Pocketwizard/Fusion Raven

[Anton Largiader]

I'm thinking of getting this. Anyone use one? I don't see ANY for sale used, so either no one is buying them or the buyers love them so much they all keep them. I don't think a lot of people are buying them, but those that have aren't selling.

It is a flash controller for PW triggers, Paul C Buff, Godox, and Profoto. Compatible flashes can be adjusted. Nothing groundbreaking yet, other than the multiple brands. But what interests me is that with ControlTL PW triggers (TT5 and TT6, basically) you can Hypersync aka Hi-sync longer duration studio flashes of any brand. The Raven will graph the output and help you adjust your flash timing so that your faster-than-x-sync exposure happens in the fat part of the flash curve. Other brands can do this but with their own strobes only. With the Raven, I can do this with the strobes I have and in the future possibly without even needing external triggers (if I buy compatible strobes).

Down sides:
- it's more expensive than the Westcott FJ-X3r, Godox XProC, Canon ST-E3-RT, and similar brand-specific products.
- it's bulkier. Smaller than a speedlight, but bigger than the above. Sort of like a 270EX, I guess. Comparison at the top of -> this page. <-

I'd need to use TT5 or TT6 as triggers, but they are pretty inexpensive - $35-ish - on the used market. I could use my existing TT5 with it as a test just for the $6 firmware upgrade charge, and if I don't like it I return the Raven and downgrade the TT5.

 

[Sincity]

I also saw that it is on a Christmas sale until the end of the month.. What interests me is the Speedcycler feature where you can pop flashes faster than normal at the subject. Yes, they had it on the Multimax but that remote is gone and discontinued. The Hypersync graphing and adjustment is great, but I have Elinchrom strobes and they are not supported (YET...) But then, I also have very fast strobes on elinchrom, so I can get away with a fast duration strobe over a slow strobe and HSS..

Another wrinkle in me pulling the lever and finally getting the Raven is that Pocket Wizard has announced a new remote.

LINK ~~


https://pocketwizard.com/products-radios-plus-ve/

 

[Anton Largiader]

For HS purposes at least, I don't think that would replace a Raven. The Plus Ve looks like PW's answer to the FJ-X3r/XProC/ST-E3-RT kind of product: a smart transceiver on steroids to do all of the multizone control. I don't see the advantage of putting all of that interface stuff on a receiver, but the price isn't that high so why not. In fact, since it's cheaper than the TT-6 is retail, it is basically the new receiver to use with the Raven if you want to use ControlTL functions. Better overall, as it is a transceiver whereas the TT-5/6 are receiver -only once you upgrade the firmware to e-release.

But if you have supported strobes, then yeah, no need for the Raven because one Plus Ve can do all of the control you need.

 

[Anton Largiader]

"Orders are shipped on Mondays. ... Please note that we observe most US Holidays and our offices are closed on weekends. If you place an order when our offices are closed, your order will be shipped the Monday after the observed holiday or weekend."

Jeebus, who operates like that any more? I guess we know. Monday is New Year's Day; does that mean they won't ship until the following Monday? I'm going to see if Fusion can ship it faster (if they are actually a separate company).

EDIT: "Estimated Delivery 2-18 Business Days". For whom is that kind of estimate useful?

 

[ImageMaker]

EDIT: "Estimated Delivery 2-18 Business Days". For whom is that kind of estimate useful?

Just about everyone

 

[Anton Largiader]

In fact, since it's cheaper than the TT-6 is retail, it is basically the new receiver to use with the Raven if you want to use ControlTL functions.

Looks like I was wrong; upon further reading it is not at all clear that the Plus Ve is ControlTL. It's probably too inexpensive to be.

Just about everyone

Not for me. There's nothing there that gives me any specific expectation other than "we will ship it and it should arrive." But PW told me this morning they will ship in the next day or so. The "only on non-holiday Mondays" thing is kind of worst case. So I should have it pretty soon, in fact.

In the meantime, just in case some of the terms I was using aren't familiar to everyone, here's a quick primer on Pocketwizards and their lingo. There's no way I have everything exactly right so feel free to correct me.

TL;DR: all radios have to run the old (Legacy) firmware, or all have to run the newer (E-release) firmware. Some PW products use basic trigger mode, and some have enhanced abilities with ControlTL.

PW made radio triggers way back, 1990-ish. They were pretty much the gold standard and their traditional triggers (manual flash using the center pin) are still everywhere. They have been updated over the years but we still have the "Plus whatever" series. Plus IIs were ubiquitous ten+ years ago. Plus III added zones. Plus IV added way more channels. Plus X was a return to a simpler unit with only one settable zone. The Multimax (and then Multimax II) was a multi-zone controller for these. All of these operated with manual flash, center pin triggering, X-sync. PW calls this Basic Trigger Mode.

PW introduced the TT1 trigger and TT5 transceiver some time in the late 2000s, and these talked to the camera over the Canon-specific or Nikon-specific contacts in the hot shoe to get more information. They spoke what PW called ControlTL, and could do remote E-TTL flash control, 2nd curtain sync, and HSS as if the flash were in the hotshoe. They could also adjust levels on compatible speedlights and strobes. However, they had a few other features also, which were sometimes confusingly lumped together under the term Hypersync.
- One was tweaking the flash timing to shoot in X-sync faster than the camera's internal X-sync limit. On my T2i, for instance, I could sync up to 1/400 second with only a hint of banding top and bottom.
- One was using a single long flash discharge like HSS, opening and closing the shutter while the flash was still glowing.
- There were two versions of that actually, with timings optimized for longer or slower shutter speeds.
Canon updated the TT5 to the TT6 for compatibility with the 1DXii and the 5Div.

A lot of people had problems with the TT1/TT5 (mostly with the 580EXII) and it hurt PW pretty badly, especially since off-brands were launching their own proprietary triggering systems. They laid a bunch of people off in 2014, then rose from the ashes and developed a new firmware called E-release which operated the radios at a different frequency and did other tweaks to improve reliability. Unfortunately not all products are compatible and what they call "Legacy firmware" radios and E-release radios can't talk to each other. The Plus II, Plus X, TT1, and Multimax can't run it. Some Plus IIIs don't have USB ports for updating. The TT5 and TT6 can, but only as receivers. The later Plus III and Plus IV can. If you want the more reliable radio, you need to have all E-release radios.

Meanwhile, Canon introduced their mirrorless bodies and broke ControlTL. The TT1/5/6 did not work as a ControlTL trigger on the mirrorless bodies (but Basic Trigger Mode still works, if you have a center pin).

Then PW and Fusion TLC released the Raven, only runs E-release, works with mirrorless, and does all of the old ControlTL functions and more. Needs E-release receivers, so upgraded TT5/TT6 for ControlTL, and upgraded Plus III or Plus IV for Basic Trigger Mode but I don't know why anyone would buy the Raven to do that. Sounds like overkill to me. Maybe for the multi-flash feature.

And now they are launching the Plus Ve, which looks more like a Multimax replacement. E-release, Basic Trigger Mode I think.

 

[ImageMaker]

How’s it going?

 

[Anton Largiader]

I won't have anything to report regarding the Raven until it arrives. I'm not convinced it's the most awesome answer for me, but it would give me flexibility going forward to use VV strobes in HS and also directly control Einsteins, which are another good solution for stopping motion. I wish there was an Einstein with integrated battery, though.

 

[ImageMaker]

I won't have anything to report regarding the Raven until it arrives. I'm not convinced it's the most awesome answer for me, but it would give me flexibility going forward to use VV strobes in HS and also directly control Einsteins, which are another good solution for stopping motion. I wish there was an Einstein with integrated battery, though.

May take some experimentation. I fiddled around with the Elinchrom HS solution for a while before I got the gist of it & shots turned out well.

 

[Anton Largiader]

I received it. Not as large as I had feared, which is nice. I was worried that it was going to be like an automotive timing light stuck on top of the camera and it's definitely not. It would be awesome if it fit into the flat folding panel format of some of the other flash controllers, but it has more stuff and it just doesn't. The Raven website shows a comparison with other flash controllers which is pretty accurate. It's a bit bulkier but not really bigger in how it protrudes from the camera.

Seems solidly made. Very easy to install and remove, with squeeze latches that retract the locking pin, although there's a tiny bit of wobble when in place. The clamping design of the earlier PW products tightens the grip and removes all wobble, but is slightly fussier. To me, It would be great if everything used the Canon style clamp like my 430EXii has.

The only real disappointment was finding that it uses USB Micro B as the charging plug format. I don't understand that at all; it's the only USB style that can almost be reversed and is hard to visually orient. The regular PW products used Mini B, which is a lot more distinct as far as plug orientation goes, but USB-C is where it's at these days especially for charging.

Functionally, no complaints yet. The touch screen interface is very much like an Apple Watch. I installed the E-release firmware on my TT5 and (after realizing it needed to me more than a few inches from the Raven) it simply works. I put my 430EXii on the TT5 and could control the output by turning the bezel on the Raven. E-TTL works, too. Nothing earth shattering there; that's functionality that has been around since the release of the ST-E2 and AC-3 or even before, but that's all I'm going to have time for until the weekend. I bought another TT5 on eBay just so I have something to trigger strobes with, but I may not need more than that. At the moment I'm thinking that future strobes may be Einsteins triggered by their CyberSync units, which are fully controllable by the Raven.

May take some experimentation. I fiddled around with the Elinchrom HS solution for a while before I got the gist of it & shots turned out well.

It has a feature that greatly simplifies the process compared to the older TT1/TT5 one, which required configuring the PWs with a utility app. The Raven basically profiles an actual strobe flash, then lets you choose where on the curve you want your shutter action to happen. Should make it easier to get to the sweet spot.

 

[Anton Largiader]

Update: I've been messing with the Raven some. I now have four TT5s to use as triggers (the last one was brand new for $26). Other than adjusting my 430EXii, I've been using them in simple trigger mode, including with Hypersync (the smarts for that are all in the Raven, not the trigger). Hypersync setup is laughably easy with the graphic visualization of the flash pulse.

I have an Einstein coming this week so some time next week I will be able to get a bit more complex and add the Einstein as a third zone, with the first two being the 430 and the second being the strobes. So far, just testing and learning.

Overall, it seems to work well. Any issues I have had are self-inflicted, like having the strobes on the wrong zone or channel and wondering why they aren't firing. I created an interesting puzzler Sunday, with an optically triggered strobe that was firing but not affecting the exposure at all even though the strobe that was triggering it did! I think I had some timing offset dialed in, such that the exposure was over before the optically triggered stobe fired. I don't know how much lag there is but that's all I can figure. Too late to check because I moved on to testing some Hypersync stuff afterward and changed the settings.

 

[Anton Largiader]

...What interests me is the Speedcycler feature where you can pop flashes faster than normal at the subject. Yes, they had it on the Multimax but that remote is gone and discontinued. The Hypersync graphing and adjustment is great, but I have Elinchrom strobes and they are not supported (YET...) ...

I wonder if they slightly missed the boat on Speed Cycler. Speed Cycler fires sequential strobes, one per shot. BUT it only makes one pass through the strobes, then you have to wait three seconds before it will start over. So the way I read it, say I have three strobes (A, B, and C) set up on Speed Cycler. I take two fast shots and A and B fire. Then I wait, and then I want to take two or three more fast shots. Even though all of the strobes are fully recharged, after my first new shot (when C fires), I have to wait three seconds even though A and B have been ready. I don't understand why it can't just start over, but the manual is VERY clear that it doesn't do that. It's as if you have to take exactly the number of shots that you have strobes for every time if you want to use this feature at its best. Who is going to be able to keep track of that, and why should they have to? With three strobes I could fire every half second forever if they were managed the right way.

As for the Elinchroms, you can fire them in Hypersync with Raven but you'd need external triggers from a supported brand.

 

[Sincity]

I wonder if they slightly missed the boat on Speed Cycler. Speed Cycler fires sequential strobes, one per shot. BUT it only makes one pass through the strobes, then you have to wait three seconds before it will start over. So the way I read it, say I have three strobes (A, B, and C) set up on Speed Cycler. I take two fast shots and A and B fire. Then I wait, and then I want to take two or three more fast shots. Even though all of the strobes are fully recharged, after my first new shot (when C fires), I have to wait three seconds even though A and B have been ready. I don't understand why it can't just start over, but the manual is VERY clear that it doesn't do that. It's as if you have to take exactly the number of shots that you have strobes for every time if you want to use this feature at its best. Who is going to be able to keep track of that, and why should they have to? With three strobes I could fire every half second forever if they were managed the right way.

As for the Elinchroms, you can fire them in Hypersync with Raven but you'd need external triggers from a supported brand.

Understand.. I now have both the VER1 and VER 2 multimax, and the VER 2 is much, MUCH better than the Ver 1..

Version 1 is zone dependant so you have 1-4 zones. And that means four setups of lights. And you can use Channel 17-32 and if you use two of the lights on that burst.. Just pop the test button once or twice {depending on if you set the remote for 3 or 4 stobes/zones} to return to zone A. It doesn't reset like the raven so there isn't a need to wait those three seconds.
Version 2.0 can use do the Channel 17-32 zones,like version 1, but it also adds in channel 1-16 for people who use more than four lights. So if I am using sixteen strobes, I can use channel 1-16 to zip through that motor drive..

 

[Anton Largiader]

I can kind of follow what you're saying... but I was never a MM user. In fact this kind of control is all new to me. However I now have four triggers and four lights so I will try to make some time to see what I can actually do with Multi-pop and Speed Cycler. So far, I'm just doing my best to interpret the instructions which may have become a bit outdated as they improved the Raven firmware.

 

[Cheers]

Recently, I saw Fusion Raven being sold at ~$300 on eBay. But $300 for a powerful trigger. It still sounds too expensive.

 

[Anton Largiader]

I think it just depends on your needs or wants. To me the attraction is that I can trigger my PWs and also trigger Einsteins, and it manages the High-speed stuff way more easily than the old PW Utility did.