Yongnuo range

<p>Hi,<br>

I'm looking for help related to wireless yongnuo trigger max possible range. I know it's sort of cheap "ebay" triggers but I can't stretch my budget to buy few pocket wizard pieces. I want to achieve 500 meters working range in outdoor conditions with equipment more or less in a line of sight. Thus I wonder if anyone tested yongnuo or similar triggers to max and can share experience on possible range?</p>

<p>The RF-603 models indicate their range "may" be as far as 100m, which leaves you well short.</p>

<p>You should be able to get that range if you put a parabolic reflector on the transmitter and aim it at the receiver. It take a lot more powerful transmitter to increase the range by five times without using a reflector. If you want to double the range, you need a transmitter with four times the radiated power, effectively, you square the distance multiplier to find the transmitter power needed. 5x the distance = 25x more power.</p>

 

<p>Older radio triggers technology that used FM (or even AM) modulation was rated to 1.5 km (or 1500 meters). Some old Pocket Wizards worked well over 1 km range. <br>

Not sure if anyone makes them since the new radio technology came to place.</p>

<p>Latest radio triger devices use the same technology as the computer Wi-Fi networks, and the range is practically limitted to some 50 meters. 100 meters is an advertised strech that could possibly work since the flash trigger works as an impulse signal and sustained time needed for higher energy is short.</p>

<p>YoungNuo say the optical triggers will fire, what is it? 150/175 units, so if you cannot afford pocket wizards you might be able to set up a 'relay' with several YNs with the body facing the earlier stage and the head facing the next unit? Cardboard snoots to avoid too much spread of light?</p>

<p>I managed to just about get a 300m range out of my i-Shoot "Sniper" transceivers in open country (and drizzle!). That's compared to the maker's claimed 1Km, and I don't think that i-Shoot are alone in grossly exaggerating the range of their triggers. Some much cheaper little flash triggers had almost the same range under the same conditions.</p>

<p>As Frank says, newer stuff uses the very limited 2.4GHz band. A band that won't pass through anything denser than a sneeze and has an inherently limited range. It's designed that way to cut down on co-interference, but the makers want you to think it's an advantage to use near-microwave frequencies! After all, a big number like 2.4GHz is always better than a smaller number like 320Mhz isn't it? Errr, No actually.</p>

<p>Sorry Gregory, but I doubt you'll find anything that's legal and license-free that'll reliably operate over 500m. But incidentally, why do you want to be 500m away from your camera or flash gear when it fires?</p>

<p>If you're desperate one solution that might work is to get a 5000m roll of light wire and take a wind or two around the receiver at one end and roll the wire out to the camera and take a wind or two around the transmitter. An old trick to improve the reception ferrite rod aerial radios. If you need it often put the wire on a fishing reel.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot, that's some food for thoughts! Speaking on range, I'm a sports photographer and sometimes it happens that I need to be at two places at same time, so I thought it'd be cheaper to use some triggers instead of cloning myself :)</p>