economical way to do radio triggers

I am starting to do OCF with 1 580 exII and 2 550 ex's. I currently use a canon transmitter and its working good at home. I just tried to do some outside portraits and found its limitations.

I don't want to spend a fortune but also want reliability.

Any suggestions outside CyberSync's, Pocket Wizards?

Some Yongnuo 603 transceivers will do the trick. I've got a bunch and they've always worked great, despite their low cost. At $30 a pair, I got eight for less than the price of one PW plus II. They're very easy to use to boot!

It all depends on what you want from your triggers.
If you want Ettl then you don't have many choices, I like the pocket wizard mini and flexes
Others have had problems with them, (half of the work crew love them and swear by them, the other half hate them, and swear at them)
there are others too, radio poppers, and I think phottix do one too

If you are ok with manually setting your flash output there are a few options


If you want range, the pocketwizard Multimax or Plus2 are good
(I had a set of multimaxes triggering a remote camera at least 200m away from the transmitter a few weeks back)
The long range translates to reliability at closer ranges too


If you just want something that will work for maybe 20m, and can live with the occasional misfire - then there is plenty of cheap models around.
I did use a set of Cactus V4 from gadget infinity for a while, and they worked well, I am not sure what other models people reccomend

The "cheap models" are now long-range (100 meters), reliable triggers that don't occasionally misfire. But they are manual triggers. So if you don't need TTL, then Stephen's Yongnuo 603's, or even 602's should work fine, or perhaps the Cactus V5's at a higher cost. If you want TTL, then you're looking at the big bucks.

ICactus V5's look nice too, I wish I had saw those before hand

The Canon wireless system has a lot of limitations outdoors, but it can be used if you are careful. It does, however, limit what you can do a lot.

There are inexpensive radio triggers that are just triggers. All they do it fire the flash. You have to set all the power levels manually on the flashes.

There are E-TTL triggers, which allow you to use E-TTL with your off camera flashes. E-TTL radio triggers are currently rather expensive.

So the first question is, do you need E-TTL for your radio triggers?

i wold like the ease but I see E-TTL would be out of my price range. I ran across the Pixek King setup but they don't work with my 550 ex's. So looks like an ebay set if I decide now to go that route.

cactus 5's are bulky but they have rave reviews.

RF-603 seem to have a following aswell for inexpensive triggers.

Another recomendation for the RF-603's. If you are using manual flash that would be your best bet.