Hey folks,
The other week I made a thread on here mentioning that I was ditching my Pocket Wizards Plus II's in favor of Radio Poppers. In that thread, and quite a few times since, I've had a bunch of folks on here asking for my thoughts on how my first few weeks with the Poppers were going...
Well, as I researched them, I found it VERY hard to find out exactly what they did, and what they didn't do. There's very little helpful information out there on the PX system, not even on Strobist. In fact, my favorite features of the RP's aren't mentioned anywhere that I could find, even on the Radio Popper website, unless I just missed it.
So, I decided to do a pretty massive review as well as a description of the most useful features I've found for wedding work and a few features that might require workarounds for wedding shooters, depending on your style.
Solid review Tony. I've gone the PWIIs and mini/flex route and am still wrangling with them. I shoot mainly manual too and was excited by what the mini/flex system promised but was deflated by the immediate issues, therefore went back to manual for the season. I'm planning to work out the bugs in the off-season. I'll see how it goes and will definitely consider the RP route if I can't get all the bugs worked out (including using the yet-to-be-proven socks). Your review and willingness to share is most helpful. Thanks! Martin
nice write up Tony .. and i think you've hit the nail right on the head with the system's info about PX JrX and all the RP not really describing on how and what .. just like you, with all the info gathered were all from other sites and people's reviews ..
but .. i have a question .. the JrX .. can it receive HSS info from the PX transmitter? or its for basic triggering?
EVO088 wrote:
but .. i have a question .. the JrX .. can it receive HSS info from the PX transmitter? or its for basic triggering?
Wasn't sure of the answer, so I just tried it out. It does not look like the JrX can do HSS from the PX transmitter. It makes sense because (like I mentioned in the review), the PX only transfers the info from the flash. I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure it's a no.
For my uses, though, I don't think I'd use that feature, since the the JrX will only be used when I need to use my on-camera flash.... which means indoors... which means it's dark.
I left a comment and it's something I mentioned to you on Saturday. Have you considered using a ST-E2 as the on-camera controller? I assume the RP system should work just as well with the ST-E2 as it does with the 580exII.
maxwell1295 wrote:
I left a comment and it's something I mentioned to you on Saturday. Have you considered using a ST-E2 as the on-camera controller? I assume the RP system should work just as well with the ST-E2 as it does with the 580exII.
i think the ST-E2 is IR and the RP's are Radio .. so the range and during daylight is stronger with radio freq instead of IR .. and from what i've read the ST-E2 requires line of sight, not 100% but pretty sure i think
EVO088 wrote:
i think the ST-E2 is IR and the RP's are Radio .. so the range and during daylight is stronger with radio freq instead of IR .. and from what i've read the ST-E2 requires line of sight, not 100% but pretty sure i think
What Alan is referring to is mounting the RP to the ST-E2, which works the same as a 580. And yes Alan, I've been thinking about it...
Looking at the back of the ST-E2, it appears that it doesn't offer manual shooting for off-camera flashes. If that's the case, then I wouldn't get it. That's my favorite feature with the Poppers, adjusting my manual flashes from my camera.
I have a question: if you use PX system with an extra flash on the JrX (studio version) - do you have the ability to adjust the power output of JrX remote from the RP transmitter?
I can't also figure out what are you saying in "Adjust EVERYTHING in manual" paragraph?
To quote: Although the Radio Popper PX’s can adjust the levels of several manual flashes using the on-camera flash menu, that system does not allow you to adjust both the off-camera flashes AND the on-camera flash independently. Essentially, your on-camera flash (if it’s set to fire) will shoot at the same power level as your off camera speedlights.
Are you talking about the off camera flash being on the JrX in this case, thus answering my first question?
Thanks for the review. Very useful and good examples!
You can shoot using PX's with manual on the slaves and ETTL on camera unlike what you write on the blog, just set the slaves power on the slave unit (set to manual mode and slave on) and fire away in ETTL mode for the on camera and any slaves set to ETTL slave, the manual slave will also fire no problem at all with the power setting you've dialed in on the back. I've shot two weddings this way, works perfectly. In other words, you don't need Jx's as well as Px's.
I bought a spare reciever antenna with my px's, put it on my transmitter, works perfectly, especially as I never use straight flash so this way it's always pointing up and not into my eye. I asked the radiopopper tech about doing this, in straight flash the antenna is horizontal so you get reduced range but in bounce it's fine apparently.
I use two strips of velcro rather than the single provided, double the security literally, added to that a single thick rubber band and my transmitter ain't going nowhere!
You can't now, but you will be able to soon. RP is supposedly coming out with some sort of cube that will allow for this in a few weeks. I'm anxious for that for sure.
I can't also figure out what are you saying in "Adjust EVERYTHING in manual" paragraph?
To quote:
Are you talking about the off camera flash being on the JrX in this case, thus answering my first question?
This is referring to using PX system, both transmitter and receiver. If you have a flash set up off-camera, you can adjust the manual settings of it. However, if you want to use your on-camera flash in addition, both flashes will fire at the same power. Although you can adjust the power of the two slaves independently, for some reason, Canon doesn't allow the master flash to be adjusted manually as well. It will fire the same power as your Group A slaves.
Beni wrote:
You can shoot using PX's with manual on the slaves and ETTL on camera unlike what you write on the blog, just set the slaves power on the slave unit (set to manual mode and slave on) and fire away in ETTL mode for the on camera and any slaves set to ETTL slave, the manual slave will also fire no problem at all with the power setting you've dialed in on the back. I've shot two weddings this way, works perfectly. In other words, you don't need Jx's as well as Px's.
For slaves, I'm using 430ex's. I cannot do what you described. Maybe that's a 580ex feature??
