Off camera flash

I've been working with off camera flash for a little while now, first by use of a TTL cable and then with the aid of a Nikon SU-800 flash commander to give full TTL (through the lens) flash control - including the ability to run in high-speed sync up to my camera's max shutter speed of 1/8000th sec.

I've been pretty happy with how the SU-800 has performed and only recently started looking at ways to overcome it's main limitations; the need for line of sight operation and, being IR (infra red) in it's triggering, it not liking bright lighting conditions.

Now I know that PocketWizard are the most popular brand out there, and also pretty pricey, I decided (also my wallet helped the decision) to test the waters with something a little cheaper. I found a good price on a "1 light" set of Phottix Ares triggers and have to be honest that I have mixed feelings on the performance and reliability I encountered.

My initial testing revealed a fairly significant "failure rate" of approx 5% where I either had no flash triggering or what appeared to be a sync issue with a dark band over the image. This was using a Nikon D2x and a Nikon SB-900 at max sync speed of 1/250th sec. I even dropped the speed to 1/200th sec with no real difference in performance.

Is this kind of failure common to radio triggers or is something inherent to the Phottix - or to my aging Nikon D2x, or the SB-900?

I'm now contemplating my next move. Keep the Phottix triggers, and live with the photo failures; return it as faulty (will a replacement be any better); or save up and buy a set of PocketWizard triggers? Which, if all radio based triggers have a failure rate, will I be better off spending out for PocketWizard's?

Quick update

I wanted to get in a quick, little update before the end of the day and the start of another week. Not that I've had much time with my camera, I have at least been keeping busy with photography related things - namely research and practicing.

The research part has been in the form of some new books (Joe McNally and Erik Valind) and a new video (Lindsey Adler); while the practice part has been in fine tuning the use of my new beauty dish.

The big thing I wanted to test out was the best zoom setting for my SB-900 flash to properly illuminate the dish. I had been leaving my zoom setting at the 24mm I was using for my softbox (to fill the box). Although I found an interesting bit of info on how Joe McNally uses SB-900's and SB-910's with the same softbox; he uses the diffuser dome which sets the zoom to 14mm. May have to try that out the next time I break out the softbox.

Okay, back to the beauty dish. I had noticed when I tried some self-portraits that the reflection in the catchlights seemed a little "off" and also that I wasn't seeing the crispness I was expecting in the light quality. I think having the head zoomed out to 24mm was not directing the light into the reflector plate enough and that instead it was spreading beyond the plate, softening the light. So today I decided to test my theory and took some test shots with the flash head zoomed to 200mm. Now, there's the crispness I was looking for! The light quality is so much improved now and much more how I was expecting it to be.

All I need to do now is find a willing/suitable model and take some real-world portraits or head shots.