Elinchrom Skyport..

Hey, those are nice shots.

Enjoy! Lon

hy guys
got a quick question do the skyports have a coded signal like the PW or do they only use the 2,4ghz frequenz. Also interesting would be are the skyports missfireing like the cactus trigers. Thanks 4 your help
konstantin

konstantin wrote in post #4578674
hy guys
got a quick question do the skyports have a coded signal like the PW or do they only use the 2,4ghz frequenz. Also interesting would be are the skyports missfireing like the cactus trigers. Thanks 4 your help
konstantin

I am not sure about the coded signal, they have many channels availabile if needed.

I have not yet had a missfire due to the triggers them self, I had a bad PC cord, and with that replaced I have not had a missfire yet. I have around 400 ish shots playing and seeing if they can keep up and seeing what fresh batteries and a sunpack 383 set at 1/8th power can do and keep up with.. (it is impressive really.. and as soon as I quit seeing blue/green dots everywhere I look I will resume my unofficial testing)

MT Stringer wrote in post #4578435
Here is a couple of pics from my first real world test of the Skyports and remote flash.
The occasion was a candlelight service Christmas Eve. The church has about 20 rows of pews so the lights and I were about 75 feet (just a guess) from the folks on stage.

I'm not sure if I had any misfires but a couple of the pictures look like one flash dominated the other. In this case It appears the 540EZ was more powerful than the 430EX as I guess it should be. Both were set at 1/4 power and 80mm zoom and aimed at the stage.

They were mounted in the balcony with the 540 at camera left and the 430 at camera right. I was below at the rear of the church shooting the 20D with Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 with 1.4xTC.

Exposure info was ISO 400, 1/100th SS at f/4 - 280mm. Both pics were cropped a little.

Notes: I didn't have any problem with the transmitter trying to come out of the hotshoe even though I rotated the camera several times from horizontal to vertical.
Impact Super clamps, Flashzebra swivel brackets and my homemade hotshoe adaptors plugged into the Skyports completed the flash mounting setup for each one. Setup took about 10 minutes and boy, I was nervous. It ain't easy being easy!

I asked my wife, SIL, granddaughter and the pastor if the flashes bothered them and they all said they didn't even notice them.

I shot 94 pics with only one or two dark ones and I tribute those to rapid firing the second shot and the Speedlights weren't ready yet.

Mike

glad to see those skyports getting good reviews from others. i don't know if you tried this, but you might want to use a faster shutter speed next time as I can see a little motion blur in the photo of the man. just my $0.02

Yep, it caught me off guard also. I had lowerd the SS from 1/160 to 1/125/ to 1/100 so I could get more of the ambient light into the picture and light up the background. I prolly should have shot a little faster.

Thanks for the kudos. I'm trying to get this off camera stuff figured out.
Mike

konstantin wrote in post #4578674
hy guys
got a quick question do the skyports have a coded signal like the PW or do they only use the 2,4ghz frequenz. Also interesting would be are the skyports missfireing like the cactus trigers. Thanks 4 your help
konstantin

You choose between eight frequencies in the 2.4 GHz band. The frequencies range from 2456 Mhz to 2475 Mhz. Frequency selection is done via selecting various combinations of three dip switches on the transmitter and receiver. Presumably the advantage of having multiple frequencies to select from is to avoid interfering with another photog in the area also using the Skyports.

I presume they produce a digital signal, since the receivers can be set to one of four groups and the transmitter can be set to trigger only one group or all four groups simultaneously.

Among the features listed in the instruction manual, it says "40 Bit security encryption". I'm not an electronics geek so I don't know what that means. You can, of course, trigger as many receivers as you want. They do not require a "handshake" like the way you program a garage door opener transmitter.

As a side note, I took my Skyports out today and tested their range. I could fire from about 500 feet away, with direct line-of-sight, and sync at 1/250.

These things are way better than the Cactus units. The Skyports are professional units, the Cactus triggers are toys by comparison.

thanks for the info curtis. all useful info for this "sticky-able" thread.

hi
thanks guys that was what i wanted to know.

Ok everybody, I am about to pull the trigger on these and I want to make sure im getting the right things Ill need to work with my 285HV and 430EX:

1 Universal Skyport Set
1 Extra receiver
1 Skyport to 285HV adapter from Flash Zebra
1 Hotshoe to skyport adapter from FZ


Anything else I am going to need?

That list looks good to me, assuming you already have light stands & umbrellas.

Yep, ive already got everything else, I have just been getting VERY tired of the wired setup and I also do alot of group type shoots and I want to be able to just set my lights where I want them, and not have to move anything or be attached to them while the other people Im with are shooting. Plus alot of the people Im working with are only using available light/reflectors and I like something a little more than that.

Im excited, but now I have to wait for shipping!

bluphoto wrote in post #4364214
Actually, yes, I have opened up a receiver - the case is glued together and isn't the easiest to open, though. I split it open to discover why Skyports couldn't fire my 580EX2 (and as it turns out, the Vivitar 285HV). I have it taped back together right now, but a few spots of superglue should seal it up more permanently soon.

I have a photo of the battery (and circuit board) http://www.flickr.com/​photos/9356902@N05/

As you can see, it's a 3.7V cell, similar to those used in Cellphones. I imagine that 3xAA's would serve the same purpose, and have almost the same capacity.

You could probably actually USE certain cellphone batteries, but you'd need the circuitry of the cellphone to be able to charge it up! - and to house it.

Best regards,
Guy Carnegie

Guy, thanks for the informative photos of your bravery! you did the POTN a great service! i think for most consumer products where the need for compactness usually leads to soldering the rechargeable battery pack, which is great from a manufacturing point, but bad for consumers.

so do you think there is a way we can DIY an external battery pack for the skyports? i know radio shack sells some battery holder case, that could probably be either superglued or using double sided velcro to stick onto the receivers. assuming that 3 AAA will provide the same voltage it needs.

I'm sure it will be cheaper than buying a plane ticket for the receivers to fly back to switzerland to get it's battery pack replaced. by then it'll be over the 1 yr warranty and it's either buy a new receiver or rig up some DIY.

any ideas?

no one?

EOS mE wrote in post #4586093
so do you think there is a way we can DIY an external battery pack for the skyports? i know radio shack sells some battery holder case, that could probably be either superglued or using double sided velcro to stick onto the receivers. assuming that 3 AAA will provide the same voltage it needs.

Alkaline battery cells provide approximately 1.5 volts each. Three of them in series provide 4.5 volts, and that is significantly more than the 3.7 volts provided by the internal battery in the Skyports.

Judging from the photos, it does not appear that - once you get the receiver case apart - it would be difficult to replace the original battery in the Skyport receivers with another just like it (purchased from Elinchrom, of course).

Im starting to have a few issues firing lights with these now , was a real pain yesterday, If I move around the light which the receiver is plugged intoduring the shoot , its frequently not firing .Same thing happens when I transfer it to another light , yesterday It completly refused to work on one of the lights but was then fine when swapped to another ?? any thoughts ? seems like it might be a connection issue.
John