450D and 3rd party wireless lights

Have just set up a modest home studio using the kit detailed in the following Ebay listing:

http://www.ebay.com.au …_trksid=p3984.m​1423.l2649

No problems except that the wireless transmitter/receiver does not work. In all other rspects things are fine, the strobes trigger from the cameras own pop up flash and all test buttons on the strobes and wireless receiver activate the flash ok. The instructions that came with the unit are as good as useless though and canon's own manual for the 450D gives no advice for using 3rd party items, trying to change settings in the flash menu only results in a "unsupported item" type message.
It may well be that my camera is just incompatable with this unit, which has Neewer on the transmitter and RT-16 on the receiver. If this is the case what, if any, wireless or non wireless solutions will work with my camera? To complicate things even more, there is a fair chance I'll be upgrading to a 550D in the near future given the great run out pricing at the moment, so how if at all will this affect things?
Have enjoyed taking photos using just the modelling lights so far, so it isn't a dead loss by any means, but I certainly want to get the whole lot working right.

Hal55

The Canon flash control menu is just that. A FLASH control menu. Not a 3rd party wireless trigger control menu. You need a Canon flash or Canon compatible flash connected to the hotshoe to use that menu. With anything else in the hotshoe you are going to get the incompatible message. This does not mean it will not work. It just means that you cannot set any options thru this menu. There are not any options to set on these inexpensive triggers anyway so no big deal. There is another problem if the triggers are not working. Dead batteries. Usually the problem. Transmitter and receiver not on the same channel. Or just defective.
Is there a test button on the transmitter that you can see if the two units even talk to each other?

Batteries have been changed and that's not the problem, tried the test button on the units and sure enough they are defective. My wife also tried them on her Olympus camera and still dead.
Have found some other cheap triggers on Ebay but if I wanted to spend a bit more, to say 30-$50, what should I be looking at?

Hal55

The most popular and well liked right now are the Yongnuo RF-603 and the Cactus V5 units.

Thanks, the Rf 603 is nicely within budget. The ebay merchant has been advised of the problem but I'll probably just get a better quality unit, particularly if he wants the thing returned to China before replacing it. May as well just pay the extra and get a nicer unit and no it will be reliable.

Your advice much appreciated,

Hal55

hal55 wrote in post #13537191
H
No problems except that the wireless transmitter/receiver does not work. In all other rspects things are fine, the strobes trigger from the cameras own pop up flash and all test buttons on the strobes and wireless receiver activate the flash ok. The instructions that came with the unit are as good as useless though and canon's own manual for the 450D gives no advice for using 3rd party items, trying to change settings in the flash menu only results in a "unsupported item" type message.

Hal55

probably because it's not ETTL, the Yongnuo ETTL flashes (YN465, YN467, etc.) work with the camera's internal flash menu