Flexing…

Wow, so yea New website, new blog.  Mentioned it a few times over the last couple months, and it’s been a long time coming.  PLEASE UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS. Poke around and let me know what you think would you? I’m pleased.  It was made by my girlfriend Shannon, she’s a web 3.0 pioneer Web Ninja.  Fitting I suppose the first post on the new blog be about some new toys…

Last week while I was out of town for the funeral of my grandfather a very ordinary brown box was delivered to my house.  That ubiquitous brown box was very normal on the outside, and yet very abnormal on the inside as it was filled with the production models of the Pocket Wizard Flex TT1 and TT5 units that I did the beta test for previously.

First things first here.  YES, most of the things I complained about with the beta units have been eliminated. Yup.  Dig it.  My SU-800 units now works with the TT1 unit, or the TT5 units almost flawlessly, giving me the range and flexibility of the Nikon CLS system just the way I like it.  Big key here though, is that you need to remember to UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARES. One of my  SB-900 units had a little trouble with the production units becuase i hadn’t updated it’s firmware to version 5.02.  At the shoot, I just changed out the SB-900 for an SB-800, but I know that not everybody can do that.  When I got home, I updated the firmware, and ShaZam!  No more problems.

(Nikon D3s, 5,000ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@200mm, 1/400th@F2.8. Single SB-900 speedlight zoomed to 70mm set to iTTL attached to a Pocket WIzard FLex TT5 unit, Bogen Superclamped to the I beam in the middle of the track, pointing towards the inside of the turn. Single SB-800 SPeedlight on the outside of the track to camera left zoomed to 105mm set to iTTL on a 15′ stand and a Flex TT5 unit. Both units fired by a Pocket WIzard MiniTT1 unit with a Nikon SU-800 Speedlight Commander in the Hot Shoe on top.)

This morning to play with these new toys, I decided I was going to shoot the Naptown Roller Girls scrimmage vs the Sioux Falls Roller Dollz.  It’s EXCEPTIONALLY dark inside the warehouse that they were holding the Scrimmage, and because it was a non-public scrimmage I was able to dink around with my lights and equipment without being bothered.

Yup, I did the tard thing, and immediately tried to shoot using iTTL with the Flex units, and you know what? IT WORKED.  It slowed the camera down and I ended up changing the speedlights to manual mode, but that’s simple now that I don’t have to get up to change their settings… I like Love these things.

(Nikon D3s, 4,000ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@130mm, 1/640th@F2.8. Single SB-900 speedlight zoomed to 70mm set to 1/16th attached to a Pocket WIzard FLex TT5 unit, Bogen Superclamped to the I beam in the middle of the track, pointing towards the inside of the turn. Single SB-800 SPeedlight on the outside of the track to camera left zoomed to 105mm set to 1/8th on a 15′ stand and a Flex TT5 unit. Both units fired by a Pocket WIzard MiniTT1 unit with a Nikon SU-800 Speedlight Commander in the Hot Shoe on top.)

Another thing that I ran into, was the “bubble” between the Hypersync, and the High Speed Sync.  Inside the ControlTL software, you can set what speed you want the Hypersync to take into effect, and frankly set it to a speed you don’t use very often.  Why do I say this?  Because the Beta units, and the Production units have the same “bubble” where the units can’t always decide which feature it wants to use and will malfunction from time time.  No big deal, but something to be aware of.

(Nikon D3s, 4,000ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@145mm, 1/640th@F2.8. Single SB-900 speedlight zoomed to 70mm set to 1/16th attached to a Pocket WIzard FLex TT5 unit, Bogen Superclamped to the I beam in the middle of the track, pointing towards the inside of the turn. Single SB-800 SPeedlight on the outside of the track to camera left zoomed to 105mm set to 1/8th on a 15′ stand and a Flex TT5 unit. Both units fired by a Pocket WIzard MiniTT1 unit with a Nikon SU-800 Speedlight Commander in the Hot Shoe on top.)

The only other thing is that the Units still fall asleep.  This is despite having plugged them each into the computer, and telling them not to.  It was only an issue one time, which was after a long delay when one girl was injured, but it still fell asleep.  Not the end of the world, but I missed a frame because of it so keep it in mind.

It was a tough thing to shoot, but I’m glad I went out with my new Pocket Wizards to test them out.  Check out the rest of the pictures HERE My buddy John tested out the Beta units that I had also. Check out his findings HERE. Next week I’ve got a few more things that I’ll be doing with them that I’ll have to post from on the road.  Also just set the dates for a big project coming up in March that’ll be sort of off the beaten path.  Exciting things are coming up, and I can’t wait to share.  Until then though watch the new blog, check out the new website, and let me know what you think.  More Soon.