After shooting some beta units in December (which allready got me hooked) today the retail versions were send to me by the Dutch distributor fotoflits.
Let's start off that they came in at the right moment.
I was teaching a workshop and we had some camera's which had great problems with the tristar radio set (missing 1 out of 10 flashes and sometimes not working at all unless you reposition it slightly behind or in front on the hotshoe).
The skyports worked the rest of the workshop flawlessly, no-one missed one flash, so that's part I. They are really as reliable as they tell you.
Part II.
There are two different configurations (actually 3, one with the USB connection but we don't use that in the studio so I will keep it at 2).
1. The RX set.
With this set you get one transmitter and two receivers.
With the RX set you can manually change the output settings on your RX unit in 1/10th steps.
You can do this for ALL groups or for one of the four groups.
In other words.
The skyport systems works with 4 groups which can be set solo or as all groups.
Let's say we have a setup with 2 RX heads, one measuring f11 and one f8.
I shoot in ISO50 and one of my students uses ISO100.
You can now set all groups and change 10 steps less output for BOTH flashunits (RX) and the other shooter can use ISO100 f11 and f8 without changing his aperture.
Normally I had to walk to the flashheads and change it manually, now just select both groups and press 10 times.
But there is more fun.
Let's say we use one accent light and one mainlightsource, off course we change the lightoutput of both, or one by one (making one RX group 1 and one RX group 2).
But we can also switch instantly between using ONLY the mainlight, to using both or ONLY the accentlight.
Normally you have to walk to the flashunits and unplug them or power them up again.
But this is for the RX units, what if you own FX/Dlites or another brand ?
2. The universal set.
The mainunit (transmitter) is the same, only now there is a universal receiver delivered in the package.
Although you can't change the strobe power of the flashunit you can still use groups. So if you own 3 units buy the universal set + 2 extra receivers and you can fire the flashes indepentend of each other.
Of course you can still use the optical triggers of the other flashes, but if you want to work in groups it's even possible with the universal set.
The fun thing is, you mix the RX and universal in the same studio and this way manually control the output for your RX strobes, and fire all flashes independend of each other.
The reach of the units is wonderful, I tried firing the units from my living room which is about 25 mtrs from the studio and through the walls it still worked, the Tristars gave up as soon as I was 10mtrs outside the studio.
I think for the money this is a sure buy for anyone that is looking at a good radio trigger system, the universal set is priced slightly above a 4 channel tristar set, and as mentioned before they miss some shots, the Skyport doesn't (yet 
)
Hope this is a bit helpfull.
Greetings,
Frank
