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Mon Jun 26, 2017 9:53 am

Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2017 9:11 am
Posts: 2

I have been using my 3 Einsteins happily for the past 4 or 5 years. I have a Canon 5d Mk II and a newer Canon 5ds. I use Pocket Wizards and have power tracking set to off. I make all the adjustments manually on the Einsteins. I am used to turning on the flashes, taking a first shot and having all 3 Einsteins go to either -1f or Full. I reset them to what I usually shoot at, which is about -6f. I was told this is normal.

Last week, the flashes started going to either full or almost full, or to the lowest setting every time I changed the ISO, the shutter speed, or the aperture. Then they started changing erratically after every 4 or 5 shutter actuations. I tried turning off two of the flashes to see if I could isolate a bad flash. I tried changing the MiniTT1 to a Flex TT5, I changed out the camera and PW batteries. I also tried changing to my older 5D Mk II. Nothing seems to make the lights stable.

Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.




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Mon Jun 26, 2017 2:17 pm

Site Admin
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:43 am
Posts: 5266

The Einsteins seem to be working as designed, changing based on the settings they are told.

It seems the PocketWizards are providing the Einstein commands you are not expecting. Since these remotes are not ours, we are not qualified to trouble shoot their behavior.

I would need to defer you to PocketWizard for specifics on this issue.




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Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:57 am

Joined: Mon Jun 26, 2017 9:11 am
Posts: 2

Technical Support wrote:
The Einsteins seem to be working as designed, changing based on the settings they are told.

It seems the PocketWizards are providing the Einstein commands you are not expecting. Since these remotes are not ours, we are not qualified to trouble shoot their behavior.

I would need to defer you to PocketWizard for specifics on this issue.



I think I figured out the problem, and it was with the my use of the Einsteins and not the Pocket Wizards. It seems that while I was adjusting the settings on the back of one Einstein, I accidentally changed the zone on one of them from 1 to 5. So, I had two of them in one zone and 1 in another. The other thing I did was I changed the slave setting on one of them to on, with the others on off. This combination of settings apparently confused the group to where things went quite haywire, when I tried to use the lights in my usual manner. I could be wrong about all this, but now that I have the settings right, all seem to be right again.

By the way, you might wonder how someone could get things so messed up in the first place. It's because I became over-confident and started adjusting the lights manually without bringing them down to eye level. I would just feel for the right button and count the clicks to get the lights the way I wanted them. I won't be doing that any more. In fact, I may even start using Power Tracking and FEC, instead of manually adjusting the lights. :- )




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