Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I use my 580 speedlite with pocket wizards (because I already had them for a while) and now I am looking at buying two AB800 and am looking at just using the slave function or just buy more wizards. How does the eye system work so I can have a better understanding if outside they will trigger off of each other and what is the distance they can be apart from each other before it stops working. I also wanted to know is the slave triggered off of flash or infrared thank you for your help.

Forget using using the built in slave triggers outdoors. There is no reliable method of delivering light from your wired/radio triggered flash units to the slave eye on another flash in an outdoor environment. I think the PCB units respond to visible as well as infrared light, but that doesn't matter in this scenario. Don't waste your time trying to use a slave eye on any brand of flash in an outdoor shoot.

Buy additional PW units, hard wire your flash units in groups with splitters and audio cables from places like Radio Shack to fire from your current PW units, or (preferably) buy the basic CyberSync components needed to trigger your new Bees, and team them up to share sync with your current PW setup using connectors that come with CyberSync units.

The last option will set you up for being able to build up a full CyberSync system over time without paying for some things twice, and still allow full use of your 580EX strobes with your current PW units far into the future.

You can use either system to trigger your Bees, or your 580 strobe, but buying basic CyberSync components for your new Bees right now sets the stage for you to add the Cyber Commander to your kit later at minimal cost. That step will rock your world (in a lighting sense :) ).

Good luck!

Voyager

how do you team up the pw and cyber together in the same system is there any forum or documentation i can read up on it.

I appreciate the help

There are several threads on this forum that deal with the subject. I use a bunch of PW's with Canon 580EX, and 580EXII strobes, as well as a Sekonic 758DR light meter that has a built in PW transmitter. I also have several PCB studio flash units that I used to trigger with PW's. The CyberSync system was a revelation to me. It not only gave me a level of remote control over my entire lighting setup that I barely imagined possible, but the little Cyber Commander unit also pretty much retired my Sekonic flash meter from it's studio lighting duties, as the CC has a very effective flash meter built into it as a bonus studio tool.

In a mixed lighting arrangement, I use PW's to trigger my 580EX strobes, and use my CyberSync kit to trigger my PCB flash units. I also use the CC unit for all light measurements, and to set modeling lamp/flash power levels on all PCB lights in the setup.

For overall triggering, there are many possibilities. I use either tethered control from a computer via USB port on the camera, with a PW plugged into the PC sync port on the side of the camera, and a CyberSync CST unit attached to the camera hotshoe (I'm assuming that you shoot Canon, as do I. I use 7D, 30D, 40D, and 50D bodies interchangeably with these setups).

Another setup is to use a PW with an N3 connector, and a PC connector to trigger the motor drive port of the camera, and upon shutter firing, trigger PW connected flash units to fire, while the hotshoe mounted CST triggers the PCB lights in the setup to fire at the same moment in time.

You can also use a PW and a CST linked together with a short connecting cord, so that whichever unit is tied to the the camera sync will also trigger the other unit through the connecting cord between them. There are lots of possibilities, and they are all cheap or free to implement.

Here are links to two pics with very bad color balance (my monitor must have been unplugged when I adjusted the raw file....) that show some of my current PW/CyberSync tools sitting next to each other without any bad chemical reaction. I promise you that they all work together very well to boot.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2786/425 ... 8638_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2794/425 ... 29c8_b.jpg

Voyager

I've not had any trouble getting my B1600 and X3200 units to fire outdoors using the opticals. However, I use them at night and the snow is an excellent reflector that helps trigger them. If used in daytime and there is no snow, it becomes "iffy."


Kent in SD

Kent,

A field of snow is a fantastic range extender for optical wireless triggers of any type, and pointed in any direction. Still, considering the winter climate where you happen to live, if I were an optical trigger on one of your lights, I would fire at the slightest hint of a flash of light just to help you to wrap things up for the day, and get me back home without delay!

Voyager