“I need custom what?”

Some of you have seen me use a remote camera during events.  Most often, I’ll tuck it next to a race course on a small platform.  Sometimes I’ll mount it at the finish or — on occasion — in a tree, on a snowmaking head, or anywhere else that might give a unique perspective of an event.

That extra camera is fired by a Pocketwizard (out of Burlington, Vermont).  They’re radio triggers.  You attach one to the camera in the snow and the other on the camera you’re holding.  If you set it up right (often the biggest challenge), pushing the trigger on your handheld will magically make the other camera fire at the same time.

Now take a look at this post from Getty during the last Olympics :

If you look carefully, you’ll see a lot of Pocketwizards.  With that many radio signals bouncing around, the odds of someone accidentally triggering the wrong camera goes up exponentially.  As a result — most major sporting events require “Custom IDs” on any remotes — a firmware update from the Pocketwizard factory that ensures each photographer is working on their own individual frequency.

Bottom line — after sending my Pocketwizards off on a quick trip to Vermont — you can now call me “0B6 @350.5Mhz.”