User Experience of PW MiniTT1 FlexTT5 AC3 Zone controller and 430exii's

An Exception · 25 Feb 2011 at 15:34

All tests done on Canon 550D

With the AC3 attached, the camera kind of looks like a photographers version of Jenga...

First up: Sync speed:
Standard 550D sync speed = 1/200
Maximum 'clean' sync with PW's = 1/320 2/3 Stop increase over camera spec.
Maximum usable sync with PW's = 1/400 1 Stop increase over camera spec.

The slight shadow at the bottom of the frame won't be an issue at all, if your in bright sun and your trying to shut out the ambient.

Below @ 1/320

Below @ 1/400

Note:
Only received 1 430exii in post so far, should have 2nd on monday and a 3rd next week sometime.

Edit:
Incase your wondering why I'm using 430's and not 580's, it's because TT5's suffer serious range issues with 580's and original 430ex, but more concerning for me was that 580exii's have a nasty habit of giving up the ghost pretty quickly when attached to TT5 units, sometimes in under a dozen pops.

An Exception · 25 Feb 2011 at 15:37

Reserved

Rojin · 25 Feb 2011 at 16:09

Isn't the black bar at the bottom the shutter curtain though, so it will be present no matter what light conditions you have?

An Exception · 25 Feb 2011 at 16:30

Rojin said:
Isn't the black bar at the bottom the shutter curtain though, so it will be present no matter what light conditions you have?

Ignoring the obvious solution of cropping, you don't get a black bar if your in a situation where your upping the shutter speed to keep bright ambient from over exposing i.e. bright mid day sun.
Technically though there will still be slightly less flash exposure, but it won't be detectable, especially considering how there's hardly any shadow anyway at 1/400.

The only reason you could see the shadow in my example, is because without the flash, the room would be pitch black as ambient exposure was soo low.

You might want to check out this link, in the video David Ziser explains the concept of cheating your sync speed.

Edit:

Note
He's using examples where the censor would actually show a fairly thick black bar and some feathered falloff, at 1/400 with these PW's I'm only getting a bit of feathered fall off without the black bar, so I could actually push for higher shutter speeds if 'needed', but won't because I'v set my flashes to automatically go into HSS at 1/500 and above, but it means at 1/400 I shouldn't have visible falloff.

Rojin · 25 Feb 2011 at 17:07

Interesting, I like the whole turn the camera upside down use as well. Very creative.

An Exception · 25 Feb 2011 at 17:27

^^^
What may be even more interesting with these PW's (have to test it), is being able to get ALL manual flashes with 'optical slave' like YN-560's to correctly expose without back bars @ shutter speeds of up to 1/8000 (550D only goes to 4000) in any lighting scenarios, just as if they supported HSS...

Could be a cheap way of achieving plenty of power with extremely high shutter speeds.

An Exception · 25 Feb 2011 at 23:16

If your using High Speed Sync and are struggling for power, you can always call on your cheap old manual flashes.

Below image was captured @ 1/800 with a Yongnuo YN-460ii, and triggered strait off a TT5, (no need for optical trigger)

Note:
The PW's must be doing something strange here with the timing, as with using a Canon flash, and a manual flashes inbuilt optical trigger, I can easily get 1/4000, or maybe that was just my YN-560 that could do that, oh well can't test as I'v sold it.