Tech Tuesdays - Pocket Wizard Cables

I've already written about Pocket Wizards once before. They are the wonderful little devices that let you trigger flashes and cameras remotely, allowing you to work wirelessy without a bunch of cords or cables. Or do they?

Although the name might suggest otherwise, Pocket Wizards are not magic. They still have to be physically connected to the flash in some way. The one that hooks to your camera has it easy. It just slips into your hotshoe and is good to go. But what about the one that connects to your flash? How exactly does that work?

When I first got my set of Pocket Wizards, I wondered that exact same thing. It turns out that all flashes are not created equally. They all have some port on the back that you can hook an external trigger up to (i.e. a Pocket Wizard), but the port type and size will vary depending on the brand of flash you're using.

In the studio I use White Lightnings. These use a 1/4" plug. The Pocket Wizards use a 1/8" plug. At the time I did not know this, so I bought a cable that's made by Pocket Wizard that specified it was compatible with White Lightning flashes. Perfect! It worked just fine. The only downside was the cost. At around $25, they're not cheap.

I wondered why I couldn't just go to Radio Shack and buy the same cable. It looked simple enough. So I did a quick search online and figured out that it was the same thing. Just go to Radio Shack, buy a 1/4" to 1/8" mono plug and you're good to go. I did just that, they work just fine and I saved myself about $20 per cable.

I felt like I was set as far as cables go... that is until I bought myself an Alien Bees strobe for use outside of the studio. You'd think that since both White Lightning and Alien Bees are made by the same guy (Paul C. Buff), they'd use the same size plug on the back. Nope! The Alien Bees use a 1/8" plug. Off I went to Radio Shack, full of confidence in what I needed. I left with a 1/8" to 1/8" mono plug that cost under $5. I was ready to shoot!

I got everything set up, tested the flash and got nothing. I checked my connections, made sure the Pocket Wizards were on the same channel, tested it again and got nothing. I changed the batteries and got nothing. I tried every channel, made sure the connections were good, switched the cable around, tried just about everything I could think of and still got nothing. I knew the flash worked because when I hit the dump button it went off. What the @#$&?!?

Back to Google I ran, looking for comfort and hoping that the jack on my flash wasn't defective. I found plenty of instances where people mentioned using Pocket Wizards and Alien Bees together, so I knew that wasn't the problem. I knew I had the right size of cable and I knew that it was mono, which is important. Finally, I ran across a post in a forum that mentioned the cable had to be non-attenuated. I ran out, checked my packaging and found that I had purchased an attenuated cable! I must have gotten lucky with my first Radio Shack cables (the 1/8"-1/4"), as they are non-attenuated. So, back to the Shack I went.

I got home, plugged in the new cable, and what do you know? It worked exactly the way it was supposed to work! What a relief! I could have saved myself a little headache and panic by spending an extra $20 on the cable, but why would I want to do that?

So, here's a quick summary of what you need to know if you don't want to pay a lot for your Pocket Wizard cables:
1) Find out what type of plug your flash takes. All Pocket Wizards take a 1/8" mono plug, so one side of your cable will have to be that. The other side should match your flash.
2) Buy a mono cable. Stereo cables won't work.
3) Make sure the cable is non-attenuated. Attenuated cables do not work (and in my case the non-attenuated cable was $1 cheaper).

That's it! For any flash that takes these standard plugs, Radio Shack cables should work just fine. I'm sure there are some flashes out there that take a more exotic type of plug that you just can't get at Radio Shack or that won't work with anything besides a Pocket Wizard cable, but I can't say what those are. Good luck if you've got something like that.