jerryph
01-12-2009, 03:53 AM
Though studio lighting is important, an equally important factor is *how* we trigger those studio lights from our camera. This article discusses that aspect of the studio photographer's needs.
When we have our flash clipped into the hotshoe of our cameras, everytime we press the shutter, it triggers our flash. Those who are more than a month into photography, however, will find that on camera flash is bland and flat (as outlined in an earlier article I wrote HERE (http://jerryphpics.blogspot.com/2008/03/2-flash.html)).
So, how do we get our flashes OFF camera? There are several methods from very affordable to the Cadillac of off camera triggers, and I will briefly run through each one of them and their advantages/disadvantages and maybe show you a way to do some interesting things "on the cheap".
The methods that I will touch on are basically:
- Long sync wire
- Gadget Infinity Cactus V2s
- Pocket Wizards
- Radio Poppers
- Other misc triggers
The Long Sync Wire:
This is the cheapest solution. Assuming the proper connectors are in place, using a sync cable wire, you can connect it from your camera's sync port to the sync port of your flash. A 10-15 foot length gives you ample room to move around some, but you are confined to the distances of this wire to your lightstand mounted light source. A cable of this length can often be found for under $25US and when triggering one light, is the budget photographer's best friend.
A good place to purchase that I found reputable, reasonably priced, fast shipping and reliable is a company called www.flashzebra.com based in the USA.
The Gadget Infinity Cactus V2s triggers:
These are often referred to as the "poverty wizards" due to their lower build quality and very low price. These units are wireless trigger and receiver units that, from the factory, have a limited range of about 30 feet. Their cost is an extremely affordable $30-$35 for a single transmitter and a receiver. You can purchase additional receivers for about $20 each.
Of special note, with ALL brands except ONE, anytime you use wireless technology, you will lose the ability of the camera to communicate fully with the flash, so you lose all TTL control. If you do not know what TTL is, it stands for Through-The-Lens and basically what happens is that the camera meters though the lens, sends a series of PRE-flahses out, measures and sets the strength of the flash automatically. This functionality (TTL), is lost for all wireless transmitters except the RADIO POPPERS. So you are then obliged to manually adjust your flash's power to the settings you desire. This is both good and bad. It is bad for the less knowledgeable, and they will depend on TTL to set the power for them automatically. The good part is that TTL has a limited range and acceptable results under most circumstances, however, greatest artistic results via manual control under the hands of an experienced photographer will give you consistently superior results to a TTL controlled system... albeit at the expense of convenience.
If you need more info, please research TTL or other products here.
I will return to the Cactus V2s units a little later in this article, but for now, let's move on to...
The Pocket Wizards:
These units are the tried and tested leaders of off camera triggers of photography at this point time. Their prices are much higher (at approximately $200US each, and a minimum of 2 units are required for the most basic of functionality). Their advantages are extreme reliability, each unit is both a receiver and a transmitter (or both) and an unmatched range. Pocket Wizards can trigger a flash consistently from almost a mile away. Their only three disadvantages are their exorbitant cost, a plastic hotshoe foot that breaks now and then if normal care is not taken and the loss of TTL when using the PWs. The vast majority of professional photographers have decided on these due to their unmatched reliability and extreme triggering distances. Many 3rd part companies have even integrated support for Pocket Wizards as well. Companies like Sekonic light meters and many monotube studio strobe manufacturers have built-in support right from the factory.
The Radio Popper:
These units are the newest competitors and offer performance characteristics similar to the Pocket Wizards with a few differences... their range is a little less, their cost is approximately the same, but... and here is where they are truly different from all other models... the Radio Popper units do not just transmit a signal to trigger the flash, but can receive the signal at the camera end of all TTL communications and relay it to your remotely mounted flashes. This means that you can be hundreds of feet away from your flashes, or they can be mounted very high off the ground and you do not have to go up and down to the remotely mounted flash to change power/strength settings, you can do it from your camera or have the camera make the changes for you.
My personal complaints with the Radio Poppers is less a performance issue, in that they are flawless in how they perform... but their appearance and mounting method. In a word, they are UGLY. They are larger and bulkier than their competitors and due to the fact that they must capture the live flash signal from the camera's own flash, your camera will need either a built-in TTL compatible flash, a commander unit or a full sized speedlight with this box on top of the flash to render this system functional. And they mount all this bulk using... velcro. For that one reason alone, over and above all it's virtues and capabilities, I personally have decided to pass over the Radio Poppers at this time. The Radio Popper's greatest claim to fame is their ability to relay full TTL info, and if this is something that you absolutely require and cannot live without... you will learn to live with that large bulky and rather weak mounting system.
Other Misc units:
There are many others out there, for example the Elinchrom Skyports (which are very good, BTW) that are somewhere in between the Cactus units and the Pocket Wizards and every week we hear about new and different manufacturers coming out with variants of the Cactus units. This range seems to be the fastest growing and while I am not going to try to discuss all the dozens out there, suffice to say that before putting your money down on any of the newer "cheap" transmitter/receivers out there, do a lot of reading and research before purchasing.
The Finale:
These units are all fantastic in that they offer the photographer the greatest ability to increase the quality of their photographs in an almost unlimited manner compared to on camera lighting. Choosing which one is for you, will depend on YOUR needs, so it is logical to say that before choosing any of them, KNOW what YOU need or want.
I said that I was going to return to the Cactus V2s triggers, and I shall do this now. These were the units that I decided on. They were very cheap and though they were known for breaking easily and having very poor range, I bought them anyway, because I did not think I would need more than 30 feet range and I am an amateur... and since no one is paying me for my portraits, there was no way I would pay a LOT of money for the many triggers that I would need to purchase (at the start, I had 4 battery powered speedlights and 2 studio strobes, which if I'd decided to purchase the PWs, would come out to no less than $1200.00 plus shipping plus conversion to Cdn funds for me). This same setup using Cactus V2s units cost me under $150 total, shipped and all.
Now, I'd heard that someone modified their units, and in fact, these Cactus had 2 things about them that I did not really like... first was the batteries in the receivers... locally they were $12.99 plus tax each, and they did not last very long. Second was the limiting 30 foot range. No, it was not something that I would exceed on a daily basis, but if I could improve this, why not?
So, off I went and made 1 simple modification of adding a specific kind and length of wire and soldered it into the transmitter. I them drilled a small hole in the receivers and soldered in an external AA battery holder (at 59 cents each!) into my receivers.
No waiting, here are the results:
- I obviously do not need the $12.99 batteries for my receivers anymore, I can use simple rechargeable AA batteries that last longer and give me more consistent results.
- my range increased from 30 feet to OVER 350 feet... but I am sure the range was even further. I hit 358 feet before running out of room to test, NOT before they started failing.
For more information about how I did these modifications in detail and measured results, please feel free to visit THIS site (http://jerryphpics.blogspot.com/2008/07/004-cactus-v2s-modifications.html) for more information.
I hope you all enjoyed this article, it was my pleasure to offer it. :)
When we have our flash clipped into the hotshoe of our cameras, everytime we press the shutter, it triggers our flash. Those who are more than a month into photography, however, will find that on camera flash is bland and flat (as outlined in an earlier article I wrote HERE (http://jerryphpics.blogspot.com/2008/03/2-flash.html)).
So, how do we get our flashes OFF camera? There are several methods from very affordable to the Cadillac of off camera triggers, and I will briefly run through each one of them and their advantages/disadvantages and maybe show you a way to do some interesting things "on the cheap".
The methods that I will touch on are basically:
- Long sync wire
- Gadget Infinity Cactus V2s
- Pocket Wizards
- Radio Poppers
- Other misc triggers
The Long Sync Wire:
This is the cheapest solution. Assuming the proper connectors are in place, using a sync cable wire, you can connect it from your camera's sync port to the sync port of your flash. A 10-15 foot length gives you ample room to move around some, but you are confined to the distances of this wire to your lightstand mounted light source. A cable of this length can often be found for under $25US and when triggering one light, is the budget photographer's best friend.
A good place to purchase that I found reputable, reasonably priced, fast shipping and reliable is a company called www.flashzebra.com based in the USA.
The Gadget Infinity Cactus V2s triggers:
These are often referred to as the "poverty wizards" due to their lower build quality and very low price. These units are wireless trigger and receiver units that, from the factory, have a limited range of about 30 feet. Their cost is an extremely affordable $30-$35 for a single transmitter and a receiver. You can purchase additional receivers for about $20 each.
Of special note, with ALL brands except ONE, anytime you use wireless technology, you will lose the ability of the camera to communicate fully with the flash, so you lose all TTL control. If you do not know what TTL is, it stands for Through-The-Lens and basically what happens is that the camera meters though the lens, sends a series of PRE-flahses out, measures and sets the strength of the flash automatically. This functionality (TTL), is lost for all wireless transmitters except the RADIO POPPERS. So you are then obliged to manually adjust your flash's power to the settings you desire. This is both good and bad. It is bad for the less knowledgeable, and they will depend on TTL to set the power for them automatically. The good part is that TTL has a limited range and acceptable results under most circumstances, however, greatest artistic results via manual control under the hands of an experienced photographer will give you consistently superior results to a TTL controlled system... albeit at the expense of convenience.
If you need more info, please research TTL or other products here.
I will return to the Cactus V2s units a little later in this article, but for now, let's move on to...
The Pocket Wizards:
These units are the tried and tested leaders of off camera triggers of photography at this point time. Their prices are much higher (at approximately $200US each, and a minimum of 2 units are required for the most basic of functionality). Their advantages are extreme reliability, each unit is both a receiver and a transmitter (or both) and an unmatched range. Pocket Wizards can trigger a flash consistently from almost a mile away. Their only three disadvantages are their exorbitant cost, a plastic hotshoe foot that breaks now and then if normal care is not taken and the loss of TTL when using the PWs. The vast majority of professional photographers have decided on these due to their unmatched reliability and extreme triggering distances. Many 3rd part companies have even integrated support for Pocket Wizards as well. Companies like Sekonic light meters and many monotube studio strobe manufacturers have built-in support right from the factory.
The Radio Popper:
These units are the newest competitors and offer performance characteristics similar to the Pocket Wizards with a few differences... their range is a little less, their cost is approximately the same, but... and here is where they are truly different from all other models... the Radio Popper units do not just transmit a signal to trigger the flash, but can receive the signal at the camera end of all TTL communications and relay it to your remotely mounted flashes. This means that you can be hundreds of feet away from your flashes, or they can be mounted very high off the ground and you do not have to go up and down to the remotely mounted flash to change power/strength settings, you can do it from your camera or have the camera make the changes for you.
My personal complaints with the Radio Poppers is less a performance issue, in that they are flawless in how they perform... but their appearance and mounting method. In a word, they are UGLY. They are larger and bulkier than their competitors and due to the fact that they must capture the live flash signal from the camera's own flash, your camera will need either a built-in TTL compatible flash, a commander unit or a full sized speedlight with this box on top of the flash to render this system functional. And they mount all this bulk using... velcro. For that one reason alone, over and above all it's virtues and capabilities, I personally have decided to pass over the Radio Poppers at this time. The Radio Popper's greatest claim to fame is their ability to relay full TTL info, and if this is something that you absolutely require and cannot live without... you will learn to live with that large bulky and rather weak mounting system.
Other Misc units:
There are many others out there, for example the Elinchrom Skyports (which are very good, BTW) that are somewhere in between the Cactus units and the Pocket Wizards and every week we hear about new and different manufacturers coming out with variants of the Cactus units. This range seems to be the fastest growing and while I am not going to try to discuss all the dozens out there, suffice to say that before putting your money down on any of the newer "cheap" transmitter/receivers out there, do a lot of reading and research before purchasing.
The Finale:
These units are all fantastic in that they offer the photographer the greatest ability to increase the quality of their photographs in an almost unlimited manner compared to on camera lighting. Choosing which one is for you, will depend on YOUR needs, so it is logical to say that before choosing any of them, KNOW what YOU need or want.
I said that I was going to return to the Cactus V2s triggers, and I shall do this now. These were the units that I decided on. They were very cheap and though they were known for breaking easily and having very poor range, I bought them anyway, because I did not think I would need more than 30 feet range and I am an amateur... and since no one is paying me for my portraits, there was no way I would pay a LOT of money for the many triggers that I would need to purchase (at the start, I had 4 battery powered speedlights and 2 studio strobes, which if I'd decided to purchase the PWs, would come out to no less than $1200.00 plus shipping plus conversion to Cdn funds for me). This same setup using Cactus V2s units cost me under $150 total, shipped and all.
Now, I'd heard that someone modified their units, and in fact, these Cactus had 2 things about them that I did not really like... first was the batteries in the receivers... locally they were $12.99 plus tax each, and they did not last very long. Second was the limiting 30 foot range. No, it was not something that I would exceed on a daily basis, but if I could improve this, why not?
So, off I went and made 1 simple modification of adding a specific kind and length of wire and soldered it into the transmitter. I them drilled a small hole in the receivers and soldered in an external AA battery holder (at 59 cents each!) into my receivers.
No waiting, here are the results:
- I obviously do not need the $12.99 batteries for my receivers anymore, I can use simple rechargeable AA batteries that last longer and give me more consistent results.
- my range increased from 30 feet to OVER 350 feet... but I am sure the range was even further. I hit 358 feet before running out of room to test, NOT before they started failing.
For more information about how I did these modifications in detail and measured results, please feel free to visit THIS site (http://jerryphpics.blogspot.com/2008/07/004-cactus-v2s-modifications.html) for more information.
I hope you all enjoyed this article, it was my pleasure to offer it. :)