Best Replacement for Pocket wizard? Softbox or Umbrella?

[MH_91]

Hey everyone,

Hope you all doing great, and having a great weekend so far..


i have a quick question over here, and i hope someone could help me out here...

so i have around $350 budget to buy new stuff for my camera, i am planning to buy Flash trigger and maybe a softbox..

i want the best replacement that is close to Pocket wizard.. basically a Trigger that support the Ettl... ( i must have 3 of them, one of the camera, two for flash's )

and for Modeling, couples pictures (they are outdoor\daylight) do you suggest a soft-box or Umbrella?


looking froward to hear from you guys

let me know if you have any other questions!


cheers,

 

[tirediron]

Do you want these triggers for speedlights or monolights and why do you want TTL capability? What's wrong with PWs?

 

[ghache]

3 triggers/transmitter that does TTL with a flash and a softtox? you will need alot more than 350$..

 

[MH_91]

Do you want these triggers for speedlights or monolights and why do you want TTL capability? What's wrong with PWs?

for speedlights, right now i have the cactus v4, and to be honest sometimes they do amazing job, and sometimes they are horrible, because they dont work prefectlly work, sometimes they fire and sometimes they dont...

so i decided to go with pocket wizard but woow those things are soo expensive!! if my photography carrier was a full-time job, i would buy them with no problem. But my photography carrier is just a part time thing, and i only accept clients during summer time where i have lots of free time...

 

[MH_91]

i have two Flashes 430 ex II and his big brother 580 EX II, my main priority is the triggers. i have a softbox right now, but is in horrible condition because of the over-used


after this information you still think $350 is not good enough... i can raise it till $450...


less dates i guess this month LOL

 

[Big Mike]

There are only three options for wireless E-TTL.

One is the built-in system. All you need is a 'Master' unit (580EX) and then some slaves (580/430). With what you have, you would have to keep the 580 on camera, leaving only one remote flash. This system is limited because it uses pulses of light, not radio waves, so it can be hit and miss.

The next option is the TTL Pocket Wizards...but they are not cheap.

The next option is the Radio Popper system. This system basically piggy-backs the built-in system with a radio signal. So you would still need a Master (580) on-camera, plus you would need Radio Popper units on the Master and the Slaves. So it's an expensive system as well.

So as you can see, wanting to use the E-TTL system is going to blow your budget. But if you can work manually, then you have more options.
If the Cactus V4 isn't working well enough for you, you might try the newer V5, it's supposed to be better....but the V4 was supposed to be a lot better than the older units....so who knows.

What I did, was to get the Cyber Sync triggers from Alien Bee. They are a lot more expensive than the Cactus triggers, but still not as expensive as the Pocket Wizards Plus IIs. They have worked very well for me, the only issue for me, is that the sending unit take a flat 'watch' battery, rather than AA or AAA, which is a pain....but it keeps the sending unit really small.