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Pocket Wizard MultiMAX Transceiver, Remote Control Radio Slave.
See it at Amazon.com for $279.00Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
All mulitimax required for some functions.
(5 out of 5) by J. Kirby on Oct 5, 2008If what your looking for is rear curtain sync, you don't need all mulimax transceivers. However if you are looking to have separate zones of flashes you do need to have the mulitmax, or equivalent 32 channel receiver. The zone function only works on channels 17-32, and the plus only has channels 1-4.
With that in mind this is the definition of reliability, and for many applications just having the extra channels will be worth the extra hundred bucks. For example at major sporting events where every photographer seems to be using those first four channels you will still be able to have your flash go off only when you want it too.
Using zones has some extra uses too. I use it in my studio to set up 3 completely different lighting scenes (background white, background black, and third with some light spill onto the background) set my camera to bracket (3) and then with each shot get 3 completely different pictures. Saves me lots of time and I don't have to tell the model "that looked great, now try to do exactly the same thing after I spend 5 minutes fiddling with the lights...."
Now if you have no idea what I am talking about, then maybe this isn't the device for you. And that is not a problem! But there is no reason to pay this money if you are not sure that you are going to use its features.
With that in mind this is the definition of reliability, and for many applications just having the extra channels will be worth the extra hundred bucks. For example at major sporting events where every photographer seems to be using those first four channels you will still be able to have your flash go off only when you want it too.
Using zones has some extra uses too. I use it in my studio to set up 3 completely different lighting scenes (background white, background black, and third with some light spill onto the background) set my camera to bracket (3) and then with each shot get 3 completely different pictures. Saves me lots of time and I don't have to tell the model "that looked great, now try to do exactly the same thing after I spend 5 minutes fiddling with the lights...."
Now if you have no idea what I am talking about, then maybe this isn't the device for you. And that is not a problem! But there is no reason to pay this money if you are not sure that you are going to use its features.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Worth the Extra Money
(5 out of 5) by Josh on Jul 2, 2008You don't have to get all multimax's. Just get one and use it as the "master" then you can still do second curtain sync even with a Canon camera.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good Advanced Trigger
(5 out of 5) by Jan Klier on Apr 2, 2009 (Seattle, WA USA)Probably one of the most expensive wireless triggers, but also one with the most functionality. If you need all these extras, worth the money.
The additional channels come in handy at events or any other place where there may be many photographers using triggers in non-coordinated fashion.
The zones can be handy in-studio, in particular in combination with the Sekonic 758DR light meter, which also can trigger individual zones. That makes it easy to meter individual generators or heads without having to turn them off.
The fine timing control either for lights or camera can be useful in advanced applications. Multi-pop for multiple flashes in a single exposure (assuming fast flash), or setting finer granularity continuous shooting that is synchronized to the flash recycle rate, or triggering multiple cameras at once at the exact same time. Built-in counters help in keeping track of how many times the flash was fired, giving indication of battery capacity. The uses are quite extensive.
If none of this matters - the Plus II is a fine trigger as well.
Update: The MultiMax has a much shorter battery life. With the old Plus II I can go for weeks without worrying about batteries. With the MultiMax I wouldn't leave the house without some spares.
The additional channels come in handy at events or any other place where there may be many photographers using triggers in non-coordinated fashion.
The zones can be handy in-studio, in particular in combination with the Sekonic 758DR light meter, which also can trigger individual zones. That makes it easy to meter individual generators or heads without having to turn them off.
The fine timing control either for lights or camera can be useful in advanced applications. Multi-pop for multiple flashes in a single exposure (assuming fast flash), or setting finer granularity continuous shooting that is synchronized to the flash recycle rate, or triggering multiple cameras at once at the exact same time. Built-in counters help in keeping track of how many times the flash was fired, giving indication of battery capacity. The uses are quite extensive.
If none of this matters - the Plus II is a fine trigger as well.
Update: The MultiMax has a much shorter battery life. With the old Plus II I can go for weeks without worrying about batteries. With the MultiMax I wouldn't leave the house without some spares.