Harry Potter and the Pocket Wizards That Quit Working But Will Not Be Replaced On Principle Because They Sell For Way, Way More Than Is Reasonable For Such Simple Little Things And I Refuse To Be Gouged So Egregiously

When I started this blog, it really wasn’t my intention to ever use it as a forum to publicly complain about anything.  To complain is unappealing and most times people just don’t want to listen to folks blather on about the things that make them upset.  That said, I’ll be doing it anyway.  Please accept my apologies in advance.  It’s only because I think it might be of interest.  Truly.

This year, two Pocket Wizards just up and quit on me.  The second one went about a week ago.  Now, I take perhaps unreasonably good care with my equipment, so I promise you these deaths were not by my hands.  Cheap products just stop working sometimes, and there they are now—two dead little plastic husks not even heavy enough to serve as paper weights.

Okay, fine, so maybe Pocket Wizards aren’t as reliable as they should be.  Maybe they’re even garbage, and to be honest, even that wouldn’t be the most extraordinary thing in the world.  How many things are actually built to last?  What really bothers me, though, is that they’re the industry standard and they’re such expensive garbage.  Pocket Wizards, in a fair and just world, would cost twenty-nine dollars and ninety-five cents.  Maybe even just ten bucks and a jaunty song and dance.  But a hundred and seventy?  Are you kidding us with this?  It’s plastic and a circuit board—we’re not even talking a dollar to make one of these things.  Does a more flagrant highway robbery exist in the entire realm of photographic equipment?  I really don’t think so.  And that, by the way, is quite a charge.

So no, I won’t be replacing my fallen receiver.  Instead, I’ll be selling off my remaining Pocket Wizards and buying into the Alien Bees wireless system by Paul Buff.  They do the same job, and if one of these new remotes decides not to show up for work one day, two would be available for the cost of one Pocket Wizard (you know, so the first one will have the other to play with).  When you think about it, it’s what I should have done in the first place.

Okay.  Whew.  It’s over.  Thanks for reading, and for letting me rant.