cheap radio triggers

[samcisa]

I want to use my both flashes (580ex and 430ex) off camera and planning to buy st-e2, but it has to wait

for a month or two. There are cheap radio triggers on ebay and I am thinking to give them a try in the

meantime. Description from seller is not really helpful and if anybody has an experience with these,

please, what would be my limitations, and what eventual additional hardware I need to make it work. Also,

is there any particular model that works better then others? Thanks.

[austinphoto]

I normally use the quantum radio slave. But I bought 2 cheap chinese radios slaves on ebay because I got them very cheap. They work!~ The batteries do go fast. I really don't think they have an off switch. For under $20, they're well worth it.

[picturesque]

The ones I use aren't available in the country anymore, but are similar to this one.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-Radio-Slave-Flashlight-4-Channel-battery_W0QQitemZ280057520031QQihZ018QQcategoryZ30086QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Only thing is--I don't see a PC socket on the receivers on that one, and that is important unless you are using them with monolights that can take the 1/4 monoplug, or have an adapter. I have heard that the 16 channel ones work OK, and on those, the receivers have a PC socket.

 

The limitation is that you have to plug the transmitter into the PC socket of your camera every time you want to use an off camera light--no on/off switch like on Pocket Wizards. That is, if you are using a flash in ETTL in the hot shoe of the camera, and want to sync an off camera flash. Plus, you have to buy at least a hot shoe to PC adapter (or is it a PC to hot shoe adapter?)--anyway, a hot shoe that has a PC cord coming off it, so you can plug the PC tip into the receiver's PC socket and the off camera flash into the hot shoe, which hopefully has a 1/4 20 socket to mount onto a stand adapter. There are other, more elegant ways of doing this, but they cost more money.

 

My units work pretty well--you have to read the instructions though, and keep the triggers/receivers more than 5 feet from each other, and use fresh batteries. Even so, there are misfires (every system has some), but if you are digital, you can at least see when that happens. While not recommended (I don't know why), I use freshly charged NiMH batteries in my receivers every time I go out on a job, and haven't experienced many misfires.

 

If you use a flash bracket, you might have a problem figuring out how to attach the triggering device, since the camera has to be turned (along with the PC socket) for verticals. I actually hang my triggering unit like a charm from my bracket, and have even hung it from the camera's strap lug--it is that small.

[samcisa]

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Radio-Wireless-16-Channel-Slave-Strobe-

Trigger_W0QQitemZ170058984869QQihZ007QQcategoryZ30086QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem">

(link)</a>

I think, for this I need only hot shoe adapters for Canon ex-es.

[mike_barrett2]

You get what you pay for. Works for a while, then crap out (my experience)! Do you really think that something that costs $20 will perform as well as a quantum or pocket wizard that cost $250 plus??? If you need them to work everytime, you are wasting your mioney IMHO.

 

Mike

[samcisa]

Do you really think that something that costs $20 will perform as well as a quantum or

pocket wizard that cost $250 plus???

 

No, I don't.

[picturesque]

Well, I've had mine for about a year or more now and they are still working well. I use them on weddings and as I said, follow the directions and you won't get many misfires. Every system will have a few misfires. Granted, my Wein ProSyncs used to have a smaller misfire percentage, and Pocket Wizards are supposed to have almost zero misfires, but for $20, these units do pretty well. I bought mine thinking they would be interim units as well, but I'm still using them...

 

Samir--yes, the one you refer to has a PC socket on the receivers, from the pictures, so getting a hotshoe to PC adapter should do it. I have heard that one will sometimes have trouble with the sleep function on the 580EX (and maybe 430EX?), so you might want to research that. I use off camera flashes that don't have a sleep function.

[samcisa]

Thank you Nadine. I think I can disable sleep function in CF settings.

[austinphoto]

Will a $20 work as good as a $200? Yes. Let me tell you this little story. I moved into a very old house, with almost no electrical wiring. I had to put pull switches on all the lamps. There was no door chime, so I bought a $10 wireless chime at Pergament. One day, coming home from a wedding, I had some leftover film in the camera and took photos of the kids with my wedding set up, which included the Quantum radio slave, which I bought for over $250 and more for customizing. Whenever I took a picture, the doorbell chimed. My Quantum Radio Slave was the same exact thing as my cheap $10 wireless door chime. They only difference, was one chimed the other set of a flash. Inside, they had the exact same electonic module, which probably wholesales for less than $5. Figure that out!

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste1664880652]

After I took mine apart and rewired them, and replaced the battery for a new fresh one, mine are working literally double as well as when I bought them, although speced for 30 feet I'm getting a consistent double that indoors and they don't miss a shot.

 

However I had to put up with pretty lackluster performance until I resoldered the connectors a year after buying them.

 

There are a new set of radio slaves from elinchrom called the skyport series which are small, light and cheap from a very well known name in the studio business. Not as well speced as the PW, etc but certainly worth looking at.

[Gary Naka]

I use the eBay Chinese RF triggers on my SB24. BUT, I think you will NOT be able to. If you read the linked thread, you will see that the Cannon flashes don't seem to work with the eBay Chinese RF triggers.

 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157594172539497/

[picturesque]

Wow, Gary. Never knew that, but then I only use mine with my Sunpak 120Js and they work fine with them. I guess it all depends on exactly what model the radio slaves are. The one the thread talks about is different from the 16 channel one, though?

[jimstrutz]

Mine has been working fine for the last year with Sunpak 522/555 units. No misfires or other issues.

 

That link that Gary N. posted shows that some people were having issues making these work (mostly with the 430EX), but that they had found workarounds, specifically, using a length of sync cord between the receiver and the hot shoe. Most users of the 580EX were stating that they had no problems with them hooked up directly on the hotshoe style receivers.

[Spearhead]

I've used them with the 120J and with a Norman pack. They work fine. The biggest problem is the small size - I lost the last one I had.

 

I cut the cables and solder in to a household plug type connector, and they still work fine.

[mike_barrett2]

The fact that a radio slave would set off a door chime has nothing to do with quality. It is simply on the same frequency.

 

Mike

[picturesque]

If anyone is still reading this thread, I just "discovered" a way to have an on/off switch with these cheap triggers. Just change one of the channel toggles for off. Don't know why I didn't think of this before...never read it anywhere. Also, the PC female socket on my 20D has screw threads, it seems, so I'm going to order a custom cord from Parmount (going to cost more than the unit!) with a screw lock PC on one end and that strange 1/8 mono plug on the other, in a 6 inch coiled cord.