Pocket wizard or 580EX II?

Trust me get the 580. Having pocket wizards and one flash is going to do you pretty much nothing. Photography is about lighting...

I would use £30 ebay triggers if I absolutely had to for the sheer small percentage I would need them over a professional flash esp when it comes to weddings. Absolutely no brainer!
 
Johnny|lucidcomposure said:
Trust me get the 580. Having pocket wizards and one flash is going to do you pretty much nothing. Photography is about lighting...

I would use £30 ebay triggers if I absolutely had to for the sheer small percentage I would need them over a professional flash esp when it comes to weddings. Absolutely no brainer!
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What if you already have two 580exii and a 550ex and ebay triggers? :p
 
Go for the 580EX. You'll still be able to do your wireless stuff, plus you'll have the benefit of the more powerful flash. If needs be then get cheap Yongnuo triggers. Mine are faultless, the only downside being that you can't use ETTL.
 
@ phate

You'l probably want the RF-603's vs RF-602's if you go the Yongnuo route, personally I found the RF-602's to be rock solid reliable.
Personally though as I think Raymond has said before "Buy right, buy once" and I would get the Pocket wizard flex system if you can afford it, as ETTL will come in handy, as well as being able to remotely control manual or TTL power levels directly from the camera at the touch of a button (with AC3).
 
Cheers for all the input guys, decided on a 580EX II for now, might be able to afford new glass before the month end, if so pay packet can be put towards other stuff (ANOTHER lens? :eek:) - hmm we'll see!
 
add my 2p here
I have the flex Pw's and also had the 430ex which does not work well with the wizards (range wise) I could not get mine to fire anywhere past 30ft which was bitterly dissapointing so I sold it and got the 430ex2 which works like a champion with the wizards range is now 300-400ft which is far enough for my needs
the 580ex2 also has range issues so if you intend going the Pw route think very carefully about the flashguns you intend to use
the 550ex has no such range issues
but seen as you already have a 430ex and intend buying a 580EX2 I would not be buying the flex system stick with the cheap ebay triggers
 
Where do you see this going.

Option 1 - PWs with wireless ETTL and a single remote flash with extra receivers and flashes added over time

Option 2 - 580EX2 plus "ebay" triggers - gives you wireless ETTL with a 430EX slave. But the 580 has to be on camera. Or use the ebay triggers and get both flases off camera but lose ETTL.

My call - option 2 - you get single off camera flash (like option 1) with the option of a 2nd off camera flash if you want to go manual. You can always add the PWs later.
 
Well, as said it depends where it's going. My preference would be for semi-decent triggers I think, they're *really* handy in my experience even for a single flash (I occasionally need off camera fill flash shooting snowboarding and the like) and for remote shutter release too. That just suits my uses though, I'm not a wedding photographer.

I've just looked at triggers again as I have a small set of pocket wizards I use for digital but I wanted something cheap and cheerful to trigger off camera flash on my medium format gear (I've wanted to do it often enough I don't want to share triggers for both uses but not often enough I want to give several hundred pounds to pocket wizard again...).

I looked at RF-602s and then eventually settled on phottix strato units - really well reviewed and basically better made rf-602s with a few handy improvements to all intensive purposes (and £60 for a pair...)
 
For basic triggering, using pocket wizards just isn't essential any more (and hasn't been for a long time), there are plenty of cheaper/better alternatives these days.
Personally I'd sell the pocket wizards and buy a couple more strato's unless you plan on upgrading to the PW TTL system and want some additional basic triggering on some manual flashes, other than that there isn't any need to keep them, there bulky and expensive, and the money would be better served elsewhere.
 
I have the new Pocket Wizards that can do High speed syc and have a 430EXII which is enough for me as if I need more power in the flash I just up the ISO a notch and away you go. I say this as you also have a 5DMk2 so a little increase of ISO will be fine. ;)

Its funny as I came over from Nikon where I had 3 SB900's and pockets wizards and don't miss them one bit, for me one flash is enough :D
 
They're also rock solid reliable and tough as nails, the ebay ones are functional but cheap in every respect. I'll see what I think of the Strato's but to be honest it's only because I need an extra set for a specific project I got them, I'm tempted by new pocketwizards and the ac3 too but I'm in need of a new FX body and some glass more so it's a bit in future I think...
 
Willis said:
I have the new Pocket Wizards that can do High speed syc and have a 430EXII which is enough for me as if I need more power in the flash I just up the ISO a notch and away you go. I say this as you also have a 5DMk2 so a little increase of ISO will be fine. ;)

Its funny as I came over from Nikon where I had 3 SB900's and pockets wizards and don't miss them one bit, for me one flash is enough :D
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Well the issue of lack of power is more prominant outside when shooting wide open as HSS kills flash power, so it's more efficient to use ND filter.
 
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