PocketWizard Plu II and D700

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Jan Solo

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I have an intermittent problem. I have purchased the PW's and when attached to the hotshoe of the D700, and the other to the SB900, every so often, the bottom half of a frame is blacked out and the top half is fine - anyone else had this issue?? Is there a fix??
 
You're going past your max sync speed. 1/250th... maybe 1/320 on the D700?
 
Sounds like your shutter speed is too fast and the curtains aren't fully open when they should be. Are you shooting manual at 1/250 sec??

FWIW I didn't think the PW's were Nikon compatible yet.
 
To explain - Beyond this speed, only a fraction of your senser is 'seeing' the light from the flash, because the second curtain is beginning to close before the first curtain has fully opened.
 
Jan Solo said:
I have been shooting @ 1/200. It only occurs sometimes - every 6 shots or so.
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Hmmm... I'm rattling my brain:thinking:, but if you're sure you're not passing the max sync speed, then I'm flummoxed. :shrug:
 
Jan Solo said:
It is a weird one. Thanks for all the replies.
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Check your actual shutter speeds on the EXIF data. From the description it can only be x-sync speed running too high :thinking:
 
Not shooting in succession, on self timer with 20 second delay, plus time it takes for me to look at each image and walk back.

The EXIF confirms it. They are on my Flickr (link in sig, first few images)
 
Cracking shots. Can you post up an example of the problem pics?
 
Flat batteries will slow down the PW's processor?
 
I've experienced a similar issue, but with poverty wizards off ebay triggering a SB900. D700 set to manual, shutter speed 1/200, single frame shots fired with remote radio trigger.. Very occasionally, the bottom part of the frame is black or the frame is completely black even though frames either side may be okay.
 
Oli R C said:
Cracking shots. Can you post up an example of the problem pics?
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I haven't. I'm shooting again tonight so I am bound to have some to post.

Hoppy - they are new batteries that come with, but it is anyones guess as to how long they were in the box for.
 
Jan Solo said:
I haven't. I'm shooting again tonight so I am bound to have some to post.

Hoppy - they are new batteries that come with, but it is anyones guess as to how long they were in the box for.
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Just working through the various possibilities, some of which you've eliminated, it's got to be the batteries. It's not uncommon with radio triggers.

Assuming there is not a fault with either the camera or the Pocket Wizard...
 
Here is an example:

halfimage.jpg
 
Jan Solo said:
Here is an example:
Click to expand...

Well that's a strange one. Presumably the scene is not so dark that if there was no flash in the equation, there would be no detail captured whatsoever...?

I just think it's strange that the dark area is completely black, bar some spill from the bright areas just above the dark area.

My experience with batteries running down in my PocketWizards is that they just stop working. Turn them off for a little while, and I'll get a few more shots from them, but I've had nothing like this.

As for the max sync speed theory, this image isn't consistent with that either (in my experience).
 
HoppyUK said:
Just working through the various possibilities, some of which you've eliminated, it's got to be the batteries. It's not uncommon with radio triggers.

Assuming there is not a fault with either the camera or the Pocket Wizard...
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that's battery-related, however PW IIs (and most other radio triggers) don't like rechargeable batteries, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try a set of decent regular ones.
 
Jan Solo said:
Here is an example:
Click to expand...

Ah right. That is not "the bottom half of the frame" as I was expecting to see it - it's not a clean line across. Very hard to tell what's going on from that but I've got a few similar pictures when the camera strap gets in the way by mistake!

Could it be as simple as that? Something in front of the lens? Post some more pics and it should be easy enough to tell.
 
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