forget pocketwizards, hello yongnuo...yongnuo peeps, need advice

ive been using pocketwizards for many years now. great performance from the plusII but the tt1 and tt5 leaves me wanting something more reliable. i cant even get the tt1 and 5 to work 6ft away from me outdoors. and why not keep the plusII? well that thing is as big as a brick. figure i sell my PWs and cash in and get something else.

so yongnuo users, which yongnuo do you have and why? theres just too many for me to choose from. i just need basic off camera triggering. not doing anything fancy.

Are you fixated on getting the YN stuff? There are some other solid options out there that you might be overlooking. The cactus v5 for example, is a rock solid trigger with some handy features. Both the 602 & 603 from YN are great options and the reliability is tops.

Other brands include the pixel series, which has quite a few versions of their products, but there are some design considerations to keep in mind.

In the end, 602/603 would work great for you. There are some differences, but if all you are looking to do is raw triggering, the 602 fits the bill perfectly.

I have a set of 603's for bare bones basic triggering. Tonight I did a distance test and walked to the end of the street(1/5 of a mile) and they flashed no problem. The ability to double up as a camera trigger doesn't hurt either. The new 603's work as transceivers which makes setting them up a breeze. The 603's eliminate that transmitter and the weird battery so you wouldn't have to worry about that and went straight to AAA's. Easily replaceable.

I'm actually in the process of putting up a youtube video about the 603's if you want to check it out in a few hours.

My 602s have been completely reliable and I've fired them from about 20ft with no problems.
I am considering getting 603s because like K&K said, that weird battery in the 602 trigger isn't rechargeable and having to keep a spare one with me whenever I go somewhere just in case is annoying.

cactus looks great but for the cost, i rather go YN if there really is not difference since i need 8 of these. cactus does look smooth in its hardware design. YN looks pretty dopey.

thanks for the suggestion guys, looks like the 603 is great, price is ultra-right. id love to see those vids too. yea i guess i wont have to deal with the 602 battery then (whatever it is), those 603s are all aaas. i love the idea of all transceivers too.

I would not bother with the YN RF602s, they are very reliable and have worked great for me.

But the CR2 and TX/RX is annoying. i'd just get the 603s or the Cactus V5s. The plus on the v5s is the channel selection is actually useful, so setting up multiple light set-ups would be easier.

cactus actually looks pretty nicely designed. i would get them except their price is pretty much $20 higher...nifty flash legs though hehe

whoa im just looking at the cactus specs....those are some nice specs over the YN stuff..........reconsi​dering!!!!

Video is up

I had 1 set. just received 2 more sets I ordered last month.

Why ditch PW II for something that isn's as reliable ?

Not sure what you are shooting with but my max shutter speed with a 5Dmk2 and the 602s is 1/160th. Anything faster gets the black bar.

^ not sure why that is because I have the 602 and can shoot at 1/200 just fine and the black bar starts to creep in at 1/250

Elinchrom sky ports work a treat

kaitanium wrote in post #12223670
ive been using pocketwizards for many years now. great performance from the plusII but the tt1 and tt5 leaves me wanting something more reliable. i cant even get the tt1 and 5 to work 6ft away from me outdoors.

I was frustrated with this on the first day too. Make sure you turn the tt1 and lights on in the right order.

For power On, I go flash (or strobe), TT5, TT1, then camera. Then fire a test shot to calibrate and sync everything. I haven't had a missed shot yet.

On my 5D Mk II, the usual xsync is 1/200". With the PW MiniTT1, I get 1/250" and 1/320" perfectly clean. 1/400" starts to show some shutter curtain at the bottom of the frame. And then I set the crossover to HSS for 1/500" through 1/8000".

On my 1D Mk III, the usual xsync is 1/250". But with the TT1 I get perfectly clean 1/500" and full power from my strobes. And then at 1/640" I crossover into HSS.

I've bought and tried most of the yongnuo and cactus triggers over the years. After switching to the PW flex/mini, I can't imagine ever switching back.

I'm not knocking the Cactus or Yongnuos... they're a great value if you just need/want a manual trigger. But if you already have the miniTT1 and PW's, just make sure you're using them right before you switch, especially if you need/want the ETTL, ControlTL, optimized xsync, HyperSync, HSS, and/or seamlessly mixing speedlites and strobes (with remote level adjustability too).