JerryPH
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2007
- Messages
- 6,111
- Reaction score
- 15
- Location
- Montreal, QC, Canada
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
I have a cheap 'ebay' trigger. It works well enough on my older flash units or to trigger my Alienbees but it doens't work well with my Canon flash.
I have used it at weddings but not for anything too important. I do plan to get something more reliable like Pocket Wizards.
There are a few people on the flickr strobists site that did the modification to to their ebay triggers using a cell phone antenna to increase range and reliability.
There are some satisfying results and then there are a few that are not so happy. Apparently doing this introduces some kind of power emission that negatively affects the way the picture comes out in the camera.
Personally, if you have such a need, save, steal or borrow for the Elsachrome or Pocket Wizards.
Lucky for the few Nikon owners that can use their off-strobe setup wirelessly without needing to invest in this.
Also, as another potential answer, one could purchase a studio setup that uses flash synch only to trigger their strobes. Thats what I have on my setup and it works very well. I can manually set the camera's flash unit down to 1/128th and from 20 feet away (thats the furthest I could go to test), still trigger them, or use the SB-800 as front fill from even further and acheive the same results... but now we are talking distances that I either do not think I will ever see or need.
Using this method, you may not need to invest in PWs, and could put the extra money into the strobes to afford a higher or more powerful model.
Me, I was VERY lucky... my father gave me his setup. It works just awesome for me and adds a LOT to my pleasure of learning. It is somewhat portable in the sense that I can fit this all into a large hockey equipment bag and carry it easily enough. I do need two 110V plugs on location... or I could just get myself 1 or 2 more SB-800s and I am gold. At one point, we even had a 5 strobe setup flashing away just for kicks... my SB-800 (low front fill) and on camera flash (the main trigger), the 2 studio strobes (side fill) and his Metz flash (as back light). I was not pleased with the results, but it was a TON of fun to see all of this lighting up the room!