PocketWizard Plus II Review

---

Quick Navigation:
Verdict
Sample Pictures

December 6, 2009

The PocketWizard Plus II is a transmitter/receiver, flash/camera triggering unit. Two units are required for this to work whether you want to trigger a camera or a flash remotely. The unit has four 16-bit digitally coded channels. The PocketWizard has been the industry standard in wireless remote flash operation for almost two decades. Over the last few years several companies have popped up to challenge this. With their new products it will be anyone's guess if PocketWizard will remain on top.

Specifications

Positives

• Range. the PocketWizard Plus II has an impressive range of 1600' (488 m)
• Reliability, for action type photographers the PocketWizard's have been more or less a standard since the 1990's.
• Comes with batteries.
• Long battery life (about 60 hours of use)
• Capable of triggering lights or cameras at a sustained rate of up to 12 fps
• Compatible with earlier versions of PocketWizard transmitters and receivers
• Flexible antenna.

Drawbacks

• Build quality feels poor at best. (don't drop your camera with the unit connected to the hot shoe , this will result in a PocketWizard jigsaw puzzle)
• Manual flash, for reliable shots the flash should be in manual mode, and a light meter should be used.

Verdict

The big plus of the PocketWizard's over the Nikon CLS equipment is that there is almost zero lag(1/2000th of a second) from you press the shutter to the flash triggers. The downside is that setting up everything takes a bit longer as everything is in good old manual mode. Another major plus is that the units don't need to "see" each other to trigger. Nikon's CLS equipment rely on Infrared communication, which is part of the problem with the Nikon wireless system. The build quality of the product is on the low side, and this is something that should be better!
PocketWizard radio systems utilize different frequencies in different markets to meet performance and regulatory requirements. What this means is that if you have an European Sekonic with a PocketWizard unit, you must use PocketWizard's that are made for the European market, or it won't work. The same thing applies if you get a pair of PocketWizard units from the US and you already have EU units from before. If you don't have any units from before this will not be a problem as long as you make sure you get the same type of equipment. The PocketWizard units works with pretty much every flash and camera unit on the market today. If you are a serious action photographer the PocketWizard's are a must have.

Features
Performance
Build
Value

PocketWizard Plus II $169.00 USD

Alternatives

Purchasing items through these links helps me adding more content to this website. The links takes you to B&H's website, which is my recommended store to get equipment from. I've used B&H personally since 2005, and I get all my equipment from them these days(including the equipment used for these reviews). Thanks for your support, Fredrik.

Impact PowerSync10 DC Radio Slave System Price: $139.98 USD

Bowens Pulsar Radio Slave 2 Tranceiver Kit Price: $239.95 USD

MiniTT1 Radio Slave Transmitter for Nikon i-TTL Price: $199.00 USD

FlexTT5 Transceiver Radio Slave for Nikon i-TTL Flash Price: $219.00USD

PocketWizard MultiMax 32 Channel Transceiver Radio Slave Price: $295.00 USD

*Prices and rebates are subject to change. Listed price is from December 6, 2009

Sample Pictures

Check out my copyright page for information about usage of these images.