Hands-On With The New Pocket Wizard Plus II

When PDN last looked at the Pocket Wizard remote triggering system (May, 2005) there were only two units to choose from, the standard Pocket Wizard Plus and the more expensive Pocket Wizard MultiMAX.

All Pocket Wizard devices are designed to allow the photographer to trigger either remote lights or remote camera setups via a radio frequency signal, and to this end they're extremely functional. In our original testing we managed to trigger devices with very little failure rate over distances of a few hundred feet.

The difference between the two models boils down to features, the Plus came as a set of transmitter and receiver and each was dedicated to a single function. One transmitter could trigger any number of receivers but it couldn't be used as a receiver and vice versa. The more expensive MultiMAX functioned as a transceiver, able to switch on the fly between sending and receiving modes among its other additional features. It was the ability to switch functions that caused many photographers to purchase the more expensive unit even if they didn't need the additional bells and whistles. A multi-unit setup could get very expensive though, providing a barrier to entry for many shooters.

The new Pocket Wizard Plus II aims to simplify Pocket Wizard use and lower the cost of using the system by adding transceiver functionality to the original Plus body. As a result it's possible to simply plug a Plus II device into a camera or strobe and the unit will auto-sense if it should be in receive mode or send mode. This makes the system extremely more functional as there's no need to purchase exactly the right number of transmitters or receivers for a job, allowing a photographer to just bring a bundle of the devices and plug them in.

In The Field

To test the new Pocket Wizard Plus II we brought several units and accessory cords (as well as an original Plus model) to a wedding shoot. Our setup involved a two-bank lighting arrangement on either side of the dais, a remote camera behind the bride and groom, and a tethered flash on the camera.
Connections were simple to make, especially since our test DynaLite pack includes a built in PocketWizard receiver that auto-syncs to the correct wireless frequency when powered on.

We tethered a Pocket Wizard Plus unit to a Canon EOS 5D via a camera motor drive cable, and connected another Plus model to a EOS 1Ds Mark II via PC cable interface. Setup took under thirty seconds, and we were able to remotely trigger the 5D simply by triggering the 1Ds. Often in wedding photography it's difficult to capture the faces of the bridge and groom during a ceremony as they stand and for the most part face away from the audience and the photographer. Our remote setup allowed us to capture their faces during the service without causing any interruptions.

Our initial setup didn't function correctly, the remote camera would trigger as would the strobes but there was enough of a delay that the strobe wouldn't fire in sync with the remote camera. We solved this problem by re-reading the manual and using the Relay Mode, where the primary camera triggers the secondary unit and that unit in turn triggers the strobe, all fast enough for the lights to sync.

Range of Motion

We were able to trigger the setup anywhere from within the first floor of the church, though when we mounted the Pocket Wizard to a camera bracket via Velcro, we found that in some positions the lights would not trigger. It turned out that the metal arm of the strobe bracket was blocking the signal from the Pocket Wizard antenna when it was placed parallel to the bracket. Turning the unit to the antenna was facing away from the mounting arm solved the issue.

We had no problems with the system during a full day of shooting, even when moving from our internal lighting setup to an external setting for family portraits. The flexibility of the Pocket Wizard system is impressive, it allowed us to leave one lighting setup in the main ceremony hall and a second in the reception room without needing a single cable to trigger the lights. This enables a photographer to use a mixed selection of packs and monolights without having to PC cable the whole group together, and is especially flexible when the lighting gear has Pocket Wizard receivers built in.

Our only complaint about the system is its size. In an age where everything from cameras to iPods get smaller with each revision, the Pocket Wizard system still retains its large form factor. We'd like to see a Pocket Wizard that's much more compact and still able to perform the same. Oherwise it's a fantastic system.

The Pocket Wizard Plus II costs just a bit more than a single Pocket Wizard Plus receiver, with the street price of the Plus II being about $185 and the Plus $175. Two Plus II units however come out to right around the $370 street price of the original Plus bundle of one transmitter and one receiver.

With that in mind, it's our recommendation that photographers skip the Plus model, even though it's still available, and purchase either a Plus II or a MultiMAX, depending on their needs.

The new Pocket Wizard Plus II makes the system much more flexible without adding anything to the price, a combination we like a lot.