Cheap flash radio triggers

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John
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Hi, I thought I'd dip my toe into off-camera flash so I bought a set of cheap Yongnuo flash radio triggers off Ebay. I was pleased with them at first, they seem to work reliably and at a decent range. However when I switched my flashgun from manual to TTL they don't seem to work.

I need TTL as I require rear-curtain sync for the shots I was planning on (outdoors shots at dusk which require a long-ish exposure followed by the flash to illuminate the subject) and manual mode on my Nissin Di866 does not seem to use rear-curtain.

You gets what you pays for I suppose. For basic off-camera work the Yongnuo set works perfectly well but If I buy Pocket-Wizard or another expensive brand will I get full control? Or maybe an actual physical sync cord is needed?
 
You don't get ttl with the Yongnuo purely maual only.

Wouldn't swear to it but I think the pocket wizards will give you ttl but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along soon :)

Steve
 
steve_v said:
You don't get ttl with the Yongnuo purely maual only.

Wouldn't swear to it but I think the pocket wizards will give you ttl but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along soon :)

Steve
Click to expand...

Yep, doing my research I see that Pocket Wizards do support TTL and sync much faster too.
 
Pocket Wizard Mini/Flex does TTL second-curtain sync (and a few other cool tricks unique to their system). Phottix Odin also. Both expensive.

Native Canon system doesn't do remote second-curtain though, except on a cord.
 
I have half a dozen RF603's (dont come much cheaper ;-)) which I use and I've just checked with 3 different speedlites and they all do rear curtain sync with my Nikon. Only checked at 4 seconds but that's enough to tell it works.
Just setting the camera flash to rear curtain seems to work. They don't do TTL but if you're looking for rear curtain only then have another check of the settings.
 
Surely second curtain sync is nothing to do with TTL? It just means the camera tells the flash to fire at the end of the exposure rather than at the start. Just checked my RF603s and they worked fine.
 
me15 said:
Surely second curtain sync is nothing to do with TTL? It just means the camera tells the flash to fire at the end of the exposure rather than at the start. Just checked my RF603s and they worked fine.
Click to expand...

It kind of is and it isn't. With Nikon, the second-curtain sync signal goes out through the normal centre pin. With Canon, it's part of the E-TTL operating procedure and doesn't work with manual triggers.

I have an idea that this may be because of patent restrictions, but that's only a guess.
 
I don't know if it's my flash (Nissin Di866) but you can't set it to second curtain flash on the camera and it definitely works in nothing but manual mode with the RF-602RX triggers. Maybe I'll get the RF-603 instead.
 
... Nope, I see the RF-603 is also manual only. Must be a Canon thing as Hoppy says.
 
Both second curtain and high speed synch are through the canon ettl system.

My Nissin di866 mk II does do 2nd curtain off camera for my canon 5d mk II with my Odin, but if you don't need to get too far from the light a TTL cable is a much cheaper option.
 
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