Michael Balasko

I was poking around the interwebs for photography gadgets and saw a lot of cool products. One of them was a wireless remote trigger for a DSLR. I started to wonder if I would be able to use my pocketwizards to accomplish the same task. Low and behold I violated one of the top “Rules for Guy’s” which was to read the instructions that came with my wizards:)

Here’s what you need!

A “motor release cable” – My fav is from flashzebra.com

http://flashzebra.com/products/0130/index.shtml

At least three pocketwizards- I use the plus ii’s

http://www.pocketwizard.com/products/transmitter_receiver/plus%20ii/

The key to getting this to work right is the “relay mode” of the pocket wizards.

The Setup

A PW in my hand as the remote set to channel 1

A PW on the camera hotshoe with the motor drive cable attached to the camera. (PW set to channel 1)

A PW on my strobes set to channel 2

Huh?

It’s not a typo! The remote and the camera strobes are set to different channels. Why? Because of timing!

If you were to have them set to the same channel then your strobes would would fire at the exact same time that the camera gets the signal to fire and your not going to get the light that you need to illuminate the subject.

The PW’s have a relay mode which is will trigger the camera mounted drive cable, then automatically transmit the fire signal one channel higher once the camera mounted PW gets the sync from the hotshow. SLICK!

That being said if you are not going to use strobes and wirelessly trigger your camera then you can set them to the same channel.

Happy Shooting!

Mike