Radio Triggers I Use
The Radio trigger is a way to fire your off camera flash without the use of cables or line of sight. This is an amazing invention that helps us be more creative and be able to do things with our lights that we would never be able to do before.
Back in the film days we used to have to be tethered to a cable to fire the off camera flashes. The cable would many times get in the way, so when Infrared came along it felt like a God send! The problem with infrared is that it needed line of sight to be able to fire the strobes.
Welcome to 2012 and the transmitter has transformed into a radio signal. The benefits are huge, we don't need line of sight, we can actually shoot through walls and the distance we can be away from our strobes is amazing. There are soooo many choices, some extremely expensive and some extremely inexpensive. So which should you choose?
Well, it's really up to you. I love to shoot Manual mode and I rarely ever use CLS (Nikon's Creative Lighting System) or Canon's E-TTL system to fire my strobes. I feel that this is liking going back to the Infrared days where you need line of site to fire the strobes. The softboxes I use which are Westcotts require the strobe to be in the softbox so the firing with line of sight gets complicated. Although using these systems have their benefits, I prefer to use Manual Radio Triggers.
These are the two types of triggers I recommend!
PHOTTIX STRATOS II
I was first introduced to the Phottix Stratos II on a trip to Hong Kong! There are a couple of reasons I really like these and I have them as my first recommendation. First, they are really well made, like most triggers now a days, they have a hot shoe. This is really cool because it will fire almost any flash even if it doesn't have a sync cable. This is great because you can save some money on the flash unit you purchase since you don't have to buy one with a PC Port!
Another thing I really really like about these is that you can have 4 different groups of lights and control them right from the transmitter. So for example, you can have 2 background lights on group A and your main light on group B and for a shot you don't want to use the background lights, all you have to do is turn off group A right on your transmitter and only group B will fire. It's really useful when you don't have an assitant or if you want to just shoot and have different lighting options.
The downside of these triggers is that they are a little more expensive than some others, but I think the grouping makes it totally worth it! If you are on a super budget and want the most bang for your buck...go for the Yongnuo's below.
NOTE: Make sure you purchase the correct version for your camera since these work as wireless shutter releases as well!
BUY PHOTTIX STRATO II FROM ADORAMA.COM OR AMAZON.COM
YONGNUO RF-603
WOW is all I have to say about these triggers. If you are on a budget or if you break or lose triggers as much as I do, then these are for you! I've had an amazing success with these Yongnuo's, they fire almost every time ( I say almost because I have had some misfires although not enough to worry me). And best of all, you can get a pair for under $40.00! That's nothing compared to others. Now I warn you, there are less expensive triggers out there but this is the lowest I will go! And honestly, $40.00 is nothing when it comes to triggers, so don't go any lower.
The RF-603 models replace the RF-602's that I started shooting with. These new models are actually Transeivers, which means that each one can be a transmitter or reciever, they are interchangeable! This is a feature that is usually reserved for more expensive triggers, but you know how China works. Take expensive and make it flat out cheap! Now I will be honest, the build quality is not amazing, but to me it's more than enough. I've dropped them, tortured them and have killed a few. But at $40.00 a pair....does it really matter? I've had my RF-602's for over 2 years and they are still going strong.
So if you are on a budget, or simply think that it's dumb to pay so much for radio triggers, these are for YOU! If you want a little more quality and versatility, get the Phottix triggers above!
NOTE: Make sure you purchase the correct version for your camera since these work as wireless shutter releases as well!
