strobes and lights and wireless and the rest of the gig

Outrageous · Jul 18, 2009

well, pending me not having to buy a netbook soon, I'm looking at a small chunk of change to throw at a simple wireless strobe setup. I dont have neough for a full setup from pocketwizard(as i would've wished) so my options are limited.

Here's what I was thinking.,.....

flash

transmitter and reciever combo

I know its no alienbees nor pocketwizard, but for some decent night shots and whatnot will it be good or no? Am I missing anything major that will aide in such shots?

In2daBlue · Jul 19, 2009

The Bowens will get you far, but only so far. The question is how accurate do you need your wireless set up to be? PW is the industry standard for a reason. They rarely, I mean rarely, miss a flash. Bowens do miss signals about 5 percent of the time. So, if you need to rely on hitting your mark each and every time (weddings for example have moments you can't afford to miss) than I wouldn't waste the money on Bowens and would save up for the PW. If you're shooting static subjects that will offer you multiple opportunities to get a shot, the Bowens system will work fine.

The biggest mistake I made in buying photography gear in my career was to start with a knock-off wireless system. As I said above, it worked most of the time but I ended up missing too many important shots when the system just wouldn't fire the flash. I ended up spending the money for the PW system in the end. If I had just bought the right gear to begin with I would have saved a lot of money in the long run. But, my efforts to save money ended up costing me money. That, especially in photography, never feels good.

Proceed with caution.

JerryPH · Jul 19, 2009

Spend some time over at the strobist.com site and the strobist flickr group. This is something that has been discussed ad nauseum.

For budget triggers, it's hard to beat a set of modded Cactus V2s triggers. Mine still get over 350 feet... but when it comes time for me to do weddings... it is Pocket Wizards... or nothing.

For budget flashes. the VIVITAR 285HV is hard to beat.

benhasajeep · Jul 19, 2009

That Vivitar flash you listed does not have a pc sync so would not work with the Bowens wireless system. It is a dedicated shoe mount flash only. Now you could get a pc to shoe adapter. And use it that way though.

We have been using a set of Cactus V4's (new version from them) now for almost 2 months. I just did a range test and feel they are reliable to 200'. They allow hot shoe or pc connections (no adapters or modifications needed). My wife has used them on 5 shoots now without a problem.

Like Jerry said the Vivitar 285HV is a work horse. It was brought back after being out of production due to demand. And it does have a PC terminal to it can be used with the Bowens set or others not based on hot shoe use. And of course it can be used on hot shoe as well.

RyanLilly · Jul 19, 2009

I really like the Vivitar 285HV, it does have a sync terminal, but its proprietary, it does however come with an adapter cable. I too have modded V2s' and you cant beat them for the price as long as you know where to find cheap battery holders and scraps of wire. I have heard very good things about the V4's right out of the box.

JerryPH · Jul 19, 2009

There are then all the other triggers... from Cyber-Syncs to the Cactus clones and PT-104 and *their* clones. In the end, they all do the same, within their limitations. That is why I said to go to the strobist flickr group and search... you will find enough info there to keep you reading for days... lol