AC powered radio triggers for studio strobes

I've been able to make it this many years on china-made radio triggers for my several alien bee setups in studio, using just one transceiver and one receiver and the optical slave on the other alien bee flashes. Lately, I've been carting my studio gear on-location shooting in retail stores, homes, businesses, etc and I need to put strobes for kick and fill in locations that are not seen by the optical slave.

Yes, I already know PW's are the best and I should get them, a pair of TT5's are already on my wish-list but not in the cards right now.

Having had 4+ years success with single channel very cheap China-made triggers, I started looking around, what I found was this:

http://cgi.ebay.com …086&_trksid=p51​97.c0.m619

I really like the AC power, it means I won't have to always crate a stack of batteries with me for the receivers. Additional receivers are like $11, so I won't break the bank buying them for the other 3 strobes I have.

Yes, I'm aware AB makes the CyberSync, I don't care so much about adjusting power at the camera.

For under $50 I can trigger all my strobes, which is super appealing to me. I don't need a 4-channel version (they make them) because I never shoot around other people.

Thoughts / explanation why this is a bad choice to buy?

I have used similar in the past and had nothing but a good experience. Same as any other normal cheap Chinese triggers. They work but without the hassle of batteries. If they will do what you need them to do and they are below 50 bucks then surely they are worth a shot

I did a quick look at the link you provided to see what frequency the triggers worked on. The documentation says 433Mhz. I would not buy the triggers because that frequency is subject to noise from all sorts of stuff. There are plenty of choices at 2.4GHz that are cheap and work just fine.

Hope this helps,

110yd

Mike Panic wrote in post #13527843
Yes, I'm aware AB makes the CyberSync, I don't care so much about adjusting power at the camera.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. There are several products under the CyberSync brand, including some inexpensive units that won't give you remote power adjustment and will work with any strobe.

These are the receivers I use:
http://www.paulcbuff.c​om/csr.php
The AC version is pretty much idiot-proof. It's made for Alienbees but will work with any strobe that uses the same type of power plug.

It works with this transmitter:
http://www.paulcbuff.c​om/cst.php

Mike Panic wrote in post #13527843
I've been able to make it this many years on china-made radio triggers for my several alien bee setups in studio, using just one transceiver and one receiver and the optical slave on the other alien bee flashes. Lately, I've been carting my studio gear on-location shooting in retail stores, homes, businesses, etc and I need to put strobes for kick and fill in locations that are not seen by the optical slave.

Yes, I already know PW's are the best and I should get them, a pair of TT5's are already on my wish-list but not in the cards right now.

Having had 4+ years success with single channel very cheap China-made triggers, I started looking around, what I found was this:

http://cgi.ebay.com …086&_trksid=p51​97.c0.m619

I really like the AC power, it means I won't have to always crate a stack of batteries with me for the receivers. Additional receivers are like $11, so I won't break the bank buying them for the other 3 strobes I have.

Yes, I'm aware AB makes the CyberSync, I don't care so much about adjusting power at the camera.

For under $50 I can trigger all my strobes, which is super appealing to me. I don't need a 4-channel version (they make them) because I never shoot around other people.

Thoughts / explanation why this is a bad choice to buy?

So you are going to run power to your $300+ strobes through a cheap china-made $16 POS?

Numenorean wrote in post #13531931
So you are going to run power to your $300+ strobes through a cheap china-made $16 POS?

Where do you think AB's, both the strobes and cybersync's are made?

Mike Panic wrote in post #13533961
Where do you think AB's, both the strobes and cybersync's are made?

Well, they are assembled in Nashville TN with circuit boards printed in Topeka, KS, but of course, it's pretty darned hard to procure most electronic components from US sources.

Don't presume you don't need 4-channels--you might be surprised what can interfere with you on a given channel.

The biggest problem I had with Chinese syncs is spec control from batch to batch. There are a multiplicity of factories creating what are externally the same devices, but often with different specifications--in such things as operating frequencies. I discovered I had to be sure to buy as many as I'd need at once from one dealer, because a few months later the same model was likely to be a different frequency.

I dunno...after purchasing two or three batches of Chinese triggers, I've found it more cost effective to go with the Buff stuff.

RDKirk wrote in post #13534147
Well, they are assembled in Nashville TN with circuit boards printed in Topeka, KS, but of course, it's pretty darned hard to procure most electronic components from US sources.

I'm just looking to see if anyone else is using these lower cost alternatives with any success?

The optical trigger on my AB800's will fire with just the slightest amount of light deviation.....I tested them by putting them in a room and firing a flash outside of the room, in the opposite direction, and they still fired.....it really amazed me how sensitive they are. You might not need anything extra to trigger them.

Point-n-shoot-n wrote in post #13535619
The optical trigger on my AB800's will fire with just the slightest amount of light deviation.....I tested them by putting them in a room and firing a flash outside of the room, in the opposite direction, and they still fired.....it really amazed me how sensitive they are. You might not need anything extra to trigger them.

Thanks for your feedback, I have 3 800s and a 400, been using then since 2005 and lately, as originally posted, in putting kicks in places where there is no chance they will trigger. 2 weekends ago I tried to stash on behind a clients Xmas tree, this weeken behind clients in a 11,000 square foot retail location while shooting with the key on the lowest power thru a softboxes with a diffuser in it. It's out of need, not lack of trying.