Camera Labs

Hi all.

I have a 3 strobe lighting kit and use a cheap and cheerful wireless trigger when taking portraits. The strobes have built in infrared, so I only need to use one receiver to fire the 3 heads. I have recently moved home and have set up my studio in a large conservatory and this seems to be causing me problems. It would seem that with the light coming through the roof, the I/Rs now wont work, when I take a shot, only one strobe will fire. To buy electric blinds for the conservatory will cost a fortune, due to the amount of roof so now I'm looking for a new wireless radio trigger and receiver set that will fire all 3 heads.

I'm looking for recommendations for a decent set to do the job, ideally I would like a few options from cheap and cheerful through to pro gear.

All help and advice is as always much appreciated.

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Canon 5D Mk2, Canon 50D, Canon 24-70 2.8L, Canon 70-200 2.8L, 50mm 1.4, 580 Ex2, and a load of other bits and bobs.

A more expensive option:

Pocket Wizard Flex system

It works 75m away in harsh Dubai sunlight (I've tried, not for practical purposes but just to see!) so I'm sure it'll work in your conservatory!

Add an AC3 controller on the top of your camera and you can dial in power through 3 zones independently, either in full manual mode or TTL or both.

Thanks for the reply Dubaiphil, I've just been checking them out, all the reviews seem mainly positive, although one guy talks about them being cheaply made?

Seems it will set me back around £550 if I want to use all 3 heads at the same time which is a bit more than I really wanted to pay, but maybe it would be a good investment.

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Canon 5D Mk2, Canon 50D, Canon 24-70 2.8L, Canon 70-200 2.8L, 50mm 1.4, 580 Ex2, and a load of other bits and bobs.

Can't complain with my set up at all. They just work and work well whenever required. The build quality is pretty good and they're either in a bag or under a speedlight so I'm not exactly throwing them around. The AC3 controller is easy to use and fantastic for dialing in and adjusting the power you require for each channel.

Previously I'd only used Nikon CLS through a menu system on the camera body. Yes, you could still control 3 channels separately but you were diving into menus each time. Inside and with line of sight wasn't a problem, but outside was a no-no in bright light. Workflow is far better for me with the pocket wizards.

Another option could be to use another flash, with more power than your on board flash, to command the remote heads. That might overcome your problem.

You haven't said which camera system you're using either - Nikon have an SU-800 commander but I don't know what other brands offer.

Hi, I've updated my signature to reflect what I'm using.

Thanks again for the advice, unfortunately I'm not in a position at the minute to buy the pocket wizard system, I've ummmed and ahhhed about it, but I've spent far to much lately and If I spend another £500 on equipment I think the wife will divorce me. I've had to opt for a cheap and cheerful radio trigger, its the Yongnuo RF-602 wireless flash trigger w 4PC receivers for Canon, which I've picked up from EBay for just under £60. It gives me 4 receivers, so a spare if something breaks, or an extra one if I extend my light kit.

I mainly work out of my studio, so they will be permanently set up, not being carted around and don't need to be to robust, I've given them a good run and haven't had a misfire yet. I think I will have to give the Pocket wizard kit more thought when I pick up another couple of 580 Exs, and I'm looking at doing more with a flash outside, at the minute, most weddings I do, I tend to bounce the flash a lot, or just use it as a fill outside, It would be nice to have a better kit for outdoor flash photography but I'm going to have to build to that over a period of time, hopefully the studio work with put some money in the kitty for that.

Thanks again for the advice, its certainly not been discounted, just put on hold for a bit, I'm sure that a pocket wizard trigger set will adorn my camera kit sometime in the near future.

Heres a video review on the system I bought, just incase someone else has a similar issue in the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5shvFGUf3g&feature=player_embedded

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Canon 5D Mk2, Canon 50D, Canon 24-70 2.8L, Canon 70-200 2.8L, 50mm 1.4, 580 Ex2, and a load of other bits and bobs.

Yongnuo - they do some very well priced speedlights as well - very good value for money