What is the best value in Flash transmitters?

tijoseph

What a great forum. I am excited to have such a great resource, with great members here to help each other! My second post, but hope to add to the community!

My question, what remote transmitters have you guys and girls been using to fire remote hot-shoe flashes. I know pocket wizards are probably the best, but I can't afford the investment for 3 of them. Any suggestions on what has worked out there?

ziggy53

tijoseph wrote:

What a great forum. I am excited to have such a great resource, with great members here to help each other! My second post, but hope to add to the community!

My question, what remote transmitters have you guys and girls been using to fire remote hot-shoe flashes. I know pocket wizards are probably the best, but I can't afford the investment for 3 of them. Any suggestions on what has worked out there?

Tijoseph, welcome to the Digital Grin.

I use radio sets similar to the "Cactus" units. I bought 3 sets and of those 2 transmitters are OK and all of the receivers are OK.

I don't use them with hotshoe flashes but I could by a number of means. They work great so far with both studio monolights and some older handle-bracket flashes I have.

Range is limited compared to the better units but I haven't had many issues and they even worked OK in an old strip mine.

They will not transmit TTL signals but I prefer manual control for remote flashes.

Shane422

There are many options for triggers to fit all budgets.
Pocket Wizards - Very reliable, expensive, but recently announced some very cool new features. Recievers use AA batteries.
Elinchrom Skyports - $200 for a transmitter/reciever set. Very reliable, recievers use rechargable batteries. I have these and like them a lot.
Alienbees triggers - I think about $120 a set, fairly new, but I have heard nothing bad about them. alienbees.com
Microsync - don't even bother. Small, but kind of pricey and out dated now.
Radiopoppers - versions for TTL as well as a cheaper version JrX that are simple manual triggers. radiopopper.com. The JrX should be available very soon and I believe they are also around $120 a set. They can also control the output of Alienbees and White lightning units. I would look closely at these. This is what I would buy today if I was in the market.
Cactus triggers - sold by Gadget Infinity on eBay. Recently released new version that is supposed to be much more reliable. Although the older versions worked pretty well for me as well. These are about $35 with shipping from China. MPEX.com also sells them if you don't want to use eBay

There are a few other options, but this covers 90% of what people actually use.

Art Scott

I was turned on to these by a past Dgrinner they are
RD616 flash triggers from PhotogearOK on Ebay.

I bought a single transmitter and reciever and like them so well that I bought a set of 2 recievers and 1 transmitter and then another set of 2 recievers and transmiters......I will in the near future either buy another set of 2 or 3 recievers and 1 trransmitter.....as it is I can run all 5 of my studioflashes ormy 2 sunpak 622's and my Konica Minolta 5600hs all from these.......I had one transmiter that was a little shaking in working correctly and I email the seller and it was replaced ......no hassels or anything.....just a we are sorry for the inconvience.

So until I really get a chance to check out the new Paul C Buff Wireless Triggers -CyberSync (same as Alien Bee Triggers Mentioned in above thread) - I have recently seen advertisedI do not need to spend any more money for a flash trigger than $23 (including s/h) for a single transmitter and recioever plus various adapters for different flash units.
They work up to 150' .................

R.Leonardo

Art Scott wrote:

I was turned on to these by a past Dgrinner they are
RD616 flash triggers from PhotogearOK on Ebay.

I bought a single transmitter and reciever and like them so well that I bought a set of 2 recievers and 1 transmitter and then another set of 2 recievers and transmiters......I will in the near future either buy another set of 2 or 3 recievers and 1 trransmitter.....as it is I can run all 5 of my studioflashes ormy 2 sunpak 622's and my Konica Minolta 5600hs all from these.......I had one transmiter that was a little shaking in working correctly and I email the seller and it was replaced ......no hassels or anything.....just a we are sorry for the inconvience.

So until I really get a chance to check out the new Paul C Buff Wireless Triggers -CyberSync (same as Alien Bee Triggers Mentioned in above thread) - I have recently seen advertisedI do not need to spend any more money for a flash trigger than $23 (including s/h) for a single transmitter and recioever plus various adapters for different flash units.
They work up to 150' .................

Perfect timing on this tip! I was about to get something much more pricy.
Thanks!

tijoseph

Thanks!
I think after updating my camera to the new 5d mark ii, the price of the "cheaper" units is worth the try.

Thanks for the great recomendations! I'll let you know what I think of my new transmitters when they arrive!

tijoseph

Shane422 wrote:

There are many options for triggers to fit all budgets.
Pocket Wizards - Very reliable, expensive, but recently announced some very cool new features. Recievers use AA batteries.
Elinchrom Skyports - $200 for a transmitter/reciever set. Very reliable, recievers use rechargable batteries. I have these and like them a lot.
Alienbees triggers - I think about $120 a set, fairly new, but I have heard nothing bad about them. alienbees.com
Microsync - don't even bother. Small, but kind of pricey and out dated now.
Radiopoppers - versions for TTL as well as a cheaper version JrX that are simple manual triggers. radiopopper.com. The JrX should be available very soon and I believe they are also around $120 a set. They can also control the output of Alienbees and White lightning units. I would look closely at these. This is what I would buy today if I was in the market.
Cactus triggers - sold by Gadget Infinity on eBay. Recently released new version that is supposed to be much more reliable. Although the olderversions worked pretty well for me as well. These are about $35 with shipping from China. MPEX.com also sells them if you don't want to use eBay

There are a few other options, but this covers 90% of what people actually use.

Awesome list. I had never heard of radio poppers before. They look great and tal about functions galore, but man they are pricey!

Cygnus Studios

I use the Cyber Sinc by Alien bees and absolutely love them. I must say that I am eagerly awaiting the Cyber Commander that is supposed to be available soon. ($179.95)

Glory2Jesus4Photography

I have been using the Elinchroms for over a year with some pretty heavy use, some may be border line abuse. They have held up so far. These are the only remotes that I have ever used so my opinion is only one sided.

Shane422

The Radiopoppers can be expensive, but make sure to note that there are two versions. Th Px version, which is the expensive version ($500 per set), can pass a TTL signal on to your Hotshoe flashes. The Px also rely on you to have the TTL "sender" such as the ST-E2, or Nikon SU800. The JrX ($99 per set), which are not yet available, are manual triggers and merely require a hotshoe connection.

LifeandLens

I usee Poppers - Radio Poppers PX
I use the Radio Poppers PX system. I've had them for a few weeks. I have read extensively the Strobist site and am generally familiar with the concepts. I understand all the benefits of manual flash adjustments and I use manual power settings frequently. But when working a job with clients pressuring me to work fast, there is nothing like using i-TTL and Nikon's CLS. It gets me there much faster. For example, a portrait, Aperture priority, set the f-stop for the depth of field I want, then dial in minus two or three stops of exposure compensation, then dial in plus one to three stops of flash compensation, put the flash to the left or right about 35 to 45 degrees from the camera, pose, and POP! I have the image.
The only problem I have had with the Poppers is trying to get the pop-up flash on my camera to consistently fire the remotes. It doesn't (and I have not yet contacted Radio Poppers to get their help.) So I use an SB-900 on my camera set to commander. I have two Popper receivers so I can control only two remote flashes at this time.

Questions?

Shane422

LifeandLens wrote:

The only problem I have had with the Poppers is trying to get the pop-up flash on my camera to consistently fire the remotes. It doesn't (and I have not yet contacted Radio Poppers to get their help.)

I don't have radiopoppers, but have been reading about them extensively since the concept was introduced. I don't believe they have ever been advertised at being able to transfer the CLS signal from a Nikon popup flash in commander mode. They have always required the use of either a SB-800, SB-900, or SU-800 in your camera's Hotshoe. We are of course talking about the 1st generation radiopoppers and the new Px models, not the JrX models that have yet to be introduced.

Blurmore

I use quantum radio slaves...4i for my models. They are bulletproof and very reliable. Not a whole bunch of choices in frequency, basically you buy them in A,B,C,D then there is high low in each unit. I bought D frequency because both of the companies I assisted for when I was coming up used D, so I could fire their lights and vice versa. All units from 4i and backwards are compatible with each other (so long as on the same A,B,C,D) so you can buy a 4i trans and go cheap on radioslave II's for the receivers. They don't have all the gingerbread of PW's but if all you want to do is reliably fire a light at a range of 300+ feet, they are a good choice.

LifeandLens

Its a bit unclear actually...
Shane422 - thanks for the info on Poppers. You are probably right. I know I read somewhere (who kows where) that there is no reason why the popup flash shouldn't work. I did send a support email in to Radio Poppers yesterday, I'll probably post their response when I hear back.

- Tom

Shane422 wrote:

I don't have radiopoppers, but have been reading about them extensively since the concept was introduced. I don't believe they have ever been advertised at being able to transfer the CLS signal from a Nikon popup flash in commander mode. They have always required the use of either a SB-800, SB-900, or SU-800 in your camera's Hotshoe. We are of course talking about the 1st generation radiopoppers and the new Px models, not the JrX models that have yet to be introduced.

kenyahudson

I have the Elinchrom triggers and have been very happy with them. Pros: They have great range. I have routinely used them in basketball gyms about 100-150 feet away with no problem. They are small and light. The transmitter (that goes into the camera's hot-shoe) is only slightly larger than a CF card and the the receivers aren't much bigger than that. They have a good reputation for reliability. They can be configured in sets so that you can fire all flashes are just those matching one of four channels. Cons: The transmitter uses a small battery that is not widely available. (You can't pick it up at the drugstore.) The battery is $2.95 at B&H. I had to buy a separate set of cables (again relatively cheap from B&H) to connect the receivers to my SB-24 flash units' pc sync terminals. Most important for me, they only trigger flashes not cameras. They are a good value for sports if one isn't using remotes and can't afford pocket wizards. However, they might be overkill in terms of range for studio shots.