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.

Source: Imaging Resource

PocketWizard Plus III Transceiver Pictures

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