Skyports or PW's

bieber wrote in post #5907775
Yes, but it would still be a lot of unnecessary expense. Buying a couple AA's every couple months really isn't that big a problem...

If you buy good quality alkalines, it would only be two, maybe three purchases before you're even. Then you start saving, both your money and the environment. It was a pretty easy decision for me, once I saw how long the Eneloops and Imedions last on the shelf.

tim wrote in post #5901483
Give me a couple of days then PM me, i've used PWs a bit, and my skyports arrive in a day or two.

So, what's the verdict Tim?

I use skyports. The only advantage I can see to buying PWs is if you want to trigger flashes in another solar system. If it's less than a few hundred feet, go with skyports.

Build quality is fine. And you get a padded case for them.

PW's all the way. I love mine!

photojournalista wrote in post #5981165
So, what's the verdict Tim?

I've only used them a little around the house, they seem to work reliably up to about 90 meters. The ebay ones worked almost as reliably at home, they just misfired constantly at weddings, so we'll see in a month - it's winter so I don't have many weddings on. I might use them for some portraits in a couple of weeks too. Build quality is acceptable, not like PWs though, but way better than ebay ones.

Build quality seems fine to me but I know the antenna is aching to get snapped off.

I just bought two more skyport receivers. The first one worked good but I have 3 sunpak 383s I could use with them by setting each up separately around a room, and my last wedding experience made me think that getting extra receivers would be very useful.

tim wrote in post #5985108
I've only used them a little around the house, they seem to work reliably up to about 90 meters. The ebay ones worked almost as reliably at home, they just misfired constantly at weddings, so we'll see in a month - it's winter so I don't have many weddings on. I might use them for some portraits in a couple of weeks too. Build quality is acceptable, not like PWs though, but way better than ebay ones.

I used mine at a long reception on the 19th. Zero misfires and the only issue was my lights (Vivitar 283s using just 4AAs) not recycling fast enough for my trigger-happiness. That of course has nothing to do with the Skyports.

If you don't mind the build (which I admit is rather chinsy), you should like them very much.

Having said that, I had to exchange the one set of transmitter & receiver because the transmitter started to lose contact both at the shoe and with the cord. They were starting to misfire at the end of a short wedding on the 12th. Since that was my first gig with them, I assumed it was user error until I got home to try and trouble-shoot. The test button worked great but the shoe and cord connections were duff.

The replacement set works fine though so I assume the other trigger problem was just a fluke. It also fits tighter in the shoe than the first one ever did. Heck even the case the replacements came in is better.

Hook up a fake battery and seal lead acid cells to the flashes cdi, they cut recharge time down by 2/3. My 383s dropped from 9s to 3s, maybe even less, under full charge. Costs very little too, I just have the SLAs in a small case I found at a local electronics store, sitting under the light stand. Fake batteries are way easier than how I did it, soldering directly onto the PCB. I can't use batteries in mine any more, doesn't matter as they were too slow anyway.

You mean like a Quantum type deal? I've been thinking about doing something along those lines. If I have outlets available though I can just use SB-4 AC Adapters. They're only 18 bucks each at B&H.

AC sounds like a pain in the butt, that's why I use SLA batteries. Those AC adaptors reduce the cycle time by half, which is pretty good, SLA bats I think are even better as you can draw a huge current from them, more than a little AC adaptor.

I'm wondering where I could get dummy batteries in a cluster though. I could tape them together I guess but then I'd have to wire them up as a cluster first. I'd rather get a cluster and run a wire from that, or even better have it pre-wired.

tim wrote in post #5986144
AC sounds like a pain in the butt, that's why I use SLA batteries. Those AC adaptors reduce the cycle time by half, which is pretty good, SLA bats I think are even better as you can draw a huge current from them, more than a little AC adaptor.

I'm with Tim on this one. If I'm gonna worry about AC power, I might as well bring my monoblocs!

Rudi wrote in post #5986435
I'm with Tim on this one. If I'm gonna worry about AC power, I might as well bring my monoblocs!

But they're heavier than a hot shoe flash and an AC plug.

Not much... I travel with my D-Lites regularly, they pack into a bag as small as my hot shoe flashes and accessories! Plus, my recycle time goes down to just over a second, and I can do that all day without setting them on fire.

There's no way a D-Lite is as small as a 283 and an AC plug. Sorry. Not possible.