MiniTT1 Transceiver for Canon Camera

I've used radiopoppers and the FlexTT5 so will give a comparison since both are the only game in town and competitors.I started with radiopoppers a while back and was suprised by lack of full compatibility with canon flashes. All canon flash features are not supported and it's not documented on their web site (ie FEL). Range for me was only about 80ft outdoors as well which is suprising. Build qualitiy is poor but the scheme they have to attach the radiopopper to the flash is slick. The tranmitter still needs velcro but I can live with that.After being dissapointed with radiopopper compatibility I decided to give the FlexTT5's a try (I use for transmitter as well) as I was lured by the extra light output at high shutter speeds compared to a stock canon with their wireless ETTL. The FlexTT5 does have a range issue with 580exII/others as well described elsewhere (50ft outdoors for me), but the AC5 sock resolves range if necessary. Indoors I found the range to be similar to radiopoppers. If there is a lot of concrete I can get both to misfire. I found Radiopopper's weakness to be with camera in portrait / antenna horizontal. With TT5 you just need to rotate the antenna or leave 45degrees. If I put the AC5 on the flexTT5 I do not get misfires in the same scenario (around concrete). For my units, pocketwizard had greater range with the AC5 compared to radiopoppers and less range without (but useable for me).What I think is amazing is how well the hypersync/HSS mode work and light efficiency gained. I believe I am getting close to two stops improvement at high shutter speeds. I only eyeballed but its definatley greater than 1 stop. This means a single 580ex in HSS mode (ie 1/1000 or 1/4000) with a flexTT5 is putting out as much light as 2 to 4 580ex's with the optical or radiopopper triggers! That is amazing and I am suprised this is not highlighted as the main reason to get these. This is a game changer for those that use their strobes outdoors as speedlites today are underpowered when in sun.I do have some problems with the 550ex that I'm working through (blown exposures in certain situations like bounce flash filling a large room and light fall off at high shutter speeds). Resolution for me is to use 580exII's for bouncing and 550EX's for direct flash and just crank in the FEC or ratios as needed to get the necessary ratio. With 580ex the only issue I've encountered has been the range issue, and all functionality appears to be completely in sync with canon's wireless ETTL (as far as I can tell). Reliablity when in range is excellent and ETTL is working as expected.I dropped one of my flexTT5's with a 580ex and broke the top shoe. I know some people complain about a plastic foot but it worked as desiged. It broke off and my flash was fine. I called pocketwizard and the sent me a replacement shoe to fix myself at a very reasonable cost. This is excellent service and it saved the more expensive flash (and who an argue with user replaceable parts!). Sending in for repair is always an option but I prefer the DIY approach in this case. That said, the build quality is excellent and much better than radiopoppers. The plastic is solid and has no give. The antenna is rubber and folds down. The battery doors is very solid with a nice latch.If you have a 580exII and can deal with the range issues I think you'll be very pleased. If you have a 550ex I think you'll struggle a bit with some compatibilty issues as described above (which are being worked on by pocketwizad for a firmware fix if they resolve). I don't have experience with other flash compatibility. Radiopoppers are certainly good, but if you want to get more light output at higher shutter speeds then the pocketwizards are the only option (other than buying more flashes). Pocketwizard is also coming out with the AC3 zone controller which is very slick...

The reviews from 2009 or so are definitely from people who were understandably disappointed that these expensive devices barely worked with Canon's newest flashes like the 580EX. Even with the latest firmware (6.0), the RF sock/sweater that is included to work around the problem is still absolutely necessary on these flashes to get any reliability beyond 30 feet when using the small MiniTT1 transmitter. Unfortunately the sock also blocks any IR signal so you can't program the flashes remotely. The sock also covers the controls making it more difficult to adjust the flashes when they are mounted in inconvenient places like from roof rafters. The sock is a desperate solution but it does work.Once you have the sock on, reliable distance extends well beyond 150 feet, as far as my less noisy 550EX. This is no longer an issue in my experience and in my opinion you can disregard the many complaints about distance now.The "documentation" consists of videos, a "Quick Guide", some firmware notes and a clumsy Wiki on their web site. It refers to step-by-step instructions that I've never been able to find. In high pressure shooting situations you need a quick reference guide, not a 10 minute tutorial video teaching you how flashes work.The poor documentation has led to misunderstandings about Hypersync. How it works depends greatly on the type of flash you're using. With a fast strobe like a Speedlite, it will allow you to sync a TINY bit faster than regular sync. For example with my 1D Mark IV I can get the flash to sync with just a small black band at the bottom of the frame at 1/500. This is a great feature for when I'm using it for fill flash since my subject will almost always be outside of the clipped area so the ambient light completely fills it in. Any faster shutter speed will give me a larger clipped area but it still may be usable in some situations.That's all that Hypersync can offer for fast flashes but it's much more useful for slower studio flashes that will put out light for longer periods. Syncing up to 1/1000 is possible with some larger flashes. Unfortunately the documentation doesn't make this clear enough for some users. You can use the utility to set the FlexTT5 to use Hypersync for all shutter speeds to see its effect for whatever flash you're using.Some people are claiming to be using Hypersync with their hot shoe Speedlites up to 1/8000. They don't realize that for these fast flashes the FlexTT5 is falling back to the pulsing HSS mode at these shutter speeds. The shutter speed that activates this is adjustable. The utility lets you set the lowest shutter speed that you want the FlexTT5 to stop using HyperSync and start using HSS i.e. when you feel the black band in HyperSync is too large to make useful photos.The FlexTT5 does improve the performance of HSS by reducing the number of times the flash pulses during a shot. You can test this by measuring the recycle times after an HSS flash with the FlexTT5 and with a cord. While the exposures will look identical, the flash will recycle more quickly with the FlexTT5 (especially at fast shutter speeds) showing that the flash used less power. It's surprising that Canon flashes (and Nikon's too apparently) are wasting this much power in HSS mode for no reason but clearly that's what's happening.Some people claim they get a stop or two more power from their flash in HSS mode. I haven't seen this and can't confirm it. I may not be using the HSS system at its limits.I've found it's very important to hit the TEST button after setting everything up. Sometimes the sync will be wildly off -- even shots at 1/20 will have a black band in them. I hit the TEST button and everything's back in sync. Always take test shots before you start taking important shots and don't hesitate to hit the TEST button if the sync isn't working.It would be great if the Flex system allowed you to adjust the Canon flash settings from the camera menu like you can when the flash is mounted on the hot shoe but that's not implemented (the camera says it doesn't see a Canon flash in the hot shoe). To change the power when a flash is in manual mode, you have to go to the flash (where ever it's mounted) pull up the RF sock, punch in the change, put the sock back on, then go down and test the change. Very tedious and time-consuming. Radio Poppers support adjusting manual power levels remotely.Naturally you aren't allowed to use a flash on a FlexTT5 as a master to send Canon's IR signals to slave flashes either. The flash won't work in Master mode so plan on buying a FlexTT5 for every flash you intend to use.Some people are complaining about the expensive button batteries in the MiniTT1. Buy them in bulk. I bought six for $11. I have found them locally for $10 EACH! Quite a savings.

Works but need to apply software updates once in awhile. Cheaper than the newer version but works smoothly.

I love this item and have used it loads more than I thought I would. It's very reliable and only skips a shot when the batteries are low.I just need to remember to switch it off after each use!

I needed a good and reliable transmitter and receiver to shoot the evening part of the wedding with off camera flash. I had a pair of cheep Chinese ones but they used to misfire a lot so could not really rely on them. I was extremely happy with both PocketWizard Trasceiver and the transmitter. I would highly recommend it to anyone who needs to use off camera flash, especially for the wedding or any other important event photography.

Ne ho diversi TT5. Mi trovo molto comodo avinando i miei 430ex a questi transceivers.Offrono tutte le funzione evolute in modo affidabile.fp,ettl, ec, ecc.Pocketwizard offre una basta gama di accessori per i TT5 e grazie al software dedicato ( gratuito) sono molto facili da impostare.Ne ho provato altri prodotti ma mancavano funzioni o affidabilità.TT5 offre tutto quel che serve.

Alles in Allem, ein durchdachtes System.Was mir fehlt, ist eine ausführliche Anleitung.Aber hier spart man in letzter Zeit ZU oft.Dank youtube w bleiben aber keine Fragen offen.