Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Is there any way to increase sensitivity for the flash-activation of the slave trigger on the X1600? Where is the flash sensor eye located? Would use of a honeycomb on the 7" reflector decrease sensitivity?

I'm also having trouble triggering the X1600 with a Chinese radio trigger device and I'm wondering if there is a reason for that other than than I should buy a PW.

Again, I apologize in advance for the dumb questions, but I'm a brand-newbie. :?

You can place something behind the light to help reflect light back in to the slave eye (the eye is on the back of the unit). Yes, a grid on a master flash can very much reduce the chance the second light will fire. Another option is to place a slave eye on the included sync cord, which can then be positioned anywhere. As for the China made remotes, some are known to be of low quality, othes are hit or miss. Pocket Wizard remotes are of good quality, as are our Cyber Sync remotes: http://www.white-lightning.com/remotes.html .

As a newbie in studio lighting, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this forum. As always, thank you for a great answer. I have a shoot through umbrella that is blocking the eye, but I can easily employ the measures you recommended now that I know where the sensor eye is located.

The Cyber Sync option appears to be considerably less expensive than PW's. Since I am not involved in events with other photographers, I don't need channel selection. So am I correct in thinking I could get a transmitter for around $60 and a battery operated receiver for $70 so that for a grand total of $130 I would be able to trigger my X1600 without wires at a distance of around 300 ft?

CyberSyncs definitely have frequency and channel selection. The biggest advantage of Pocket Wizards over CyberSyncs is the distance. Pocket Wizards can cover a much larger distance reliably. For some more information you can see page 3 of Rob Galbraith's initial review of the Einsteins, and v2 update.

If you have a bunch of lights that will be all within 60-100ish feet of one point, but not all the lights will be within 60-100ish feet of your camera, you can still use CyberSync products with just 2 Pocket Wizards by doing a setup like in the workaround that was needed in v1 Einsteins. This happened to be a genius solution for me since I all ready owned 2 Pocket Wizards, and preferred to buy into the CyberSync system for the CyberCommand and CSXCVs, so I get the best of both worlds.

A little clarification: Yes, you do get 16 selectable frequencies with CyberSync. You can get custom channels with Pocket Wizard if you are shooting the Olympics or NBA playoffs. CyberSync can give you reliable shooting up to 300-400'. Some PW products will give you up to 1600'. The only time the 60-100' limitation would arise is an E640v.1+PW combo (and the range will probably be even less).

CyberSyncs do have an internal repeater mode, where one reciever needs to be within range, then it can repeat the signal the same range again, giving you a 600-800' range. The PW to CS relay is a good option if you are 300-1600' from your cluster of lights, however.

I guess this depends a lot on the subjective definition of 'reliable'. In Rob Galbraith's initial review, one light failed to fire 12 out of 540 shots plus one shot fired out of sync. He was firing at a distance between 60-150' and may or may not have been having interference from a wireless access point.

He also did a test to see what the furthest distance you could trigger a flash successfully 20 times in a row was. He did this on a street so there would be less factors to contribute to the distance (such as walls and interference). The CST + CSXCV combo could fire 20 consecutive flashes successfully at up to 110'. This did beat out the Skyport RX at 90'. The MultiMAX worked at 850' with 20 successful sequential fires, beating out everybody. While the updated test for standard PocketWizards didn't list a distance, the location on the map is roughly the same, meaning it was successful at around 850'.

While Rob did have limited range in his tests, that is still one tester on one frequency in one location. I personally have tested (as has Paul and several of our other tech staff) the CyberSyncs up to and exceeding 300' (20 of 20 or better) in rural, residential, and commercial areas. Pocket Wizard has had some range limitations of thier own with device EMI (Canon speedlites and Einstein v.1). But in practical use, both systems are reliable to within thier specs in most situations to most users. Outside variables can affect any radio signal on a given frequency, even if other frequencies are unaffected by the same variable.