to select a radio slave

[raihan_malik1]

<p>Hi Everyone,<br>

I'm thinking of buying a set of wireless radio slave and i know probably "pocket wizard" is the best in the market but is there anything else you can recommend which is not super expensive but a good reliable, easy to use brand for Nikon d7000/7100? Thanks in advance. Raihan.</p>

[Jochen_S]

<p>At work they bought: walimex 4-channel Remote Trigger Complete Set CY-A It does the job, is a bit nasty though; uses a tiny 12V battery made from stacked button cells usually not catered by supermarkets. Battery is hard to reach via an ultra tiny Phillips screw. You might have to reach it after it came loose due to dropping the radio trigger on concrete. Claimed reach is only 15m and there is a previous model floating around working on different frequencies although externally shaped the same way. We have 2 of the older units and battery chqanging did not reactivate them.<br>

On the plus side: That trigger doesn't drain batteries as rapidly as Jinbei's remote and is quite tiny. <br>

I hope somebody else will contribute the missing 85% of an answer to your question.</p>

[michael_bradtke]

<p>B&H has a package of two Pocket Wizards for about half of what I payed for one in 2008.</p>

<p>http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1074537-REG/pocketwizard_801_329_pocketwizard_plus_x_two.html</p>

[Two23]

<p>Pocket Wizard may not be the best. It depends on what you want the triggers to do. I own about 10 CyberSyncs which I use to trigger monolights and speedlights, sometimes up to ~200 yards away. What are you trying to do with triggers?</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

 

[paul_k1664875007]

<p>You get what you pay for</p>

<p>I have gradually over the years bought an number of PW TT'5, and have found them very reliable both with my speedlights (SB600, SB800, SB910 and even SB400, all used in CLS and manual mode) and my Bowens and Hensel monolights (only need an extra, if somewhat expensive, cable).<br>

I have both the SU800 and AC3 controllers, so being able to adjust and even switch off any of the speedlights and some of the monolights (some of the monolights have a built in optical slave which bypasses the TT5 even when it's switched off) while on the go is part of my normal work flow.<br>

<br />Phottix has the Odin range which offers similar possibilities, at a lower price, which are also well reputed, although some compatibility issues have been reported with some newer Nikon camera models</p>

<p>If you don't need TTL, PW has the well renowned Plux III and cheaper Plus X, while Phottix has the lower priced Strato range<br>

Both brands have an excellent reputation as far as functionality and reliability is concerned, even if not the cheapest one around.</p>

<p>There are plenty of cheapo radio triggers from other manufacturers around.<br>

But in the end you get what you pay for, and the 'extra' money you spend for a higher marker segment product usually turns out well spend in the end when issues about quality and compatibility arise which demand after market customer service.</p>

[robert_stig]

<p>Yongnuo 603mk2 605 622. I have 8x 622n slaves i used at weddings and they are workhorses. Theyve fallen many times and one busted open when falling to the floor with a flash (use 6 shanny sn600n flashes) and I glued it closed with quick glue and it works and works. 78 bucls shipped fot a pair of transceivers so that means any can sit eother on the flash or the camera and thats very convenient in stress and if one goea rogue and you have a few, just uae another and ur set, as it can used as a receiver or transmitter. If one doesnt work with a tx/rx sex youre out of luck. </p>

<p>Imo the yongbuo slaves outsell anythibg out there today. At least amongst wedding photogs I know/seen/work with</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>When I bought radio slaves I took a close look at the Paul Buff/White Lightning Cyber Sync units. I was pretty impressed, esepcially for their price. There are a number of other units out there that seem good and people are happy with.<br>

But I ultimately went with Pocket Wizard for a number of reasons. The biggest is that I work from time to time as a second shooter and Pocket Wizard is the most widely used radio trigger. Of all the photographers I personally know who use radio triggers (as opposed to those here online), I don't anybody who uses anything else. With PW, I know that if I go out on a shoot my gear is going to be compatible with the people I'm working with. If I need to trigger their lights I can and if they need to trigger mine they can (and we can set channels appropriately so we don't trigger each other's if we don't want to).<br>

PW is also built into some light meters and strobes. And now that they have the basic model for $99.95 (and the two-unit package linked to above for about $85 per unit) they are competitive with the lower priced brands.<br /><br />Also, they are all transceivers, so I don't have to worry whether one I've grabbed is transmit or receive.<br /><br />Finally, I've only had mine maybe five years. But people I know who have had them for 10-15 years say they are still going and going despite rugged use.</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>Well I'll second the advice to look at YongNuo RF603 N IIs or 622s. The 603s are transceivers that work as dumb flash triggers or as camera remotes (with the appropriate cable). Radio triggering isn't rocket science or advanced technology and I can't see how PW justify their prices.</p>

<p>It depends what you want to do though Raihan. If you want full remote control of manual flash power or AWL-type TTL control, then it's going to cost a bit more, but there are lesser-known brands that offer those facilities for a lot less than PW TT5s. For simple flash triggering the RF603s have a good range, are well-made, take easily obtained batteries and are a darn sight more compact and ergonomic to use than a PW walkie-talkie stuck on top of the camera or dangling from a strobe. Reliability is a non-issue IME, since I've used a variety of cheap radio triggers and never had one let me down. Besides, you could buy a complete kit of RF603s plus spares for the price of a PW pair.</p>

[sebastianmoran]

<p>Pocket Wizzard are the established high-quality brand. The B&H link above for two pieces is hard to beat.</p>

<p>The Yongnuo have worked very, very well for me. All this is changing. The old pocket wizards were much, much more expensive.</p>