Pocket wizard or master flash?

[milky]

Im bit confused I am intrested in using more than one flash for a bit of studio work and bmx photography and I have read a little about you can use Pocket wizards to wirelessly fire you flash's that you have placed around the place. but do you have to have all your flashes attached to pocket wizards and one on your hot shoe?

I also read that you dont need to use any pocket wizars and just set your Sb900 0r 800 to master and add two / or other flashes to the master flash and then you take a picture the master flash ion the hot shoe will acted as a wireless trigger for the other 2 flashes will fire is this ture? and could you set the master flash to actuly fire aswell?


and finaly if both meathods are ture which ones do you use and why do you use them?

Milky

[PaulMontgomery]

Yup, the 800 and 900 (and certain pop up flashes) can act as masters to control remote units. I use this method and it works fine for me. I believe (though I've not tried it) that pocket wizards give you more range and are more reliable in bright sunlight (and work round corners). It all depends on what you want and what you're willing to spend.

[jinky]

Yes depends on what body you are using but my D80 and now D700 both trigger my sb600s and SB900s using the onboard flash. You can reduce the impact of the onboard flash in camera if it works like this and can even buy a blocker to stop it having any impact on shots at all (good for macro work). I`ve only used the Nikon CLS method (that`s the syetem name when using pop up or 800/900 as master). The advantage is that you can get TTL metering using this system whereas PWs are manual. They are supposed to be bringing out a TTL version later in the year but the other problem is that PWs are expensive. A cheaper alternative if you want to shoot with manual flash ore the Yongnou 602s i think which loads of strobists use and are really cheap and reliable. I will be getting a set of these soon I think.
For now I use the CLS method through Nikon flashes and always use my pop up. This works a treat indoors as the signal bounces around. The problem with it is outside where the signal can be lost and not trigger. Only happened to me once so far. You`ll read that you need line of sight to the sensors on the Nikon flashes (SB600, 800 and 900) but not always as simple as that as it can bounce off other stuff. I love having TTL using CLS but am thinking about getting the Yongnous later - probably around £70 for transmitter and 4 receivers so yo can see how much cheaper they are than PWs.

[milky]

thank you for your replies ive taken a bit of look at the Yongnous 602s on youtube and I think they look good and work well on the videos but where the hell do you buy themj from as there are none on ebay and I cant really find anywhere who sells them (well i cant find anyone lol) so would be nive to know where to get them as i would love to do more flash photography

milky