More wizardry, less dough: PocketWizard Plus III announced
posted Monday, February 20, 2012 at 2:20 PM EDT
LPA Design's PocketWizard Plus II transceiver has proven pretty popular with photographers wanting to remotely trigger cameras and lights from a significant distance, but the design is now rather long in the tooth, having been introduced in mid-2006. Today, the company has introduced a successor model that brings more features, yet manages to hit an even lower price point.
The PocketWizard Plus III is a ground-up redesign, with a sleek new body that features an integral antenna, and now mounts sideways in a hot shoe, presenting less of an obstruction from behind the camera. The user interface has been totally overhauled, with logical controls for power / mode, channel selection, and group selection, and there's a two-stage test button that now allows half / full press control over your camera shutter. That means you can set a remote camera up ahead of time, let it fall asleep to save battery until it's needed, then bring it back to life and trigger focus / metering operation from a remote Plus III. There's also a new backlit LCD display that lets you quickly confirm setup.
The new Plus III design also has improvements in other areas. Where its predecessor offered only four channels, the new model offers 32 channels, of which 16 are quad-zone triggering channels. It's also faster, allowing up to 14.5 frames per second in High Speed Receive mode, versus 12 fps in the Plus II. Other operating modes include Transmit / Receive, Transmit Only, Receive Only, Long Range, and Repeater. Power still comes from two standard AA batteries, however the external power input is now a standard USB port, and this can also double as a method of upgrading the Plus III's firmware in the future.
Slated to ship at a price of around US$139--some $30 less than the earlier model--the PocketWizard Plus III should arrive at retail from around March 2012. More details can be found on the PocketWizard Plus III microsite.
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The PocketWizard Plus III transceiver. Photo provided by LPA Design Inc. |
Press Release
LPA Design Announces New PocketWizard Plus III Transceiver
Easy-to-use, feature-packed radio trigger is ideal for any serious photographer
So. Burlington, VT – February 20, 2012 – LPA Design, manufacturers of PocketWizard Photo Products, the world leader in reliable wireless control of cameras, flash lighting and light meters, announces the new PocketWizard Plus III – a feature-packed, easy-to-use solution for remote flash and camera triggering. This new simple but powerful radio provides professional and serious amateur photographers with the most reliable triggering system which they will never outgrow and never want to be without.
“Our goals in designing the new Plus III were simple: It needed to do more, cost less and offer the same reliability and simplicity as the legendary Plus II. We believe the Plus III achieves all of this and more in its sleek new design,” said Dave Schmidt, LPA Designs VP of Marketing. “Photographers need tools that will help them create images they couldn’t before and with less hassle and lower cost. The Plus III is exactly that tool.”
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The PocketWizard Plus III transceiver mounted on a Nikon DSLR. Photo provided by LPA Design Inc. |
The new Plus III Transceiver features 32 channels and Selective Quad-Zone Triggering that enables photographers to remotely trigger flash and/or cameras in groups or individually all wirelessly from hundreds of feet away. Performance enhancing features include Long Range Mode and Repeater Mode to help photographers tackle the most challenging shooting environments and open the door for never-attempted image ideas. All features, channels and zones can be easily set using the soft-touch keypad and are clearly displayed on the backlit LCD display. *
The versatile new PocketWizard Plus III is compatible with all other PocketWizard radios and virtually every popular flash and professional digital SLR camera system. It also communicates with all PocketWizard-enabled photo gear including select Profoto, Dynalite, Norman and Photogenic flash systems and Sekonic light meters.
The new Plus III will be demonstrated at the PocketWizard WPPI 2012 Booth #621 in Las Vegas, NV, February 20-23, 2012 as well as in the JP Distribution booth at Focus on Imaging Show in Birmingham, UK, March 4-7, 2012.
* Please see PocketWizard PLUS III Features and Specifications documents for more information.