Flashgun Wireless Trigger

[paul cull-pearce]

Hi Folks,

Thinking about buying a flashgun wireless trigger unit to shoot some portrait stuff. I have seen some on ebay, but they look alittle cheap...but I dont want to spend £££.

Is there any that are good but cheap ?

Thanks,

Paul

[Kev M]

Unfortunately paul there's nothing in between the ebay triggers and the other sort (bowens/elinchrom/pocket wizards). The cactus ebay ones are perfectly useable providing you replace all the batteries as soon as they arrive.

[W.Smith]

Paul,

optical slave sensors – assuming you mean those – ARE that cheap. It is very simple technology. They get triggered by the peanut flash on top of your camera. Works really well within a 20 foot range.
The only caveat is when you take photos of highly reflective materials (chrome, silver, etc.) the reflection of the peanut slave may show up in the image. But you can prevent that if you attach a little piece of cardboard to (in front of) the peanut in such a way that the light does not illuminate the image, while the slave-eye can 'see' it.

Have fun!

[unclerichy]

I've had a pair of ebay ones for about a week now and on the whole they're ok for the money. The problems I've encountered all relate to false triggering - sometimes when only using a single receiver, though usually when two are too close together (say, less than 3 inches). The result is that flash A fires which makes flash B fire which makes flash A fire...

Somewhat academic now as I've broken one of the receivers by trying to hack it into the internals of an old flashgun. It was all going well until I melted one of the components whilst soldering :(

Anyhoo, two more on order :thumbs:

[Kev M]

A problem you can get when using the onboard flash and an optical triggers is the pre-flash from the on camera flash setting the optical triggered flash off too early. Only really works on cameras where you can disable the pre-flash.

[Janice]

Doesnt the onboard flash have the transmitter part on the hotshoe so there is no actual flash from the camera?

Sorry you are talking about optical triggers and Im not!! :S

[Ian T]

Is there any that are good but cheap ?
The eBay ones aren't bad. See this thread / post (http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=423332&postcount=10).

I bought some of the cheap ones from China and so far they've been fine. Considerably cheaper than Pocket Wizards, anyway.

[W.Smith]

Doesnt the onboard flash have the transmitter part on the hotshoe so there is no actual flash from the camera?

Sorry you are talking about optical triggers and Im not!! :S

I think you ARE talking about optical triggers, Janice: those cameras that have the built-in option of remotely triggering another flashgun usually do so with IR (infra-red). Which is invisible. However, at the same time they also emit a very low-power visible flash (from the peanut flash on top). Which may reflect, under circumstances, in your subject.

[JezSutton]

I've got one of those cheap ebay shoe radio triggers and they work fine.. I have the Flash unit on the slave tripod mount.
does the job !!

[mhuk]

google turns up a few "reviews" of wireless flash units:

http://l7foto.com/2007/05/20/gadget-infinity-v2-wireless-flash-trigger/
http://martybugs.net/reviews/cactus.cgi

[garry15]

Hi

I work for a photography supply company, Ive not read the rules, or if I did I missed the bit about advertising. Clearly my company wants to sell product, but on the cheap, rather than through the proper channels. You wont see me here again either, im kind of like a pidgeon, fly over, drop my payload, carry on...

BTW, next time I wont sign up using my company email, that would make it too easy...

[chris321]

There's the RF602 (think I've got that right). They're a step up from the cheaper cactus triggers and a lot of people swear by them. Supposedly a lot more reliable due to working on a different frequency I think, 'flash in the pan' sells them on here!

Chris


blah blah blah spam spam visit my shop woohoo I will get promoted for all the sales this will get..

(quote added in case the above post gets deleted and I get the blame for a huge 2 and a half year thread revival :lol:)

[andrewc]

Um, the thread is from 2007...

[chris321]

So it is! I'd imagine the OP has probably sorted themselves out by now :D

Don't blame me, blame the unofficial seller who resurrected it!

[matty]

spam? I should coco..

[deepblu]

I use the Yongnuo RF-602 from eBay and I'm really happy with it.

[kardo]

I use the Yongnuo RF-602 from eBay and I'm really happy with it.

:plusone: they are great for what you pay.