I went with PW's because they are supposed to be the most reliable. They are pretty expensive, but nothing drives me crazier than equipment that works sporadically.
I voted for Cyber Commander but I don't actually use it to trigger flashes. Most people don't use it to trigger flashes. I use the CST to trigger and the Cyber Commander is used to adjust lights.
I use the Profoto Air Remote for D1s and a D4 Air 2400. I am very thankful that I no longer have to lower overheads or use a stepladder to adjust lights on booms. If I am mixing in shoe mount flashes (Canon 550ex and 580ex IIs), then I use cheap Seagull optical slaves.
gridironphoto wrote:
I went with PW's because they are supposed to be the most reliable. They are pretty expensive, but nothing drives me crazier than equipment that works sporadically.
I have used both CyberSyncs and PW side by side in the field. Both are equal until the temperature gets down to about 5F below zero. Then, the CyberSyncs definitely begin to pull away by maintaining their 100% reliability. I saw no difference at temps above zero (F), so I went with 12 CyberSyncs. Still have 2 PW in my bag but rarely use.
I voted Yongnau, because they are non system specific, and the first ones I acquired. I have also used Skyports with elinchrom and now the cyber commander with Einsteins. But I still use the RF 602's for speedlights, and if I want fire the camera shutter remotely.
With my speedlghts I don't use radio triggers. In most indoor situations the built-in signaling works fine within the specified range of 40-50ft. if the slave sensor is aimed toward the Master and isn't blocked by a modifier. I solved the signaling problem by creating a DIY modifier doesn't block the sensor window and makes it easy to point the sensor at the Master then rotate the flash to the subject...
Outdoors where there is nothing to bounce the preflash signals line of sight is necessary and range is limited to 20 ft. But in HSS the power of the flash limits range to 10ft (without modifers) and in most cases the front of my slave is in its own shadow...
So it will work indoors and out if you understand how it is designed to work and can work within those limitations. I learned how to do that because when I bought my speedlights ETTL / HSS capable radio triggers were not available and I didn't want to be limited to manual indoors (I'd shot many years that way with Vivitars) or be hamstrung by sync limit outdoors. I haven't bought radio triggers for the speedlights since because I haven't had the need; the optical works fine 95% of the time and the other 5% I can find a workaround.
My four AV800s connect to the Buff wired remote panel and it connects to the PW receiver allowing me to trigger the lights with both the camera and meter transmitters.
Now that the software has corrected most of the earlier hickups (not that I really was bothered by the then present faults) I'm very satisfied with them especially for range and reliability.
Also being able to use the system in a similar way as Nikon CLS is a big plus for me.
