I understand. Leave the HSS button well alone. PW units don’t need you to press the HSS button in order to work at high shutter speeds. Just plug and play. If you have modified the settings in the firmware away from Force Master this may be causing your issues.

I hope this helps. Damien.

I’m glad you are feeling inspired. The Big Day DVD is definitely worth while because it shows the flow of the shoot and will give you ideas and inspiration for shots that customers love.

Kindest regards,

Damien.

When I bounce camera mounted flash, the PW underexposes the shot if HS button is pressed on the Speedlite – even though I am at shutter speeds well below camera sync. at 1/125 for example I should still be getting full power but I seem to be getting HSS exposure.

As I understand you have to press the HS button on the speedlite when camera mounted if you should need to go beyond camer sync. Correct?

I recieved two new 430ex II’s yesterday and did a little quick test. I am using the TT5 as transmitter and as long as I flip up the antenna the range and reliabillity seems excellent.

The AC3 really is pretty sweet little add-on, so I thing you will like it very much.

All my TT5′s came with the 5.150 firmware.

Your speedlite mastery video has really inspired me to get into shooting some models and got in touch with some aspiring locals to shoot some free pictures. I am hoping to use this to transfer some more creativity into my wedding work ( http://www.zangenberg.net ).

The cool thing about the speedlite video is that you show that it does not have to be rocket science with lightmeters and calculators. A simple two-light setup and just see what happens. Very inspiring!

I will be buying “the big day” next I think and next year I will try to see if I can attend one or more of your workshops.

regards

Per Z

Thanks for your kind words about my DVD. I am shooting continuous light at the moment. I go through phases of using Broncolor then Speedlights then natural light then continuous light etc. For my corporate and portrait work I select the right tools from all my kit. I will get the chance to use the AC3 this autumn on my next Speedlight Mastery workshop for Canon users.

PW instructions are written by a geek not a photographer and there’s no translation available. Make sure you update to V5.1 of the firmware on all your units and leave all settings as standard. This will provide consistent results to get you going. Then change one parameter at a time and test thoroughly before making further changes.

Kindest regards,

Damien.

Damian are you not using the AC3 controller? I just cant find any mention of it in your blog. The AC3 is THE reason that I got the TT5′s since it allows me to control manual power from the camera. I would love to hear your findings on using it.

Also is there anywhere on the PW site that the settings in the utillity program is explained?!?

PS. I justed bought and watched your Speedlite mastery DVD and it was VERY inspiring! I only wished I could have bought it as a digital HD download because I dont have a bluray player…

I was using just the ST-E2 and 3 Speedlights. The variation between shots was wild at times. I tried using a 580EX2 as a non firing master and I couldn’t get it not to fire even when it was correctly set. My system threw a wobbly for some reason. I was not using PWs because my Evolvers didn’t have PWs for this shoot.

The PWs are rock solid with the firmware 5.008 and if anything it is the Canon side of the circuitry that can be a bit flakey at times. And yes I use the PW system at weddings.

Damien.

Glad to hear that I’m not the only one with a sluggish shutter but slightly concerned to hear about your TTL issues. I assume you were using the ST-E2 in conjunction with PWs?

Would you be confident enough with the PW system to use it at a wedding?

All the best,

David

The post you refer to is for old firmware. Here’s the info for firmware version 5.000.

http://www.pocketwizard.com/products/images/TT1-C.pdf

And the relevant part:

“We changed the optimized HSS crossover point to automatically detect based on camera type. This allows the 5D and the 5D Mark II to sync at all shutter speeds with Canon Speedlites right out of the box without needing to use the PocketWizard Utility.

“High Speed Sync (FP Flash Sync) Begins At” will automatically be set to 1/320 for the 5D and 5D Mark II, and 1/400 for all other camera models. This feature is automatically engaged by default, or can be set by selecting “Auto” for “High Speed Sync (FP Flash Sync) Begins At” in the PocketWizard Utility. Selecting a different HSS crossover point overrides the auto setting.”

I’ve yet to test PW’s claims for HSS. I have my fingers crossed!

All the best,

David

Have you seen this http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-9884-9903-9907

This camera is not capable of a clean 1/250 full power sync. So you did the right thing. The main benefit is the high speed sync where you get an extra stop of flash juice at high shutter speeds.

You can always crop out the black margin given the nice resolution of the 5D2 files.

With my 5D Mark II, however, I’ve found that I can’t reliably sync at these speeds. It occasionally works but, more often, I see a dark band at the bottom of my image due to the second shutter starting to cover part of the digital sensor when the flash fires.

I’ve spoken to PocketWizard who suggest that not all examples of a 5D Mark II will be capable of syncing at these faster speeds. If the body has seen lots of action (I shot 60 weddings with mine last year) then the movement of the shutter blades can deviate from normal.

To get round the issue I’ve just manually set the shutter speed at which the PocketWizards switch to using high speed sync (FP) flash. So full powered flash until 1/200s and then the lower-powered FP-mode from 1/250s.

The PWs trigger my Speedlites without issue and were all reset after updating the firmware.

David

Did you make sure you reset the units after installing the beta firmware?

thanks

I thoroughly enjoyed Speedlight Mastery (in all the glory of blu-ray) and it inspired me to purchase a minTT1 and a couple of FlexTT5s. I’ve just received them, updated the firmware and then had a quick play and encountered a syncing problem when shooting at 1/250 and 1/320s. I’m using a 5D Mark II with 580EX IIs.

Having worked my way through the instruction manual and addenda (yawn!) I was under the impression that I shouldn’t need to tweak any settings in the PW Utility -am I mistaken though?

Any advice would be most appreciated.

All the best,

David

Using C1 and C2 to work around this is a nice touch.

While you are feeding back to PW – can you PLEASE suggest that they also extend the benefits of MANUAL flash power boosts to Speedlites mounted on camera.

Manual Flash power boost only works on FLEX mounted Speedlites if you also have Speedlite mounted on camera. Surely this function can be local too.

I hope I don’t have to purchase their upcoming Zone Controller just to get this ability.

Best wishes,
G