Pocket Wizards Vs. Radio Poppers

Why aren't Skyports in this competition?

Bob D. wrote in post #5798000
"The range is less however, at about 400 ft"

I read the above and thought...would it be possible to extend the range of wireless triggers using a repeater type technique? Would there be too much delay? I don't know the answers and I can't try it 'cause I don't have the hardware to do it out but I can tell you what I am thinking might work and maybe someone can shoot it full of holes of prove or disprove it.

You'll need two transmitters, each an a different transmit frequency
Also need two receivers and two flashes.

1. Setup XMTR #1 on camera.
   
2. Place Flash #1 some distance (close to its MAX range) away from the camera.
   
3. Fire a test shot and verify the setup and range are OK so far.
   
4. Place XMTR #2 alongside RCVR #1.
   
5. Set XMTR #2 on a frequency other than that of XMTR #1.
   
6. Connect XMTR #2 using a hotshoe adapter or what have you so that it is fired by RCVR #1 along with Flash #1.
   
7. Place RCVR #2 and Flash #2 some distance (close to MAX) from XMTR #2.
   
8. Set RCVR #2 on frequency 2.
   
9. Fire off a couple test shots and see what happens.

Actually you wouldn't need a flash at the middle location, you could just chain a receiver to a transmitter.

The contacts on the transmitters and receivers should be dry (produce no voltage of their own, just close a set of contacts), so shouldn't hurt either half of the setup.

I am sure that it is possible, but you may lose some sync speed, as you mentioned. It'd be cheaper in the end to just get the PW's if you needed the extra range though.

One thing that is fun is if you have a camera that does not have a hotshoe or PC connector but allows manual control of the flash, you can hook an optical trigger up to the Skyport transmitter to fire an external flash. I'm guessing you could to the same with PW's with the right cables.

I have 4 sets of PW's. use them to trigger remote cameras and flash. Have no problems and love them..... I now am the owner of 2 sets of RP's,,, don't knock them till ya' try them, they have there place and work flawlessly. Great addition to my equipment list.

Radio Poppers are a nice concept and allow ETTL operations,but the maker got greedy and decided to overcharge for them by pricing them as high as Pocket Wizards. Millions of professionals have proven that the PW's are state-of-the-art and the benchmark for quality and reliability. Why would anyone buy some knockoff like the Poppers when they can get the pro's choice for the same price? Photographers have gotten along perfectly well and are assured of great results with the Wizards. The Poppers have no real benefit, especially when they are so simple and inexpensive to make, but priced so outrageously high.

Magic_Puzzle wrote in post #5799426
Radio Poppers are a nice concept and allow ETTL operations,but the maker got greedy and decided to overcharge for them by pricing them as high as Pocket Wizards. Millions of professionals have proven that the PW's are state-of-the-art and the benchmark for quality and reliability. Why would anyone buy some knockoff like the Poppers when they can get the pro's choice for the same price? Photographers have gotten along perfectly well and are assured of great results with the Wizards. The Poppers have no real benefit, especially when they are so simple and inexpensive to make, but priced so outrageously high.

Hmmmm.... so you can design, market and manufacture a set of ETTL radio triggers for less? RP's are priced competitively, offer a similar range as the PW's and add ETTL functionality. Some might say that the PW's are the greedy, overpriced option.

I'm not a big fan of RP's, but they are a good product and insinuating that they are priced high because the maker is greedy is ludacris. Some people think that charging $100 for an 11x14 means that a photographer is greedy. Don't like the price, don't buy the product. Trying to run down someone who has worked hard and spent countless hours developing an idea is just baffling. The price of something isn't all in the manufacturing process. Isn't your time worth something?

Magic_Puzzle wrote in post #5799426
Radio Poppers are a nice concept and allow ETTL operations,but the maker got greedy and decided to overcharge for them by pricing them as high as Pocket Wizards.

Whoooaaa I think he is just trying to get his money back that he spent developing them... Lower prices come after initial costs have been recovered...

Magic_Puzzle wrote in post #5799426
Radio Poppers are a nice concept and allow ETTL operations,but the maker got greedy and decided to overcharge for them by pricing them as high as Pocket Wizards. Millions of professionals have proven that the PW's are state-of-the-art and the benchmark for quality and reliability. Why would anyone buy some knockoff like the Poppers when they can get the pro's choice for the same price? Photographers have gotten along perfectly well and are assured of great results with the Wizards. The Poppers have no real benefit, especially when they are so simple and inexpensive to make, but priced so outrageously high.

Knockoff? What exactly are they copying? The guy figured out how to take an IR signal, turn into radio, send it, have it received and converted back into and IR signal at 1/8000 of a second.
Easy huh......

PacAce wrote in post #5798581
The PocketWizard Plus II and MultiMax units work exactly as you described above in Relay mode except that the transmitter (XMTR #2) and receiver (RCVR #1) are incorporated into one PW unit.

OK, wasn't aware they would operate in that manner.

Magic_Puzzle wrote in post #5799426
Radio Poppers are a nice concept and allow ETTL operations,but the maker got greedy and decided to overcharge for them by pricing them as high as Pocket Wizards. Millions of professionals have proven that the PW's are state-of-the-art and the benchmark for quality and reliability. Why would anyone buy some knockoff like the Poppers when they can get the pro's choice for the same price? Photographers have gotten along perfectly well and are assured of great results with the Wizards. The Poppers have no real benefit, especially when they are so simple and inexpensive to make, but priced so outrageously high.

Where were you on the stop down metering / automatic aperture metering question?

How about the great manual focus / automatic focus showdown?

Or the film / digital face off?

The "Photographers have gotten along perfectly well" argument would seem to apply there also.

I am not a zealot for Radio Poppers, or Pocket Wizards, but just because something is in widespread use now, and is utilitarian, does not mean that something else might not come along to replace it (and I am not saying that Radio Popper is that product).

But, if you move back about 8 or 10 years (or so) you could have used the same argument with Pocket Wizards being the upstart to the market that was totally controlled by Quantum.

"Photographers have gotten along perfectly well" with Quantum radio slaves.

Enjoy! Lon

Magic_Puzzle wrote in post #5799426
Radio Poppers are a nice concept and allow ETTL operations,but the maker got greedy and decided to overcharge for them by pricing them as high as Pocket Wizards. Millions of professionals have proven that the PW's are state-of-the-art and the benchmark for quality and reliability. Why would anyone buy some knockoff like the Poppers when they can get the pro's choice for the same price? Photographers have gotten along perfectly well and are assured of great results with the Wizards. The Poppers have no real benefit, especially when they are so simple and inexpensive to make, but priced so outrageously high.

You're kidding, right? For starters, greed is almost never an issue in pricing products, unless you consider maximizing your profits greed. I call it common sense. Market price is determined by the intersection of the supply and demand curves, where marginal revenue equals marginal cost, and so on. Fortunately, your idea of "fairness" isn't involved in the calculation.

As for the Poppers themselves, they occupy an entirely different role from Pocket Wizards. Pocket Wizards are still going to be the choice if you need to fire studio strobes or remote cameras, or if you're on a tight budget. Radio Poppers are for people with the cash to use multi-flash ETTL. As much as I'd love to have abilities like high speed sync with radio triggers, I can't afford a bag full of dedicated strobes, so it's still Pocket Wizards for me...

bieber wrote in post #5800198
Pocket Wizards are still going to be the choice if you need to fire studio strobes or remote cameras, or if you're on a tight budget.

That's the first time I've ever heard that PW's are for people on a tight budget.

Kinda kidding, I do see your point, you can get a PW & a cheap strobe for about what a 430EX costs.

DDCSD wrote in post #5800235
That's the first time I've ever heard that PW's are for people on a tight budget.

Kinda kidding, I do see your point, you can get a PW & a cheap strobe for about what a 430EX costs.

Yep. Radio Poppers are technically cheaper, but when you consider that you have to couple them with more expensive strobes, well, you see what happens. Especially considering that they can't act as a standalone transmitter.

I have two RP receivers hooked to 580 EX II's and a RP transceiver on an ST-E2 and couldn't be happier (well the hookup is a bit hokey) but I can shoot with ETTL at 200 mm at 2.8 with shutter sync speeds as fast as I want to go. I know the HSS has less power but FEC covers that. For me, I get to use all the functions of my 5D with ETTL, manual, ratios, high speed sync, and i can shoot at whatever aperture I want. I got tired of constantly shooting at f8-12 and having 1/200th shutter sync limitations and missing all the bokeh. Great product and well worth the money. My only want is for them to be built into the flash itself as the RP setup is not as durable as I would like.

jgogums wrote in post #5799690
Knockoff? What exactly are they copying? The guy figured out how to take an IR signal, turn into radio, send it, have it received and converted back into and IR signal at 1/8000 of a second.
Easy huh......

Build your own:

http://www.rentron.com​/IR_TO_RF.htm

or convert something like this:

http://www.amazon.com …ol-Extender/dp/B000C1Z0HA

somtim wrote in post #5800843
but FEC covers that.

I'm afraid it doesn't. FEC is just about how much light your flash decides to put out, it has nothing to do with what it's capable of. The problem with HSS is that the maximum power of your flash is actually decreased: it has nothing to do with how it's metering the flash.