This is something I started writing for my blog, then realised I'd probably never actually keep the '.com' side blog going; I barely maintain my '.net' blog. So, given this place is all about photography, and that I've seen a few posts on radio triggers etc, I thought I'd share 
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Courtesy of my trip to Dubai for the Gulf Photo Plus 2010 convention and workshops, I've discovered a new need for something different from Nikon's Creative Lighting System (TTL). All of the workshops I attended in Dubai were oriented around the manual use of speedlights (i.e., the Nikon SB-600/800/900 and Canon's 270/430/580EX flash units) rather than TTL-based. This, however, isn't a review on speedlights; there are lots of those already. This is a review of the Secu-line T2D TwinLink flash kit.
Most people are aware of Pocket Wizards; they're incredible pieces of kit, and the upcoming models look to be absolutely stunning. They're also rather expensive at roughly £320 for the Pocket Wizard Plus II kit. For that much money, you can get yourself two TwinLink kits, or even one TwinLink kit with two additional T2D receiver units and have enough change left over for a hot beverage and dessert (or a little bit of DIY on the transmitter; more on this later).
Comparing the two units, we get the following breakdown for the PW Plus II vs the Twin Link:
So, my first impressions -
Range Testing
To perform some minor testing of the claimed range, the receiver unit was attached via the PC sync cable to a SB-800 speedlight, and the speedlight was placed behind a double-glazed window on the second storey of a house, with the IR receiver masked over. I then went outside and hit the 'fire' button every 50 feet or so, up to about 300 feet away. For the first round of tests, there was a piece of lead flashing poking into the Fresnel zone; this had a distinct impact on the ability of the receiver to pick up the signal, depending on where I had the transmitter. With my hand by my thigh, the success rate was about 1 in 8; with my hand up by my eye (simulating a camera), the success rate was closer to 7 in 10.
The receiver and flash unit were then moved so that the lead flashing was not in the Fresnel zone. This increased the success rate of the thigh-level transmitter to about 1 in 4, and the eye-level transmitter to 1 in 1.
Placing the transmitter behind my back, at the longer distances, invariably resulted in a failed fire of the flash unit. An educated guess says that this is a combination of a weak transmitter, and the fact that 2.4 GHz radio waves are absorbed by water.
In the field
I've taken the TwinLink out on two occasions now, to do some in-the-field testing. The first test was a portrait session, held in a local pub. The units performed flawlessly in my testing, but 5 minutes before the subject of the session showed up, the units completely stopped talking to each other. Prior to the communication failing, the receiver had been firing randomly, which I attributed to the baby monitor upstairs - the TwinLink communicates at 2.4 GHz.
The second occasion was for an open mic session, again in a local pub. This time around, the units worked much better. Shooting range was never more than 30 feet from transmitter to receiver. The receiver has a habit of falling asleep a bit too fast (though PWs do this as well), so every now and then I'd have to either shoot a frame without light (and swear), or remember to hit the 'wake up' button on the transmitter. There was one point where even after hitting the 'wake up' button, and then the 'test flash' button that the receiver refused to work. Wandered over to it, hit 'test flash' again and it worked (while I was looking at the umbrella.. doh). On the whole, I was fairly happy with the performance of the units for that gig.
DIY Modification
One of the features of the Pocket Wizard that is definitely missing from the TwinLink transmitter is a dedicated power switch. Yes, it has an auto-sleep function, which it can be woken from by pressing the 'Awake' button, or a test shot from the camera, but this doesn't let you turn off all of the flash units while trying to get the ambient light dialed in on your camera. You could just remove the transmitter from the hotshoe, but that strikes me as a time consuming and clumsy way to achieve what can be achieved with a simple switch.
So, with the help of my father, I added a small power switch to the transmitter. Be warned, this will promptly break any warranty that comes with the kit, so only do this kind of thing if you're comfortable with a soldering iron and the concept that you might possibly break a £80 radio. Essentially, on the transmitter, remove the terminal that pokes through the back of the unit (I forget if this is the anode or cathode), drill a hole in the bottom of the unit for a small switch and wire it all up with some fairly stiff wire. I don't know what the material is called, but we also had to add some black insulation between the switch contacts and the rest of the board. Pics can be provided if I can be persuaded to take the transmitter to pieces again All bits acquired from Maplin.
Verdict
I'm not sure I'd recommend these units to anyone else. They certainly work, but the range is nowhere near what's advertised (whereas the PWs certainly seem to hit their range), and the random 'I'm not going to fire' can cause you to miss an excellent opportunity for a shot. On the other hand, PWs are very limited channel wise, and all it takes is 5 photographers using the same spectrum PWs to cause mis-fires.
Technically, they're fine pieces of kit. Build quality is good. Range is 'eh', certainly suitable for short-range work. The complete malfunction in the first session has made me very wary of them though. So, hmm... 6/10.
--
Courtesy of my trip to Dubai for the Gulf Photo Plus 2010 convention and workshops, I've discovered a new need for something different from Nikon's Creative Lighting System (TTL). All of the workshops I attended in Dubai were oriented around the manual use of speedlights (i.e., the Nikon SB-600/800/900 and Canon's 270/430/580EX flash units) rather than TTL-based. This, however, isn't a review on speedlights; there are lots of those already. This is a review of the Secu-line T2D TwinLink flash kit.
Most people are aware of Pocket Wizards; they're incredible pieces of kit, and the upcoming models look to be absolutely stunning. They're also rather expensive at roughly £320 for the Pocket Wizard Plus II kit. For that much money, you can get yourself two TwinLink kits, or even one TwinLink kit with two additional T2D receiver units and have enough change left over for a hot beverage and dessert (or a little bit of DIY on the transmitter; more on this later).
Comparing the two units, we get the following breakdown for the PW Plus II vs the Twin Link:
- Range: 1600 ft vs 600 ft
- Channels: 4 vs 16
- Camera control: Yes vs no
- Chain-fire: Yes vs no
- Transceived: Yes vs no
- TTL support: Some vs no
So, my first impressions -
- fairly nifty,
- slick packaging,
- not bad on the weight,
- not as large as the PWs,
- plastic doesn't feel too cheap,
- the antennas can be removed to stop them breaking in transit (which also means they can be lost),
- and the batteries used are fairly common (AAA for the receiver, CR2032 for the transmitter).
Range Testing
To perform some minor testing of the claimed range, the receiver unit was attached via the PC sync cable to a SB-800 speedlight, and the speedlight was placed behind a double-glazed window on the second storey of a house, with the IR receiver masked over. I then went outside and hit the 'fire' button every 50 feet or so, up to about 300 feet away. For the first round of tests, there was a piece of lead flashing poking into the Fresnel zone; this had a distinct impact on the ability of the receiver to pick up the signal, depending on where I had the transmitter. With my hand by my thigh, the success rate was about 1 in 8; with my hand up by my eye (simulating a camera), the success rate was closer to 7 in 10.
The receiver and flash unit were then moved so that the lead flashing was not in the Fresnel zone. This increased the success rate of the thigh-level transmitter to about 1 in 4, and the eye-level transmitter to 1 in 1.
Placing the transmitter behind my back, at the longer distances, invariably resulted in a failed fire of the flash unit. An educated guess says that this is a combination of a weak transmitter, and the fact that 2.4 GHz radio waves are absorbed by water.
In the field
I've taken the TwinLink out on two occasions now, to do some in-the-field testing. The first test was a portrait session, held in a local pub. The units performed flawlessly in my testing, but 5 minutes before the subject of the session showed up, the units completely stopped talking to each other. Prior to the communication failing, the receiver had been firing randomly, which I attributed to the baby monitor upstairs - the TwinLink communicates at 2.4 GHz.
The second occasion was for an open mic session, again in a local pub. This time around, the units worked much better. Shooting range was never more than 30 feet from transmitter to receiver. The receiver has a habit of falling asleep a bit too fast (though PWs do this as well), so every now and then I'd have to either shoot a frame without light (and swear), or remember to hit the 'wake up' button on the transmitter. There was one point where even after hitting the 'wake up' button, and then the 'test flash' button that the receiver refused to work. Wandered over to it, hit 'test flash' again and it worked (while I was looking at the umbrella.. doh). On the whole, I was fairly happy with the performance of the units for that gig.
DIY Modification
One of the features of the Pocket Wizard that is definitely missing from the TwinLink transmitter is a dedicated power switch. Yes, it has an auto-sleep function, which it can be woken from by pressing the 'Awake' button, or a test shot from the camera, but this doesn't let you turn off all of the flash units while trying to get the ambient light dialed in on your camera. You could just remove the transmitter from the hotshoe, but that strikes me as a time consuming and clumsy way to achieve what can be achieved with a simple switch.
So, with the help of my father, I added a small power switch to the transmitter. Be warned, this will promptly break any warranty that comes with the kit, so only do this kind of thing if you're comfortable with a soldering iron and the concept that you might possibly break a £80 radio. Essentially, on the transmitter, remove the terminal that pokes through the back of the unit (I forget if this is the anode or cathode), drill a hole in the bottom of the unit for a small switch and wire it all up with some fairly stiff wire. I don't know what the material is called, but we also had to add some black insulation between the switch contacts and the rest of the board. Pics can be provided if I can be persuaded to take the transmitter to pieces again
All bits acquired from Maplin.Verdict
I'm not sure I'd recommend these units to anyone else. They certainly work, but the range is nowhere near what's advertised (whereas the PWs certainly seem to hit their range), and the random 'I'm not going to fire' can cause you to miss an excellent opportunity for a shot. On the other hand, PWs are very limited channel wise, and all it takes is 5 photographers using the same spectrum PWs to cause mis-fires.
Technically, they're fine pieces of kit. Build quality is good. Range is 'eh', certainly suitable for short-range work. The complete malfunction in the first session has made me very wary of them though. So, hmm... 6/10.
