Quick strobe trigger question(s).

[Irishwake]

Okay I'm gonna sound like a noob no matter how I word this so here goes. I'm about to order some studio strobes and I need a way to trigger them from my D90. I'm getting the AlienBees B800's and I want to trigger them wirelessly. I can only assume I have to buy a hotshoe mounted wireless trigger + a receiver for each strobe?

I also want to use the flash from the AlienBees to trigger my SB-700 which will either be a hairlight or background light, depending on the shoot. Will this work without the popup flash on my D90 being up? Or can I just use the hotshoe transmitter to trigger my SB-700?

Thanks!

 

[tirediron]

There are a host of wireless triggers available. They fall into two categories, either optical or RF (radio). Your best bet will be to get an RF trigger (ranging from the gold-standard Pocket Wizard at $250/unit to the Cactus Trigger for as little as $20/unit) for whichever light is going to be your key (main) light and use the ABs built-in optical slave for to trigger the remainder of your ABs. Depending on positioning, you will need either another RF receiver for the hair-light, or a hot-shoe mounted optical trigger.

 

[Irishwake]

Okay so, hot shoe mounted RF xmit from camera to key light, key light optically triggers other AB and SB-700 provided they have LOS. That will at least save me the money for one RF receiver, although all things considered, not much.


Thanks for answering my question!

 

[tirediron]

:thumbup:

 

[ghache]

you should get a radio reveiver for the sb-700. Optical triggers works but can also be a pain when there is something blocking the light from going to the sensor. I use sb-600s and vivitar 285HV in studio and i fire them with radio triggers. most optical triggers are cheap and misfire.

 

[kundalini]

I'm assuming you were at the PCB website at some time to check out the AB800. Right there is a link to the CyberSync. I use them for my Nikon SB flashes and White Lightning strobes. They have yet to fail.

 

[mwcfarms]

But they are more expensive than the cactus triggers too are they not? I think you can get a cactus set for 60$ that includes a receiver and transmitter while the Cybersync is 60 dollars just for transmitter.

I do know however that cybersyncs have better range.