# Any suggestions on cheap ebay triggers / poverty wizards?



## CowGummy (Jan 21, 2012)

Hi guys,

I've been asked to do some promo shot photography for a friends band and I will want to make use of some off-camera flash. Can anyone recommend a decent, but cheap (as it's a friends band, this ain't no earner...) set of triggers that would be both reliable and safe (considering possible voltage issues) to use with my 5DII and a 430EXii along with an old Vivitar zoom thyristor 285?

So far I've had a a look at the RF-602 (or RF-603 - although I've read they're not as reliable as the older model) and the cactus v4/v5. Does anyone have any experience triggering the older Vivitar I've got alongside my EX430ii? 

Not bothered about TTL as I shoot manual 100% of the time anyway, although if I could get the transmitter on the hotshoe to give me the option of attaching the EX430ii on top of it for fill-lighting (and having the option of TTL might be welcome for this) and the Vivitar always fired remotely that would be ace. Failing that I would happily settle for a full manual setup with both flashes triggered off-camera.

Any thoughts from some strobists on here would be much appreciated - thanks!


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## pwp (Jan 21, 2012)

After nearly dropping the Visa card on Pocket Wizards, I lucked out when a friend aimed me towards the Cybersync http://www.paulcbuff.com/cybersync.php from Paul C Buff .

Super impressed with these, and with PCB stuff generally. Went ahead and bought four Einsteins http://www.paulcbuff.com/e640.php and lots of modifiers. 

Definitely check out Cybersync. You'll want the transmitter http://www.paulcbuff.com/cst.php and receiver CRSB http://www.paulcbuff.com/csr.php

Paul Wright


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## D.Sim (Jan 21, 2012)

CowGummy said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I've been asked to do some promo shot photography for a friends band and I will want to make use of some off-camera flash. Can anyone recommend a decent, but cheap (as it's a friends band, this ain't no earner...) set of triggers that would be both reliable and safe (considering possible voltage issues) to use with my 5DII and a 430EXii along with an old Vivitar zoom thyristor 285?
> 
> ...



I use the RF-603... Only problem I have with it is if the flash goes into sleep mode, then wakes up again, it wont fire. Turned off the sleep mode on my flashes for that....


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## CowGummy (Jan 21, 2012)

Thanks to both of you for the replies. 
I've had a look at the cybersyncs and they seem to have some great reviews - my only concern is that as I'm in the 
UK they would incur import taxes and take a while to get here. But thanks for the detailed links! 

Anyone have any thoughts on the compatibility of the Vivitar with the rest of my setup? I only ever use it off camera, and fire it via the 'test' button on long exposure work for light painting through coloured gels. I bought it about 3 years ago as it got a few thumbs up in flickr light painting group, but was always explicitly warned aout connecting it to any other photo gear due to high voltage issues??


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## wickidwombat (Jan 21, 2012)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Wireless-Flash-Trigger-2-Receiver-fr-Canon-430EX-580EX-/330416587250?pt=AU_Cameras_Photographic_Accessories&hash=item4cee5d01f2

i have these ones, never had any problems with them, they work with my elinchrom studio ligths as well as the 580s so i can mix them up

the recievers take AAA batteries


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## smirkypants (Jan 21, 2012)

I bought a half dozen of the Cowboy Studio flash triggers from Amazon. I bought them to use for some location shoots in not the best parts of town where I don't want to bring the "good" gear. I use them with a rebel and a couple of old/used minolta flashes that I inherited from my dad. I have never had a problems ever. They work great and if you wreck them, they are so cheap to replace. Full manual, very basic, highly functional. Buy two sets just in case. You can buy a raft full of them for what Pocket Wizards cost.

http://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-NPT-04-Speelights-extra-receiver/dp/B005IQRMN4/ref=pd_cp_p_0


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## RC (Jan 21, 2012)

How about renting a 580 EXII to use as a wireless trigger for your 430 EX and maybe rent second flash or two if you need to fire multiple flashes?


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## CowGummy (Jan 21, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback all - much appreciated. It's good to hear that people seem to be happy with the reliability of their poverty wizards. 

I think I need to find internal peace with throwing the Vivitar 285 into the equation. Yes, renting another speedlite would solve the issue in the short run, but I actually really like both the ruggedness of the old Vivitar and also the quality of the light output from it. It's always been a great flash for me when using to 'paint' in Bulb mode. 
Just been spending the last couple of hours researching if it's safe to use or not - I think i need to make sure myself, so it's off to buy a multimetre to test trigger voltage before anything else happens...

Does anyone know the 'safe' upper limit voltage wise for the 5DII off the top of their head?


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## Maui5150 (Jan 21, 2012)

I used the CowBoy Studio crap for a few months before going PocketWizard. With Cowboy, you either can use hotshoe or radio trigger. Not both. i.e. if you use radio triggers on strobes, you are fine, or if you you remote hot shoes on flashes, but you can't fire both, unless you are doing it optically. Had a lot of misfires with the cowboy studio as well.


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## Picsfor (Jan 21, 2012)

I've got rf602's and they were the main thing at Strobist shoots.

Although they came in Canon or Nikon flavours, they worked with either, and they worked with any flash gun we attached them to. Of course we weren't using and ETTL features, and worked them all manually - but I never heard of any one having problems. 

For £40 approx, I don't think you can go wrong, and that's 1 transmitter with 3 receivers!

How cheap do you want to get?

Oh, and I've seen a few pros use them on location shoots, so they can't be bad!


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## xROELOFx (Jan 21, 2012)

What a coincidence, I was just looking for a good trigger system myself. After spending a couple of hours of searching and reading reviews last night, I found the Phottix Strato II to be the best choice.

They are not the cheapest, but from what I understand (from reading all the different reviews), deliver the best quality for the lowest amount of money. A set with a trigger and a reciever costs about 75 euros.

What I really liked about this system is that you can mount a flash on the trigger, while it's on your camera. The trigger sends the normal TTL information from the camera to your mounted flash. And at the same time you can trigger another flash (attached to the reciever).

Another pro for me was the ability to upgrade to the Phottix Odin system later (wich is the PW killer at the moment). You're than able to use the Odin to send the signal, and use a Strato reciever to catch it.


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## Maui5150 (Jan 21, 2012)

I have to laugh at the Phottix Odin being called a PW killer.

For one, it has EXTREMELY limited availability, unless you consider eBay as a primary delivery channel. It currently does not appear that there are ANY stores in the US carrying the Odin.

I have asked about the Odins at two stores in the Boston area that carry Phottix (i.e. they are not just a jealous PW shop) and they do not carry the Odins and were not planning to carry the Odins for "reliability" reasons. 

How the Strato IIs they do carry and do like, so it also does not seem to be a manufacturer bias.

I am all for competition, cheaper priced items and thing when there are high quality competing products the consumer wins. Have seen the literature, heard some people talk about the Odins, but know no one in the US or North America that carries the Odins or have plans to carry it. And when I see highly established long running shops that carry the manufacturer, but don't plan on carrying a particular product (i.e. it is by choice) that is NEVER a good sign. Tells me stores are worried about returns, service grief and disappointment.

If it was a cheaper PW killer, I am sure stores would be clammering especially being able to sell or upsell people from cheap triggers into "High Quality" TTL at a fraction of PW cost.


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## unruled (Jan 21, 2012)

http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/cactus-4-channel-wireless-flash-trigger-set-v2s.html
cactus triggers

super cheap but good. around 60$

or http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/cactus-wireless-flash-transceiver-v5-duo.html


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## picturesbyme (Jan 21, 2012)

I have this a while ago and it haven't failed me yet...
For the price (under $30) it def. worth a look

http://youtu.be/s5shvFGUf3g


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## CowGummy (Jan 21, 2012)

Okay, I think I will go with the RF-602 - they seem to be getting the most votes for cheapo triggers, both here and in the flickr strobist group discussions. 
I do however really like the look of those phottix strato II. I like the fact that it does give the option of mounting a flash onto the transmitter, but availability in the UK is questionable. 
I hear that this would be possible with the RF-603 (Transcievers) as well, but most people appear to prefer the older RF-602 system? 

Anyways, thanks again - I think I'm close to ordering and appreciate the input here!


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Jan 21, 2012)

I bought some of the low cost wireless triggers from ebay. They had about a 6 ft range on a good day. Be careful.


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## Neeneko (Jan 21, 2012)

While this is not quite an answer to your question, have you considered that you might not need radio?

Radio triggers are kinda a luxury, they make the job easier and less hassle free, but there are cheaper ways to get the job done.

For instance, I was on a shoestring, so I went with sync cords instead. Yes they require having a physical wire between the camera and the flash, but they did the same job at a fraction of the cost. I still have not upgraded since I found them so effective and when I asked myself 'do I really need wireless?' I kept coming back with 'not really, I could use that money for other things'.


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## unruled (Jan 21, 2012)

neeneko, I agree with you (and have done the same myself), that said even with cheap chinese TTL cables and hotshoe adapters, I wasn't too far off from cactus triggers (~60$) and those work flawlessly in my testing. Id rather cactus over yongnuo.

nobody else here tried cactus before?


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## CowGummy (Jan 22, 2012)

Neeneko said:


> While this is not quite an answer to your question, have you considered that you might not need radio?
> 
> Radio triggers are kinda a luxury, they make the job easier and less hassle free, but there are cheaper ways to get the job done.
> 
> For instance, I was on a shoestring, so I went with sync cords instead. Yes they require having a physical wire between the camera and the flash, but they did the same job at a fraction of the cost. I still have not upgraded since I found them so effective and when I asked myself 'do I really need wireless?' I kept coming back with 'not really, I could use that money for other things'.



Okay... you've got my attention. I agree I don't desperately need radio triggers to get the results I'm after. I use an IR (ie: optical) trigger for my Interfit EXD200 studio strobes, which works fine indoors, but a nightmare outdoors. I have tried, and this is the reason I wanted to do this with radio triggers and speedlites instead. 
What would I need to be able to fire both the 430EXii and the Vivitar 285 at the same time if I wanted to go the wired route??

If I can do that for a fraction of the cost - I'm all ears!


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## CowGummy (Jan 22, 2012)

unruled said:


> neeneko, I agree with you (and have done the same myself), that said even with cheap chinese TTL cables and hotshoe adapters, I wasn't too far off from cactus triggers (~60$) and those work flawlessly in my testing. Id rather cactus over yongnuo.
> 
> nobody else here tried cactus before?



Dang, I've just been on the Gadget Infinity site and have to admit - those V5 Cactus triggers look like an even better bet than the RF-602 option! I'm really liking the design, and I found a pretty detailed comparison on flickr for some of these triggers and the Cactus V5 came out tops, even above Pocket Wizards:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157626183761590

Only problem, I believe Gadget Infinity ship from Hong Kong and I would most likely incur import taxes on these, and no idea how long it would take to have them arrive in the UK. 
But they look like a real contender to the RF-602 which I thought was going to be the ones I would be getting. Now I'm not so sure. 

And going the wired route, if cheapest, might make most sense from a financial point... AArgh!!


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## Neeneko (Jan 24, 2012)

unruled said:


> neeneko, I agree with you (and have done the same myself), that said even with cheap chinese TTL cables and hotshoe adapters, I wasn't too far off from cactus triggers (~60$) and those work flawlessly in my testing. Id rather cactus over yongnuo.



Actually, there are some ultra-cheep solutions that use wired systems, depending on what the flashes accept. For instance I went with a set of hot shoe adapters ($10ea) and used regular old 1/8" stereo cable. Granted that does not get you TTL, but if the OP is using a vivitar manual flash then they don't have that anyway. One of the nice things is such a setup scales to multiple flashes very nicely since you can use cheap stuff from radio shack for all the connections.


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## unruled (Jan 24, 2012)

CowGummy said:


> unruled said:
> 
> 
> > neeneko, I agree with you (and have done the same myself), that said even with cheap chinese TTL cables and hotshoe adapters, I wasn't too far off from cactus triggers (~60$) and those work flawlessly in my testing. Id rather cactus over yongnuo.
> ...



my friend from greece that bought some didn't pay import duties afaik.. but maybe he got lucky. How much are the import duties, any idea?


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## Goshdern (Jan 24, 2012)

I use the Aputure Trigmasters, $30 for a tx rx pair and $20 per extra rx unit. They are rated for 100m but you can get further if you have good los between them.

I use them with a 5dii and (2) 580exii's. They do have a new all in one tx/rx unit too now I see.

The ones I have and the new ones can be used to trigger the shutter too if setup right. Plus make sure you buy the right ones, rebel ones don't work with the 5dii for example.


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## PaperTiger (Jan 26, 2012)

http://www.adorama.com/FPRRS16.html

I'm not 100% on the quality of these, but they were mentioned in a year-end article by Popular Photo. FlashPoint is made by Adorama, as far as I know. $40 for a trigger and slave? Not too bad.


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## D.Sim (Jan 27, 2012)

CowGummy said:


> Okay, I think I will go with the RF-602 - they seem to be getting the most votes for cheapo triggers, both here and in the flickr strobist group discussions.
> I do however really like the look of those phottix strato II. I like the fact that it does give the option of mounting a flash onto the transmitter, but availability in the UK is questionable.
> I hear that this would be possible with the RF-603 (Transcievers) as well, but most people appear to prefer the older RF-602 system?
> 
> Anyways, thanks again - I think I'm close to ordering and appreciate the input here!



You can mount the flash on the 603 - the 603 works as transmitter AND receiver, so no matter mixing them up too. 
And in reply to another post - While they come in Canon/Nikon flavours, thats pretty much the wire that connects the remote trigger to the camera, you can use it without.


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## Hillsilly (Jan 27, 2012)

I'm using the Cactus V5's. Good range, reliability and battery life. If you are worried about flash voltage, you can put the flash transmitter on the hot shoe and then put your flash on the transmitter. This should allow you to use "on camera" flash without the voltage problem. Obviously, off camera is fine, too. 

One thing I really like about the V5s is that you can use them as a wireless remote control, which you can't do with some of the other cheaper options.

Previously, I was using the V2s. The V2s had poor build quality. After a couple of years, they just stopped working. The V5s seem much better in all apsects. But I've only had them for a few months so can't talk about long term reliability. I've never used pocket wizards, so can't compare directly, but I understand that the build quality is higher and the range is longer. Like most things, you get what you pay for.


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## kentandersen (Jan 27, 2012)

I have a 60D and bought the rf602. They worked fine as flash trigger, but are not working as remote controll. Only 603 is working as a remote with 60D. I called the seller at amazon, and they tolled me that I needed 603 for the new cameras, and they then shiped the 603 to me. 602 is also not compatible with 603... So, you need to make a choise between them.


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## xROELOFx (Jan 27, 2012)

yesterday i recieved my Phottix Strato II triggers. i have only used them for a couple of test photos, but so far they work really well! this weekend i'm having a portrait shooting session, if you guys are interested i can write a little review of these triggers next week.


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## SPG (Feb 9, 2012)

Maui5150 said:


> I have to laugh at the Phottix Odin being called a PW killer.
> 
> For one, it has EXTREMELY limited availability, unless you consider eBay as a primary delivery channel. It currently does not appear that there are ANY stores in the US carrying the Odin.
> 
> ...


I'm kind of surprised to see that response. Odins aren't everywhere like PW, but I just picked up a set of Odins from Midwest Photo Exchange, and I noticed that Adorama and a few other stores are now carrying them so they are becoming much easier to find. I still don't think that Phottix has the best distributor relationship built up yet and I also wouldn't be surprised to see stores reluctant to cut into their PW sales. Who knows? It's so hard to get a straight answer from the guy behind the counter on this kind of stuff.
I was specifically looking for a way to do HSS shooting sports with off camera speedlights since HSS doesn't work very well at any kind of range. I looked at the PWs and just couldn't do it. I know PW IIs are the standard, but I really wanted to use HSS and there are just too many negative issues with the TT5s. 
I've been using the Odin's only for a few days, but they haven't misfired once, were ridiculously easy to learn, and being able to adjust every flash function remotely is a dream come true. No more running in the snow just to dial a flash down a stop or change the zoom. Couple buttons to push and that's it. The screen on the back couldn't be easier to use. The only question for me right now is just how far the range on them is. So far I haven't run out of range shooting, and in a couple days I'm going to have a long range showdown with my buddy's PW set. Should be fun.


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## xROELOFx (Feb 9, 2012)

SPG said:


> Maui5150 said:
> 
> 
> > I have to laugh at the Phottix Odin being called a PW killer.
> ...



i'm curious about the results. could you maybe post somekind of comparison between the Odin and PWs? stuff you do and dont like about the 2 different systems, that would be really great!


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## wickidwombat (Feb 9, 2012)

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/220480629754?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
these are the exact brand of poverty wizrds i have i have used them up to probably 20m or so range with no problem, I have recently got a set of odins which i'm playing with and liking alot but i still keep these little bad boys 
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/220629550134?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
i have these too so i can mix my 580s with my studio strobes getting all these triggers and recievers was cheaper than buying some elinchrom genuine bits to do the same thing


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## SPG (Feb 10, 2012)

xROELOFx said:


> i'm curious about the results. could you maybe post somekind of comparison between the Odin and PWs? stuff you do and dont like about the 2 different systems, that would be really great!


Sure, it's going to be a few days before I can get out and do that PW vs Odin test since me and my PW owning buddy seem to be on opposite schedules. So far there isn't anything I don't like about the Odins. They're just super easy to set up and adjust, and have been nothing but reliable in the short range stuff I've been doing with them. The last thing to check out before I pass final judgement on them will be long range. If they do that, then we have a winner.


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## wickidwombat (Feb 10, 2012)

SPG said:


> xROELOFx said:
> 
> 
> > i'm curious about the results. could you maybe post somekind of comparison between the Odin and PWs? stuff you do and dont like about the 2 different systems, that would be really great!
> ...


I'm loving the group controls on the screen on the back of the odins super easy to tweek your ETTL settings


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