Wireless flash set up advice

Hi Everyone,

Nice to be here.

Question from a newbie to the forum but been a photographer for a few years.

Up until now I have used mainly studio flash or simple available light outdoors however, I have recently started shooting a few indoor events and a couple of weddings and so far have stuck mainly to the flash on camera and bounced it, or else shot through a brolly nearby with STE2. I've used ETTL with all of this, but I do want manual control to be available to me.

I am now looking to go wireless with my Canon system ( 580EXII, 580EX, 430EXII, ad STE2) so I thought I'd ask for your thoughts.

In particular I'm wondering whether to go with a "simple trigger" solution (like the Elinchrom Skyport or the now available in Europe Cybersync,) or a more fancy one which allows for ETTL as well as manual. If I go with Cybersync I'm stuck with max sync speed and with my 5Dmk2 at the end of a wireless connection that might only be around 1/125s- 1/160s Is this really enough? I know High Speed Sync has its problems but feel it might be beneficial to have a system which allows for this. What are your views?

If I go for a more highly specced system I'm torn between the Radio Poppers or the Pocket Wizards. The latter would worry me due to my using 580s and also I have heard a lot of reports of PWs frying these units. The whole thing seems a bit of minefield to me!

That leaves Radio Poppers. Would you recommend them for my purposes. They are expensive but if they did the job I wanted I'd happily pay. The only issue is that I'd either have to lose a flash to sit it on my camera or use my STE2. The latter seems fine and I believe I could still use the flashes on manual when I wanted ( maybe most of the time?) as long as I made adjustments locally. This doesn't seem too much of a sacrifice to me.

Do people think its worth the extra money to have ETTL and HSS or would manual do the trick? If so given what I've said above would the RP be the best option? As I say I've used mostly ETTL so far but am pretty experienced with a light meter and honestly would happily use manual but am worried by the limitations of shutter speed and also I'm considering ETTL is pretty damn handy when you're in a rush!

Anyway all advice gratefully received
.

William

HSS will rob your flash of quite a bit of power, so most likely you'll have to put in some +exposure compensation on your ETTL mode to make up for it, making your flash work a bit harder.

At the shutter speeds you mentioned, HSS isn't really a factor, and you could probably get away without using the HSS feature, unless for some reason you're trying to compete with the sun as a light source, then a higher shutter speed will definitely help you compensate for that.

I personally have never used the Radiopoppers, but I have a good buddy who does use them, and I've seen some crazy stuff with how he uses them. He syncs 4 flashes on one "quadra" shoe and radiopopper, sets up HSS, and goes to town - he shoots at crazy shutter speeds like 1/3000th of a second, and with 4 flashes, has plenty of power to not only beat the sun, but completely drown it out.

I have cybersyncs, and they're great - but I've yet to have a reason to need HSS. When I'm indoors, I bounce as well, or use a strobe mounted in a corner triggered by a cybersync and use a 580 EX II on camera for fill light, while triggering the strobe via PC sync port and a cybersync transmitter.

You might also want to consider the Pixel Knight line - I hear they're doing good things with their triggers, but as they're somewhat new, I'm not sure of their reliability.

I use pocket wizards plus2 and flex and love both ..with the 580exII and the 430exII..good luck

Click the link in my signature. I've written a detailed tutorial on using the Canon wireless flash system.

You may want to consider the Yongnuo Rf-603 or 602's. Those are very inexpensive and work flawlessly. They have no HSS feature though nor ETTL capability.

You may also want to consider the new Pixel King which does have ETTL capability and I think HSS also. These are more expensive than the Yongnuo's but much less expensive than Pocket Wizards. There is a thread in the "Market" section.

I had two Canon 550 ex's which can act as both a slave or master in setting up like Tiberius47 was suggesting. It's a neat setup but not as reliable as the wireless triggers. There also must be a clear view between the master/slave units. Anyhow, there was a percentage that wouldn't flash whereas the wireless triggers were pretty much 100%.

Good luck

Thanks for the advice folks. Good information on the link Tiberius, thanks for that.

Having slept on it, I've decided the Radio Poppers might have to wait until I'm richer and really need them. Over here in the UK they cost the equivalent of $310 for each unit and I'm not sure I can justify that at the moment. For one transmitter and two receivers the Cybersyncs would work out at around $400 here as well ( understandably due to VAT, duty, and distribution costs ) so not really that great value for me although still a lot cheaper than the PW.

Anyway I reckon I might go for the cheaper eastern brands and will check out the ones suggested above.

Thanks very much for your help


Willie

ROGERWILCO357 wrote in post #13142549
I use pocket wizards plus2 and flex and love both ..with the 580exII and the 430exII..good luck

How are you able to use the 403exii w/ pocketwizzards?

akridbeast wrote in post #13160612
How are you able to use the 403exii w/ pocketwizzards?

i have 430exii and PW TT1 & TT5, they work fine with my old XTi. I upgraded to 60D and PW TTL mode is not consistent with 60d and PW is slower on upgrade the firmware only beta firmware work on 60d

I am planning on sell the PWs for Yongnuo RF-603, I can use the built-in wireless mode with the 430exii with ETTL, manual wireless flash and trigger with the Yongnuo RF-603 and have $300 left