The Pocket Wizard Pre-Trigger

Back in February, I promised to put up a review of the Pocket Wizard Pre-Trigger. I had just bought one and wanted to give it a test out.

Though I’ve been super busy and haven’t had a chance to use this thing much, the perfect opportunity presented itself recently. Spring has a good grip on northern Colorado. The flowers are blooming, the weather is warming up, grass is getting green, and the birds and insects are starting to come out in droves.

A few days ago we put up a few bird feeders with hopes that we could attract a few visitors. Boy did we ever! I tried to get some pictures of those birds, but they wouldn’t come around with me standing there. What ever would I do? Yep, this trigger came to mind instantly.

First off, I should mention that the trigger that came for my Canon 20D doesn’t look like the one pictured (from the PW web site). The little box is much smaller, with just a tiny switch with a “I” and a “O” symbol.

Bird brains shows up to drink

First up was the hummingbird feeder. I set up my tripod, mounted the camera with my Sigma 70-300mm lens, and positioned the whole setup about 5 feet from the feeder with the lens set out to 300mm. I got a focus on the feeder where the bird would be (this particular bird always goes for one side), and set the lens autofocus switch to manual.

Tripod mounted, lens set to 300mm

The trigger doesn’t come with much instruction to speak of. The most important thing to know about this trigger is that there are two switch positions: “I” and “O”. Think of one as holding down the shutter button half way. When you switch it on, the camera will get a focus lock (if set to AF), and wait for a trigger. The moment you press the shutter, there will be no lag. If you have the switch set the other way, when you trigger the remote, it will first attain a focus (if AF is turned on), then take the picture. This explains why I set the focus up then set the switch to manual focus. I turned the switch on the trigger to “half way” I’ll call it. This way, when I trigger the camera, there will be no lag whatsoever.

I went in the house and waited. I couldn’t see the camera, but I could see the feeder. With my other Pocket Wizard in hand, as soon as the bird showed up, I started pushing the button like crazy. I ended up walking away with a few decent pictures that would have been impossible without a wireless trigger.

If I were to do this again (which I will), I’d set up a flash to really accentuate the bird. I’ll post those when I get around to it.

Next up was our finch feeder. This thing is seeing some serious action. At times we have 8-10 birds all duking it out for some seed.

This time I decided to go a little wider. I set up the tripod about 15 feet away and had the same lens, but set to 70mm. Got my focus, composed the shot, and went inside. 20 seconds later the birds showed up and I snapped a few photos.

70mm

I then went back outside and recomposed the shot at 300mm. Went inside and got a few more.

300mm

Unfortunately it was evening and I couldn’t get the shutter speeds I wanted to really freeze the motion. But that’s okay, I’ll try again. Bumping up the ISO would have done the trick, but I was okay with a little motion blur over some noise.

One thing to note about this trigger. When the switch is set to “shutter half way” mode, you can rapid fire the shots. However, just like if you had your finger on the shutter, an image won’t show up on the LCD. You have to turn off that switch and the image will show up, even if it’s been a long time since your last image. Also, because cameras keep priority on the shutter when the button is halfway pressed, know that the images will not write to the card (or will write at a slower rate with a lower priority). So your camera’s buffer may fill up after a handful of images.

When I first got this trigger, I ran out to take some pictures of the sky. I thought that the ability to trigger the camera without touching it would be cool. I was a little frustrated at why the image wouldn’t show on the LCD until it occurred to me what was happening.

So, my overall impressions of this trigger are simply that it’s awesome. It has enabled me to get some photographs that I wouldn’t be able to get without it. This $80 trigger is a LOT cheaper than a $12,000 600mm lens. Sure, I can’t be at the camera, but at least I get the shot. I can also start taking photos of my family with me in it, and don’t have to break an ankle stumbling over rocks to beat the self timer. To me, that’s worth 80 bucks right there.

And don’t even get me started on the distance I can go from the camera thanks to the Pocket Wizard’s amazing range. I haven’t even tested that yet with my flashes.

Have you tried this trigger? What did you think? Drop a comment.

One of the (many) things that differentiates pro shooters from hobbiests is that the pro shooter is always ready to capture that great shot. They don’t turn off their camera whenever they’re not actively shooting. They leave that lens cap off. They keep their finger near that shutter. And they keep looking for a photo op. After all, you never know when life will happen. If you’re not ready, you’ll miss the shot.

But this is an easy one for the amateurs to remedy.

A few weeks back we were commissioned to do a family portrait session for some friends of friends. We decided to make an afternoon of it and did some BBQing. We brought along our son (since we were also hanging out).

During the afternoon we spent half an hour or so in the backyard taking family photos. The little guy didn’t want any part of the family posed shots. So when we were done, we let mom and dad go inside and have a beer.

We stayed in the backyard and let the little guy play and have fun. As usual, he quickly forgot that I was chasing him around with a camera. We ran around and played guns (light stands make fantastic bazookas), and all was right in his world. I was happy because we went home with a big handful of photos that we were happy with. Mom and dad were too.

Up until this point everything went as planned. We were done shooting, got some great photos, and were just hanging out letting the little guys play. As soon as my wife let our son go to play, he made a bee line for our photo subject and laid a big hug on him. This moment literally lasted two seconds, because my son was off again and moving toward something else, probably a bug or a leaf or a blade of grass. Who knows.

Lucky for me I was ready for anything. Though we were done shooting, I left the camera turned on, the lens cap was in my pocket, and my finger was at the shutter. All I had to do was raise the camera to my eye, grab a quick focus, and snap the photo. I thought, “Hey, that’ll be cute” and moved on without a second thought.

We went back home and looked at the photos from the day. This one turned out to be our favorite. It was a favorite of the family we were there to shoot too. We even got a big print made up and displayed it at our booth at a local children’s festival. Countless people commented on this photo above all others in our portfolio.

These photos were taken with my Canon 20D fitted with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens (I love this cheapo lens). Color and contrast adjustments were made in Lightroom.

So if you want to increase the number of keepers you shoot, a good place to start is being ready more. You’ll be amazed at how your photography will improve.

Screenshot of PicLens viewing one of my Picasa albums.

This one has been floating around the photo blogs for several days now. I’ve largely ignored this one lately since I’ve been just too dang busy to care.

But today I read Thomas Hawk’s review, “PicLens: The Most Beautiful Way to Browse Photos on the Web“. In his review he says, “PicLens is hands down the best I have ever seen photos look online.”

You know what? Thomas ain’t pullin’ yer leg. It really is the best way I’ve ever seen photos displayed online.

I finally downloaded this small and simple to install plugin for Firefox browsers. I was instantly blown away. The interface reminds me of what I’ve seen of the iPhone’s photo browser. I’ve only tested it out with my Flickr and Picasa collections, and it works flawlessly. The interface is fast and smooth, and the really great thing is that you can cruise through someone’s entire photostream without having to wait for the page to load or having to click on individual photos to see larger versions. You just click, drag the interface, and photos load smoothly in the background. Want to see a photo bigger? Just click it and it instantly enlarges. Need it even bigger? Double click and it goes full screen.

If you’re into photos (you’re reading this right?), then DO NOT WAIT ANY LONGER to download this plugin. Do it now! NOW!

Simply breathtaking.

Download PicLens here. Told them I sent ya, they’ll let you download a free copy.