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by Patrick Lenz.
Original Post: Elinchrom Skyport vs. PocketWizard
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Most studio photographers sooner or later invest in remote flash synchronization tools to avoid running cables across the place which make for excellent pitfalls, especially if you tend to move your flash units around a lot.
In this article, I’ll try to outline some of my personal findings between two conceptually different products for remote flash synchronization: The Elinchrom Skyport and the PocketWizard MultiMAX.
PocketWizard
I’ve had my PocketWizard setup for about a year now and there’s not much to complain, apart from the fact that the units don’t auto power-off and my forgetful self ends up with drained batteries over and over again.
The units themselves are pretty much foolproof. Picking channels, enabling/disabling certain units, everything’s just a press of a button away. Things get a little more complicated for doing flash delays and such, but I haven’t had to get my hands onto that all that much thus far.
There are cables for wiring up all sorts of flashes, ranging from on-camera flashes over compact studio flashes to expensive multi-head flash packs. I’ve been triggering both my Canon Speedlite 580EXs and my Elinchrom Style RX 300 studio heads with my PocketWizard MultiMAX.
The particular PocketWizard model I use is the MultiMAX. Opposed to the more traditional models like the Plus and the Plus II, this unit is able to act as both a receiver and a transmitter. With a set of 3 transceivers you’re free to have 1 transmitter and 2 receivers (2 flashes triggered by one camera) or 2 transmitters and 1 receiver (2 cameras triggering the same flash unit), for example.
PocketWizards enjoy all sorts of niceness in the form of third party integration. My flash meter (I’m using a Sekonic Dualmaster L-558), for example, has an optional PocketWizard trigger module. That way, you can enjoy the same wireless freedom when metering your flash setup that you’re using on the camera hotshoe without replugging or rewiring anything.
Additionally, there are trigger cables for triggering remote cameras with PocketWizard units, which, for example, James Duncan Davidson used at various conferences recently to pull off interesting angle shots like the one from Web 2.0 Expo.
Elinchrom Skyport
Elinchrom, Swiss manufacturer of both flash heads and a boatload of accessories, recently introduced its own set of remote flash trigger units: The Skyport. (No link here because of the Flash-only website.)
Why would one want the lock-in to a single manufacturer? Because they’re able to pull off tricks that third parties cannot. Using the USB connector for the Skyport system and the downloadable version of Elinchrom’s EL-Skyport software (available for both Mac and Windows) you’re able to remotely change any setting you like on your flash units (presuming they’re Elinchrom’s RX models). Previously, this feature was available in a wired-only fashion in combination with a totally overpriced USB converter switch-box that converted from USB to the flash heads’ sync connector.
Yes, the software is amazingly ugly. (At least on the Mac, where everything else is pretty except Firefox.) But hey, at least you can change watts and modelling lights wirelessly with a click of your mouse!
The Skyport software supports saving flash-head configurations in so-called “jobs” for easy retrieval when a certain shooting situation reoccurs (fashion, macro, etc.).
With the hotshoe mounted remote trigger you can then fire your flashes from your camera, just like you would with a PocketWizard setup. Pretty neat. Additionally, the Skyport units are much smaller than any of the PocketWizard units available.
In a tethered shooting setup (using Canon’s EOS Utility or the equivalent from Nikon) you can shoot different lighting configurations or depth of field series without ever leaving your PC or Mac.
Since transfer speeds with Canon’s then current wireless transmitter WFT-E1 were pretty much unusable (even using 802.11b networking) I tend to rely on FireWire and USB 2.0 connectivity between the camera and the computer. (Yes, with a cable!)
The new WFT-E2 in conjunction with the recently announced EOS 1D Mark III might change this, though.
Elinchrom even started to open the system up for third party flash connectivity. I cannot comment on this, though, since the set that I bought only contained the USB plug, a hotshoe transmitter, and two Elinchrom-only receivers.
One thing that hasn’t matured yet is integration with flash meters. Therefore you’re back to two-step metering (power up the flash meter, hit the button on the hotshoe remote) using the Skyport setup.
The hotshoe remote, as the PocketWizards, doesn’t have an auto power-off and is powered by a seemingly expensive coin cell. At least the receivers that go onto the flashes take their power directly from the heads.
Conclusion
Why would one want to own both the Elinchrom Skyport and the PocketWizard units? For total wireless freedom with maximized convenience. If you want to meter wirelessly in a single step and want to configure your flash heads remotely with ease (which sometimes is a must, when the controls of the head are buried deeply in a softbox like the Elinchrom Octa) you won’t get around triggering your flashes with PocketWizards and configuring them with the Skyport software.
In the field, the PocketWizard clearly wins. Firstly, the MultiMAX models support 32 channels, which means that triggering someone else’s flashes is much less likely than with the 4 channel Skyport. At least there’s some room for negotiation.
Also, the PocketWizards easily beat the Skyport for reach. You can easily trigger a PocketWizard from 2-3 floors up or down, through concrete walls and ceilings. The Skyports would give up after 1-2 floors.
Unless more versatile integration options are made available for the Skyports, I’m definitely going to use both systems in parallel.
PocketWizard
Pros: Much more universal, plugs into most cameras and flashes, flash meter integration
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