked as expected and I had the confidence of knowing that they’d flash every time without fail. While E-TTL makes a lot of sense when the flash is on the camera, I felt it was less useful when it was off the camera so I’m not entirely convinced that I need these over the cheaper Plus II. As a result, I’m in this odd limbo where I liked these, but don’t really have enough need for them in my work to justify buying them. I’m also not sure I’d spring for the extra cost of these over the Plus II or MultiMax 32.

For now the built-in Canon wireless system works well for my needs (see the Speedliter's Handbook by Syl Arena for usage tips). If I really need a better solution I’d probably use my Elinchrom Quadras which feature built-in radio triggering and have many advantages and better light modifiers than I get with my flash guns.

My advice is that if you want to do E-TTL work and trust the PocketWizard brand, then give this product a try (B&H has 30 day returns now). I don’t think they will let you down and they are quite fun if you are into off-camera flash work. If you are the type who will use manual flash settings anyway (and/or shoot with a mixed flash setup where E-TTL isn’t possible) then save your money and get the Plus II or MultiMax 32.

NOTE: Nikon users will need the MiniTT1 for Nikon and FlexTT5 for Nikon.

What about RadioPoppers?

RadioPoppers refused my numerous requests to participate in this article so I have no data to share about their product. If that changes in the future, I’d be happy to review them as well.

Other articles you might enjoy (Added July 3, 2012)

• Pocket Wizard Mini TT1, Flex TT5 and AC7 (I do recommend these, but they don’t work with the 5D Mark III yet)
• First Look: Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT Flash
• Canon 600EX-RT Wireless Real World Test
• Ask Ron: Canon 600EX-RT Radio Wireless and High Speed Sync on Sunny Days
• REVIEW: Canon ST-E3 RT Speedlite Transmitter
• PocketWizard Plus III Review

Disclosure

I was provided units to review from B&H that I returned when I was done. I may get a commission if you make a purchase using the links in this article.