Other than size and cost is there any operational advantage for using a mini w/ SU 800 vs TT5 w/ SU 800 on camera?

The speedlights will all have TT5 units.

Thanks

Mike in Alaska

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The MiniTT1 is just a transmitter and has to reside on the camera and acts as the master control unit only. It can not be used as a remote controller.

The FlexTT5 is a transceiver unit. That is, it has both a transmitter and receiver within the unit. It can be used both as the on camera master and a remote controller. It can be used with the MiniTT1, MultiMax, Plus II, and the Plus III Pocket Wizard devices. It can also relay the PW control signals to more distant remote FlexTT5 units.

George
My Nikonian Galleries

Thanks George,
That's pretty much what I came up with in my research. So now I just need to figure out if how to set up a TT5 / SU 800 combo on a D700 with a remote trigger.

Mike in Alaska

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You will need to put one FlexTT5 on the camera and the SU-800 on that FlexTT5. Then you need to put another FlexTT5 on each remote Speeddlight.

All Speedlights are set to TTL.

You can use the MultiMax, Plus II, or Plus III as a trigger for the camera using the 10 pin accessory or to the remote release socket on the camera mounted FlexTT5.

You might even be able to use any RF Remote with the right plug.

George
My Nikonian Galleries

Is there any benefit to the SU800 vs the AC3 zone controller?

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Hi Mark,

You can use the SU-800 to control remote Speedlights directly (without the PW MiniTT1 and FlexTT5) via Nikon CLS IR wireless flash control. Other than that, No.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

>Hi Mark,
>
>You can use the SU-800 to control remote Speedlights directly
>(without the PW MiniTT1 and FlexTT5) via Nikon CLS IR wireless
>flash control. Other than that, No.
>Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Thanks Marty – I know that, but I see some folks using the SU on a TT1 or TT5. I was wondering benefit would be? I use the AC3 and have a SU800, but never stopped long enough to see if there was any benefit to using the SU. The AC3 on a TT1 is a much smaller and a lot easier to adjust.

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Hi Mark,


>I was wondering benefit would be?

Bottom line: None that I have found.

> The AC3 on a TT1 is a much smaller and a lot easier to adjust.

Yep!
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

The MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 use RF, Radio frequency, and are not subject to bright light blindness, solid objects, do not require line of sight, and provide more communication channels so there is less of a chance of interfering with others in a large group of photographers. They are subject to RF interference from other radio sources.

Pocket Wizard also allows the mixing of Nikon Speedlights and Canon Speedlites with their CTTL system.

Since the remote power is set in fractions of full power for the specific remote there are a a limited number of settings available. Because there could be a different algorithm for computing exposure, there could be slight differences in exposure. It do not think you would see them. It might be possible to see the power settings for remotes with more advanced EXIF Viewers. I know Nikon Speedlights record the master/commander and each remote group mode and power setting but I do not know if Pocket Wizard records this data. And this would be where one might see the difference. I would think the difference would be in the fractional step used to set the power levels of the remotes.

George
My Nikonian Galleries

Hi George - I'm aware of all the benefits with the radio over the IR. I did find one difference tonight. The AC3 will only go down to 1/64. The SU800 will go down to 1/128 in manual mode.

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