Absolutely in love with the 600EX-RT and ST-E3-RT, but....

After fussing with everything over the years (Yungnuo triggers, 7D IR trigger, PocketWizard TL, etc.) I grew to hate the looking out of the corner of my eye with ever photo to see if the flash fired or not.

I recently splurged and bought the 600EX-RT and ST-E3-RT and am completely enamored. I just trust this setup. It's amazingly versatile and rock steady. I'd go as far as to say I am happier with this "upgrade" than moving to a 5D3.

I ran in to a slight challenge this past weekend when shooting that led to my first gripe. I did my research beforehand and knew this was an issue, but now I'm kicking myself a little for "being cheap".... I was shooting a couple minutes after sunset, and I wasn't able to get focus.. The fact that the ST-E3-RT doesn't have an AF assist is silly. I probably should have bought another 600EX-RT instread of the ST-E3 as I would have had an AF assist and may consider that at a future point. Although, that's a very expensive AF assist, when something like a flashlight (which I ended up having an assistant use) will get me there too...

I'm hoping Canon will announce a non-flagship RT flash in the coming months that I can use for off camera in these situations.

But, I wanted to put this out there as a reminder to those that think the ST-E3-RT and 600EX-RT setup is ideal setup for off camera flash. It is... 99.9% of the time.

I did just that and purchased 2x 600ex-rt's simply for the focus assist. I recall being so frustrated shooting in low light with my AC3 pocket wizard (no focus assist beam). Its is a more spendy approach in having a trigger on shoe. Problem is that having flash on shoe makes it more bulky when you just want a simple RF trigger with remote flash power controls.

At this moment I dont own a 5d3 so I'm shooting in group mode A and B to make my 600ex-rt play nice with my camera for ETTL. I'm still getting acquainted with the 600ex-rt's.