E-Bay trigger V2 mini-review

Wow, as you can see, i wrote last night that i ordered the V2 trigger a week ago, thinking it would arrive this next week, but it arrived this afternoon. Very fast, as other people have said before. And it works perfectly so far. VERY happy customer

I just gone mine today and after some headaches, trial and error, and lots of flashes later, I am somewhat happy with them. I say somewhat because they are not 100% reliable, and I guess that is the price you have to pay.

I first started testing it out in a small room, where I got ALOT of misfires and non-fires. (just to note: I've been testing these with a 580ex and a 430ex, I bought an extra receiver) Feeling frustrated, I modded the transmitter with the extended antenna, but that didn't really help the cause. I've tested the receivers by themselves without the speedlites on them, and they fired off almost 100%.

Eventually, I moved around the house to test it in different conditions. I got a lot less non-fires and at some point, seemed like it was reliable. This was when it dawned on me that I have a 2.4 cordless phone station in that room. Perhaps it was causing a lot of interference with these radio triggers. Still not 100% reliable, doesn't always fire both flash at the same time. I've gotten up to 1/250 sync speed with one flash, but since they don't always fire at the same time, I had to use something lower.

I ended up playing with just one flash and that was a more enjoyable experience. I had 1 bad misfire in about 20 shots that I did.

Anyways, to sum it up, try it out in different locations and try to minimize the variables that can affect these triggers. I'll be trying these outdoors next.

Sounds like you didn't get a v2. The v2's are the only ones that work with the speedlite range properly.

Anyone know if I can use the V2 to trigger a pair of Alien Bees AB800s?

jestergx4 wrote in post #3477087
Anyone know if I can use the V2 to trigger a pair of Alien Bees AB800s?

You do not want a V2 for an Alien Bee, you want a radio slave that has a receiver with a phone plug, not a hotshoe or PC connector.

In fact, I am of the opinion that you most likely do not want one of the inexpensive radio slaves with the hotshoe even for a hotshoe based flash.

When you eventually gravitate to an umbrella adapter for you hotshoe based flash, the hotshoe based connection is very clumsy and clunky on the umbrella adapter. If you do not use the hotshoe, and use the PC connection, then you have to deal with the unreliability of the PC connection.

The best setup for a hotshoe based flash are the radio slaves the 1/4 inch phone plug (and no hotshoe connection).

Just use a good umbrella adapter for the mechanical connection to a lightstand, and the 1/4 inch phone plug for the sync connection.

This will give you a robust mechanical mount and a robust sync connection. With the hotshoe based radio slaves you have to choose one or the other.

Enjoy! Lon

Ordered mine last Friday, I'm waiting on it with the rest of my lighting setup. After reading the last couple of reviews, I'm happy I also opted for a 15ft PC Cord just in case these triggers aren't as full proof as they may sound.

Caster wrote in post #3477273
Ordered mine last Friday, I'm waiting on it with the rest of my lighting setup. After reading the last couple of reviews, I'm happy I also opted for a 15ft PC Cord just in case these triggers aren't as full proof as they may sound.

I like and use these inexpensive radio slaves, but fundamentally I do not trust them.

That cord is a very good idea.

Actually for off camera I would go with a cord first, then inexpensive radio slaves second. Then if the radio slaves go flaky (and at some point they will), you will have that nice cord to take up the slack.

I always have at least one cord as a backup.

Inexpensive radio slaves are LIKELY to work fine, but they are also REASONABLY LIKELY not to work fine. Often that simple reality is just too real not to have a good cord to fall back on.

Enjoy! Lon

Adcuz wrote in post #3474787
Sounds like you didn't get a v2. The v2's are the only ones that work with the speedlite range properly.

I do have the V2 Cactus radio triggers, so they are not the V1 that don't work at all with Canon flashes. If you check on the strobist forums, you'll find that not everyone is having great success with them. For the price, and what the alternative will cost, you just can't complain.

Rellik wrote in post #3478370
For the price, and what the alternative will cost, you just can't complain.

Yes .. I think here in Canada the PW pair is over $500 and my V2 pair cost me about $30 CDN. So the Cactus triggers are 1/17 the cost. Or to put it another way you could buy 15 sets of the Cactus Infinity along with 15 sets of PC sync cords as backups for less than the cost of one set of PW's.

So it's often easy to lose sight of how great the value is with the V2 and if anyone is really concerned about reliability then a second (or third) set is still WAY less expensive than the alternatives.

Mine have performed perfectly every time and I think that's the general experience .. after all it is just a simple radio transmitter circuit.
Mike

Just received mine today. unfortunately its not working right out of the box. I'm hoping its the battery. I'll be picking up a new one a little later. Let you all know the results. Mannn, I really hope its the battery, I've been dying to play around with this thing.

definitely the battery...works like a charm. Time to play and practice. :P

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for, I'm going to be setting up a strobist kit in the next few weeks ( broke teenager that can't afford three AB1600's ) and this will help out tremendously.

I just ordered a set, do you think the base couldbe reinforced in any way to make it more sturdy? Even a couple of wraps of duct or gaffers tape should increase the strength by quite a bit.

Just curious because I have not yet seen the actual device.

Question: Will this wireless flash trigger work with my 420EX?

disboifan wrote in post #3548001
Question: Will this wireless flash trigger work with my 420EX?

It should work but I have only tried it with a 550ex.