Gimme one good reason not to buy PocketWizards

[peety3]

There are some workarounds; for example, selecting the highest frequency channel may help.

Just to be clear, selecting a different frequency/channel may help, BUT there are different strategies/opinions on what to do. I was just about to experiment with highest frequency (since the 433MHz CE units don't have problems) when I stumbled across a PocketWizard web page that suggested channels in the 345-347MHz range. I've stuck with my random experiment and had great results.

An RF-shielding soft fabric sleeve should be available from PocketWizard fairly soon, which is pulled over the flash unit, thereby blocking the interference; however, this is not a very satisfactory solution for an on-camera master flash.
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PocketWizard has been pretty clear that the interference problem is at the receiver, and isn't influenced by the presence of an on-camera flash. Anything's possible, but I suspect they're right: the transmitter's signal should overpower the flash's interference, but it's weaker at the receiver.

[HiFiGuy1]

Thanks, peety. BTW, I saw an inexpensive car keyfob looking remote system on eBay but haven't seen it lately. I remember it specifically stating that it offered this feature. Am I the oddball for thinking this should be standard on all RF solutions? This PW stuff is not cheap!


EDIT: I found this system on eBay, but it isn't what I had seen before. It does specifically mention Focus as one of the available release modes. I am guessing that it means a half-press, essentially.

[peety3]

Thanks, peety. BTW, I saw an inexpensive car keyfob looking remote system on eBay but haven't seen it lately. I remember it specifically stating that it offered this feature. Am I the oddball for thinking this should be standard on all RF solutions? This PW stuff is not cheap!
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Doing the shutter half-press probably involves a lot of state management logic that's beyond the mission of the cheaper RF solutions. To save battery life on the transmitter side, it's probably best to send a command that signals the receiver to half-press. However, you probably want to resend that code/bit with each subsequent command, so the receiver knows to continue the half-press. There could also be "rules" on the receiver end that say the half-press has to stop during/after the full-press (or not stop), etc., all of which is research and deployment that the cheaper folks prefer to skip.