David Hobby has updated the Strobist blog with the latest new on the PocketWizard TTL entry. It looks like they’re making progress with the problems they’ve been having with some Canon flashes. It seems that some of the production runs of the Canon flashes are very noisy in radio terms. This noise has been very bad for the flashes with regard to reliability and distance of the PocketWizard Flex/Mini’s. I don’t believe it effects all Canon flashes but certainly some are hammered pretty bad.
There are solutions out there like a metal mesh sock around your flash to solve the problem but they all seem like ugly ways to solve the problem. 
I honestly don’t know if the problem is even PocketWizards to solve. You could make a good argument that Canon is the owner of the problem – it is their noise emitting device after all.
You’ll notice I didn’t mention how the PocketWizard works with Nikon. That’s because it still isn’t available for Nikon – maybe one day soon. With all this fuss though, I’m more happy than ever that I didn’t wait for PocketWizard and went with RadioPopper.
Below is my response to DH’s post on his blog.
There is no doubt, none – that PW is the gold standard in radio triggering for manual control and they will remain so.
That said, I think its okay for Radiopopper PX to be the new gold standard for radio controlled TTL (and manual control via Nikon Commander if you like – and I do). My RP PX’s are like my Apple computer, they just work. I’m not aware of a single failure to fire in two months of use.
I’m excited to be just a few couple weeks (June 8th) away from ordering my JrX’s to go with the PX system so I can add in my Alien Bees into the mix.
It looks to me like the PW guys responded to the RP guys with the mini/tt5 and maybe they jumped in a little too quickly. In the software world, where I live, I see this all the time. Its human nature not wanting to be beat to the finish.
As far as I know there has been no other failure to deliver by PW – I’m inclined to give them a break for a while to work things out.
I wish PocketWizard all the luck in the world to get them working well. There are a lot of people out there who would benefit from a solution as rock solid as their Plus II’s especially when they are able to seamlessly interact with the Mini and TT5s. Backward compatibility is hugely valuable.
Tom
Out of curiosity, how do you know that you’ll be able to order the JrX’s on the 8th? I haven’t seen anything on the RP site regarding the JrX’s for…months, I believe.
Hi Chris,
I emailed their support organization – info @ radiopopper.com and Rachael replied back with the following:
We have been diligently working to get our JrX systems released as soon as possible. We are on schedule to release the first week of June. Provided there are no delays with the final steps to begin production, we are planning to open the store with JrX on June 8th. We are almost there! Thank you for your patience with delays that are out of our hands and for your interest in our JrX system. We are excited and anxious to get it in your hands!
I hope they make this date. I actually followed up a few days later and asked if the date was still looking good and Rachael again said it looks good for the 8th.
I recommend you call or email and see if you get the same response!
Cheers,
Tom
Well, never mind. I emailed them today and they are now saying the 3rd week of June… ARRRGHH!!!! They better be worth the wait!