5D Mark III & Possible 1D X Issue With PocketWizards

[Canon Rumors]

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Pocketwizards
I received the following report about PocketWizards and the 5D Mark III. I have not confirmed this myself.

Been using PW products for 8 years now. I currently have a Canon 1D Mark IV, which works great up to 1/800 at the studio with hyper sync, and preordered a 1D X. I just bought a Canon 5D III and won’t sync at shutter speeds higher than 1/160 using Mini TT1 and Paul C. Buff Einstein Flashes fitted with Poceket Wizard Power MC2′s. Any speeds higher than that, it will give u the dark band on the bottom of the frame.

I called Tech Support and they say it’s not compatible yet and although the 5D III should sync at at least 1/200, the actual speed of the shutter is lower (approx 1/160). They don’t even have a test camera yet and they expect the soon-to-be-released 1D X not to be compatible either. They will be working on a firmware update as soon as they have a 5DIII to work with.

cr

[publiux]

I shot this weekend with some very cheap radio triggers (not PWs), and I got banding at 1/200. It was very minor at the bottom. When I slowed the shutter to 1/160, it disappeared. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the shutter actually syncing at 1/160 instead of 1/200 or something to do with the hotshoe's signal to the radios.

I thought it was my crappy triggers, but is PWs are having problems too, something is afoot!

[coolbiff]

I've used my 5d Mark III on strobes at 1/200th both on Elinchrom's and on my in arena Speedotron 2401SX's with no banding using regular Multimax's. With my Flex and Mini if you try to set a faster shutter speed for hypersync then the camera at exposure time drops back down to 1/200th. But again no banding.

And yup, I've been told a few days ago by LPA that they didn't have a camera yet.

[willhuff.net]

I'll find out later today if this affects PW Plus II.

[wockawocka]

It effects the Multimax's:



But hey, turn it down to 1/160 until there's a firmware update.

[DavidRiesenberg]

What's strange is that with cheap ebay triggers it is very visible, about 8%-10% of solid black band but with the Elinchrom skyport, it is only a very faint vignetting, barely visible unless shooting against a white wall.
Using a sync cord there is no problem.

[publiux]

What's strange is that with cheap ebay triggers it is very visible, about 8%-10% of solid black band but with the Elinchrom skyport, it is only a very faint vignetting, barely visible unless shooting against a white wall.
Using a sync cord there is no problem.

So a sync chord at 1/200 didn't produce any bands for you?  I'm happy to hear that. It means my shutter isn't faulty

[wockawocka]

What's strange is that with cheap ebay triggers it is very visible, about 8%-10% of solid black band but with the Elinchrom skyport, it is only a very faint vignetting, barely visible unless shooting against a white wall.
Using a sync cord there is no problem.

I had this issue before with Bowens Pulsars but that was never fixed so I went Pocket Wizard.

[XanuFoto]

Good to know. I have a studio shoot in two weeks and am going to use the 5D MKIII.

[DavidRiesenberg]

So a sync chord at 1/200 didn't produce any bands for you?  I'm happy to hear that. It means my shutter isn't faulty

Yeah, no banding at all with a sync cord. Interestingly enough, I did not encounter any problems with optical triggering as well. How is this possible that only radio seems to be affected? Electronic interference from the camera with RF?

[dericcainphoto]

I have the 5D III and the PW Mini TT1 with the PowerMC2 for my Einstein. I tested it this morning, before reading this and noticed some odd behavior. First, I did have banding at 1/200th of a sec. I changed my exposure increments on my 5D III to 1/3 stop, instead of 1/2 stop, and the band went away. I actually shot at 1/250th of a second without it banding. The weirdest thing is that when I shot with 1/250th of a second, the preview image showed as me shooting with 1/200th of a second, and no banding. After a few minutes of testing, I felt comfortable with the results, even with the shutter speed recording incorrectly. I hope the PW Plus III's support the 5D III as I will be purchasing them and selling my Mini and Flex setup. I really don't use the TTL feature as I feel that it is not that reliable, or at least not as reliable as manual.

[Maui5150]

Have you updated your PW Mini TT1 for the 5D MKIII???

Do they have this available for the Mini yet?

You have to configure both the Flex and the Mini via the USB to set the camera up.

I got the exact same results when I first got my 5D MKII...

Why?

Because my mini was still set to my T2i.

Yup.... Went through the same thing... I thought I had a bad 5DMKII... or that my 5DMKII had to shoot at 1/160 or 1/100...

Ah...  Configuration.

Right now I don't think PocketWizard has an update firmware yet:

http://www.pocketwizard.com/products/transmitter_receiver/36/TT1-C/compatibility/

[eaglem]

With my 5d3 firing from mini 1 and a 430 EXII via Flex5, it triggers the flash but the flash is just a tiny amount of light at any shutter speed. So not functional at all in TTL only manual mode works. I'm not using the newest firmware which might help.

[dericcainphoto]

Have you updated your PW Mini TT1 for the 5D MKIII???

Do they have this available for the Mini yet?

You have to configure both the Flex and the Mini via the USB to set the camera up.

I got the exact same results when I first got my 5D MKII...

Why?

Because my mini was still set to my T2i.

Yup.... Went through the same thing... I thought I had a bad 5DMKII... or that my 5DMKII had to shoot at 1/160 or 1/100...

Ah...  Configuration.

Right now I don't think PocketWizard has an update firmware yet:

http://www.pocketwizard.com/products/transmitter_receiver/36/TT1-C/compatibility/

I did have mine set to 7D first and all I got was black frames. I changed the config. and it works better now.

[Viggo]

I'm sorry, but I'm going to a bastard.

I am sooo happy right now... Stupid crappy PW's 

I took my Phottix Odin out of the box, put in the supplied AA batteries, attached the INCLUDED cable to attach them to my Elinchrom's, switched my 1d4 to 1/8000s of a second; always trigger, always sync, no matter what. I've shot almost 3000 images with them total, with both Elinchrom's and 580 ex II's in ALL conditions and situations. Not ONE SINGLE misfire or no-trigger whatsoever.

And yes, I have tried the Odin with a pre-production 1d X and it syncs at all speeds. If one of the 5d3's pre-ordered from the store I work at doesn't get picked up tomorrow, I will try the Odin with the 5d3 at all speeds also. And if it works, I'll be back to gloat and be a douch badmouthing the useless Flex-system once again!

Thank you and good night!