radio poppers

<p>anyone using radio poppers? is this the only device out there that can trigger the speedlites via radio signal vs infrared, while maintaining E-TTL?</p>

<p>Radio Poppers are really pretty good units, although I don't use the ones that are for E-TTL. Pocket Wizard also has units for both Canon and Nikon now. The Radio Poppers are probably as good or better, however, they are a bit odd in the way they work versus the Pocket Wizard--essentially sending the infrared signal wirelessly whereas the Pocket Wizards are just wireless units. There have been complaints about the Pocket Wizards and you should read up on that before deciding--both are about the same price I believe.</p>

<p>Radio poppers kinda cheat a bit (what they're effectively doing is receiving the IR signal from your commander flash or unit, convert it on the fly into a radio signal, send it to a radio receiver which then converts that radio signal to IR to send to your flashes - a bit differently when working with studio flashes, but still). Since they're the same price (at least their Px units, which allow you control of power settings) with PWs, I would go with the latter every time. If they were 1/3 of the price, I might consider them.</p>

<p>Also, their Px transmitter is a bit of a pain to operate - at least for anyone over 3 years old who has fingers which cannot physically occupy the same 1/2cm space the two commander buttons rest in and which need to be used SIMULTANEOUSLY when adjusting power output!</p>

<p>Overall, for that price, go for the PWs. Call me weird, but the whole concept of velcro-ing the commander (I mean, geez!), of having to use those miniscule buttons in weird combinations to do anything gets on my nerves. With a PW I can simply use my SU800 and command my flashes at will, simply and easily, using a big clear screen...and all for the same price.</p>

<p><em>"Radio poppers kinda cheat a bit" </em>- even bigger cheaters are Pocket Wizard.</p>

<p>If cheating is departure from Nikon CLS, then the PW wins on this one. The remote CLS flashes cannot work in remote flash mode when controlled by Pocket Wizaeds, and use iTTL flash mode for remotely located flashes, giving up the original proven Nikon CLS remote flash light need determination, that was based on viisible light pre-flash testing.</p>

<p> I hope someone will explain how really PW does the flash light deternmination that differs so much from the Nikon's original CLS system.</p>

<p>Hahaha...Frank, no, I did not characterise "cheating" as departure from CLS - I just meant that Radio Poppers, while claiming to be radio transmitters and receivers (which, in a way, they are), the still rely on optical signals for the initial trigger. PW, on the other hand, are radio from the get go.</p>

<p>Now, as to how they handle iTTL and so on and so forth, that is another question altogether. Personally I still use CLS with my SU800 and always in Manual mode (yeah, I'm a Hobby-ist...;-))), but from tests I've run using the latest PWs, I can combine the two without problems - I can command power output from my flashes using the SU800 on top of the PW adapter and the remotes fire wonderfully...;-) Shame I cannot afford the $1500 I would need to "upgrade" my flashes from CLS to PW...;-)))</p>

<p>I think it is more important for photographers that Radio Poppers preserves the Nikon's CLS pre-flash vilisible light determination, while Pocket Wizard abandoned the visible way of light testing, and thus can afford to be a true radio controlling system.</p>

<p>RadioPopper does combined radio and optical protocols, in efforts to preserve what is good in the Nikon CLS system, and extend original CLS triggering reliability and range, by radio trigerring. RadioPopper does not do any cheating, and your description or wording was unfortunate. It does not do any cheating for photographers.</p>

<p>The "<em>the still rely on optical signals" - </em>yes, and this is the greatest Radio Poppe advantage over the PW radio only system<em>.</em></p>

 

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<p><em> is this the only device out there that can trigger the speedlites via radio signal</em></p>

 

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<p>No it isn't . I use the PocketWizard ControlTL system regularly with bot hNikons and Canons. One advantage of the ControlTL system is that you don't need to tie up a flash mounted on your camera (or buy and STE-2 or SU-800) to drive the transmitter the way you do with a RadioPopper system. </p>

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<p><em>The remote CLS flashes cannot work in remote flash mode when controlled by Pocket Wizards...</em></p>

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<p>Are you sure about that Frank? Cause I don't think is true. </p>

<p>Frank, you haven't grasped how the PWs work. It's CLS all over and the camera controls exposure as usual.</p>

<p>The only difference is that the slaves get their command to fire their preflashes and main flash with iTTL commands through their hot shoe (instead of getting the same command thru optical transmission).</p>

<p>So the slave flashes are from their own point of view mounted on top of a camera.<br /> From the cameras point of view it has a wireless CLS master controller/flash in the hotshoe.</p>

<p>Pete S:<br>

That has been my experience as well. </p>

<p>is there a recall on the PW's due to inconsistent firing? </p>

<p>Exactly. The PW on the camera gets its messages from the camera to do metering pulses on each "group", it radios those messages to the other PWs, which order their flashes to emit a metering pulse sequence at the proper time so that the camera can analyze it. You get the same TTL that you'd get if a "master" CLS flash on the camera were sending the "group A perform metering flash. Group B perform metering flash" messages.</p>

<p>It doesn't matter if the flashes sitting in the remote PWs all think they're connected directly to the camera, as long as they each perform their metering pulse sequence when the camera expects them to. It's still 3 group TTL.</p>

<p>Danzel C: Not that I have heard of. </p>

<p>PW reverse engineered the i/e-TTL hotshoe protocols (the usual caveats apply...like buying a Sigma HSM lens and having Nikon/Canon/Pentax change the protocol on you)...they do have electronic firmware updates, so that's a big plus.<br>

The RP PX relays signals, so no worries about mismatched protocols. You do have issues w/ delayed signals though...e.g., you can mix the PX and their JrX units only on Canon systems and at a sluggish 1/125 sync speed IIRC. It's harder for them to interpret w/ the signals since they're a conversion away...</p>

 

<p>Quote by Ken Yee " You do have issues w/ delayed signals though...e.g., you can mix the PX and their JrX units only on Canon systems and at a sluggish 1/125 sync speed IIRC. It's harder for them to interpret w/ the signals since they're a conversion away..."</p>

<p>This just isn't true. There is a 1/160th max sync (for both full frame and croped sensored dslrs) only when using a JRX transmitter to trigger the PX receivers. All other combinations such as using the JRX transmitter to fire strobes using JRX receivers or RP cubes allows for the max sync speed of the camera and using a PX transmitter to communicate with PX receivers or to trigger JRX receivers also allows for the max sync speed of the camera being used. You also have High Speed sync when using the PX system and Canons wireless system and also Hyper sync when using a PX transmitter, with a Master flash set to High Speed sync, to trigger PCB strobes via a JRX Studio reciever.</p>

<p>You can also mix PX and JRX systems with either the Canon or Nikon systems. Using the PX and JRX systems together is not a feature just limited to Canon users. Hell I can trigger and control the flash output of my Nikon flashes, via RP Cubes and JRX Studio receivers, with my Canon cameras via a JRX or PX transmitter. You cannot use the PX system to mix Canon and Nikon wireless systems because they are different protocols but you can mix PX and JRX systems within either Canon or Nikon systems. I will often use my PX units to control my Canon flashes via Canons wireless system and mix in some Nikon SB28's using Nikon RP Cubes attached to JRX Studio receivers. I have full control of all flashes from my camera. I can control flash output of Canon flashes through the Master flash or cameras wireless flash menu and control the flash output of the Nikon flashes in the the PX transmitter. You have control of 3 flash groups and 32 levels of flash output adjustment if using RP Cubes and JRX Studio receivers or using JRX Studio receivers with PCB strobes such as Alien Bees, White Lightnings or Zeus power packs.</p>