Wireless or wired flash?

decimal

I'm considering playing around with off camera flash, wireless seems like a really cool way to go about it, but the variety and user opinions about doing it on the cheap seems unreliable and seems expensive looking at any proper gear (I haven't searched that much though, any recommendations?).

The alternative is a cheapo shoe cord, but with all photo things, I don't want to buy cheap first, then buy expensive. Any advise please?

melekalikimaka

a wireless light sensor that operates off pop up is cheap and cheerful, add a cheap flash circa 25 euro and your flying

Fajitas!

Oh wireless wireless wireless!!!

I've spent enough time tripping around on f'ing wires in studio's.

Check out Radio Poppers and the Cactus triggers... not 100% reliable, but cheap as chips. You can put together some DIY fixes for more reliablility too.

decimal

melekalikimaka wrote: »

a wireless light sensor that operates off pop up is cheap and cheerful, add a cheap flash circa 25 euro and your flying

I don't really understand what you mean, do you mean buying an extra flash that will fire when it detects the popup flash is fired?

Fajitas! wrote: »

Oh wireless wireless wireless!!!

I've spent enough time tripping around on f'ing wires in studio's.

Check out Radio Poppers and the Cactus triggers... not 100% reliable, but cheap as chips. You can put together some DIY fixes for more reliablility too.

I've heard about those, but haven't done enough research. I have a 430EX, I guess they'd work with any flash? This option sounds best, is it reliable to buy them from ebay?

Fajitas!

Yep, as reliable as anywhere else afaik!

Quite a few members here using them. Don't bother with the cells tbh - You've gotta have all your flashes within line of sight, the other ones work of radio frequencies which means you can play around a bit more.

decimal

Fajitas! wrote: »

Yep, as reliable as anywhere else afaik!

Quite a few members here using them. Don't bother with the cells tbh - You've gotta have all your flashes within line of sight, the other ones work of radio frequencies which means you can play around a bit more.

Cool, thanks a million. Off to research more and then ebay

melekalikimaka

Fajitas! wrote: »

Yep, as reliable as anywhere else afaik!

Quite a few members here using them. Don't bother with the cells tbh - You've gotta have all your flashes within line of sight, the other ones work of radio frequencies which means you can play around a bit more.

thats true... they're fun when you set up lights 'around them', for a specific set up needed they could hinder you

PopeBuckfastXVI

I had an optical trigger and found it more frustrating than useful.

Switched to elinchrom skyport universals, so so so much better!

Placebo

question : for wired to a strobe, do i need a male to male connector ? im guessing i dont need a hot show adapter right ? the tripod head/mount has slot to hold the flash

PopeBuckfastXVI

Placebo wrote: »

question : for wired to a strobe, do i need a male to male connector ? im guessing i dont need a hot show adapter right ? the tripod head/mount has slot to hold the flash

It depends on your flash/camera

If your flash and camera have a pc port then us can use a pc/pc wire, otherwise you are looking at some combination of female hotshoe/pc, male hotshoe/pc or female/male hotshoe

Your tripod head might have a slot to hold the flash, but that doesn't mean you can't stick a hotshoe adapter on top of it, like I said it's all to do with your flash and camera.

Placebo

hot shoe.*
Its a canon 40D and a nikon sb24 and sb25, i think i just need a pc/pc

thanks btw

ThOnda

I have the optical one and it is grand for close setups. Cactus is good up to 15 meters, further could be some misfiring.

Placebo

Where about did you get cactus ? shipping from official site is quite pricey

Borderfox

You can get something similar from Calumet in Belfast.