Tony Hoffer wrote:
I use 2 430ex's as my slaves right now.
I suspect that now that you're swimming in that RadioPopper goo of deliciousness and lovin' all over the HSS at least one other 580 series flash will be in your future.
By the way thanks for the review, it was very informative. Where did you find all those great photos to go along with it?
lisy78 wrote:
I suspect that now that you're swimming in that RadioPopper goo of deliciousness and lovin' all over the HSS at least one other 580 series flash will be in your future.
They're in my shopping cart. Maybe once I sell the Pocket Wizards.
The ST-E2 can be used on manual by holding in the mode button in for a few seconds on a 580ex. Im not sure about the 430ex as I don't have mine with me at the moment.
hey one thing I would consider adding to the review is the bit about the ST-E2 at first appearing to be the opimal solution since it's cheaper smaller lighter than using a 580 series flash as master, and would control the off camera lights as well as provide AF assitance.
I've seen people mention that quite a few times, but the significant limitations of the ST-E2, most notably:
No manual
only two groups
are a significant hindrance to this idea. Not a dealbreaker to EVERYONE, but definitely a deal breaker to you (and me)
Andrew Welsh wrote:
I'm most interested in knowing if... the AB800 off camera can be triggered in HSS mode.
Tony Hoffer wrote:
After trying it, it looks like you can not exceed 1/200 using a PX transmitter and a JrX receiver on an AB. Apparently you can using a JrX transmitter, but I don't have one.
I know you used the word "apparently", but I'm seeking clarification...
After weeks of looking at wireless triggers, I was about to click the buy button on the RadioPoppers (CyberCommander is also still a contender too) when I came across your review.
I'm pretty sure to fake HSS from a AB, you need the PX transmitter and the JrX Receiver on the AB.
"We’re happy to announce, the new JrX Receiver (both versions) when activated by a PX Transmitter attached to any Master device on a Canon or Nikon camera, will activate the lighting device so the exposure is proper using high speed sync all the way up to 1/8000 with no hint of a shutter in the image."
But that's what you have and you say it doesn't work. So IMHO, your hands-on failure trumps any internet research from the seller's blog.
Peter Stick wrote:
The ST-E2 can be used on manual by holding in the mode button in for a few seconds on a 580ex. Im not sure about the 430ex as I don't have mine with me at the moment.
What I meant was "adjust the manual power from an ST-E2" I'm 99% sure that's not possible.
clarence3 wrote:
I know you used the word "apparently", but I'm seeking clarification...
After weeks of looking at wireless triggers, I was about to click the buy button on the RadioPoppers (CyberCommander is also still a contender too) when I came across your review.
I'm pretty sure to fake HSS from a AB, you need the PX transmitter and the JrX Receiver on the AB.
"We’re happy to announce, the new JrX Receiver (both versions) when activated by a PX Transmitter attached to any Master device on a Canon or Nikon camera, will activate the lighting device so the exposure is proper using high speed sync all the way up to 1/8000 with no hint of a shutter in the image." ...Show more →
Interesting. I don't know. Anyone else know. If I can do this, it'd be awesome.
See above. You won't be able to get any current design studio strobe to HSS because of intrinsic design differences which mean it has to recycle between strobes. Effectively it means even the fastest studio strobe can't keep up with HSS.
I'm pretty psyched. I've been up and down on the Radiopopper JrX. First they came out with the statement that it would do HSS and then when the finally announced it they said, "well, it might work but we don't really support it" It was a "your mileage may vary" statement. in this photo I tried to recreate the demo by the radiopopper people on their web page. Turns out It seems to work pretty danged well.
Strobist: unretouched .jpg straight from the camera. This was shot at 1/8000 F2.8 ISO 200 using one AB800 through my DIY 18 1/2 beauty dish using a Radiopopper PX transmitter to fire a JrX receiver. I use the Nikon Pop-up flash as my commander/controller but I've actually put a piece of gaffers tape over it to eliminate it adding light to the image.
There is some banding from the shutter in this one but it's certainly usable with a little cropping."
Tony Hoffer wrote:
Interesting. I don't know. Anyone else know. If I can do this, it'd be awesome.
It's a party trick...I posted this in the lighting forum a while back:
If you get a chance try reading through the comments in that post for the 'RP' remarks which give you most the hints you'll need, but here's my take on it, I'm by no means an expert.
Normally, the sensor in your camera is exposed to the integration of all of the curve, with the RP trick they are only giving you a small slice of that curve, which probably moves around a bit too, basically you are getting way less light. (you normally don't shoot a bare AB800 at f/2.8 ISO 400 at that distance)
Seems like you'd get much less power from your light and possibly some inconsistencies in exposure across the frame depending on what part of the curve you hit (which RP alludes to in the comments of that post)
Also I think there may have been thread here on this when it was first announced..
lisy78 wrote:
What I meant was "adjust the manual power from an ST-E2" I'm 99% sure that's not possible.
I've been trying to find this out as well and my conclusion is -- NO, you cannot adjust manual power from an ST-E2 because it has no ability to do this naturally. Even if you have a Px transmitter on, if the ST-E2 can't do it, neither can the transmitter.
I've pretty much resigned to changing to an on-camera flash master instead of it now.
This may have been covered already, I didn't ready every post fully, but I want to say something about remote manual adjustments.
As you stated in the blog, with Canon wireless(and so with RP's) your on camera flash can control the manual power of the remote flashes, but only if the on camera flash is a 580mk2. Any other flash and you cannot do it. You can always set the manual setting directly on the remote flash, but you cannot change it from the camera that way.
So really this has nothing to do with RP's, this is a feature of Canon wireless with the 580mk2, but of course the RP's make it so much more enjoyable.
Lance Lee wrote:
This may have been covered already, I didn't ready every post fully, but I want to say something about remote manual adjustments.
As you stated in the blog, with Canon wireless(and so with RP's) your on camera flash can control the manual power of the remote flashes, but only if the on camera flash is a 580mk2. Any other flash and you cannot do it. You can always set the manual setting directly on the remote flash, but you cannot change it from the camera that way.
So really this has nothing to do with RP's, this is a feature of Canon wireless with the 580mk2, but of course the RP's make it so much more enjoyable....Show more →
No, this is good to hear. Evidently some of us that use ST-E2s were excited about possibly getting remote manual power adjustment to the slaves -- possibly using the Px's dials like they do for ABs? but evidently this is not going to happen.
580 EX2 master or nothing it seems if you want manual control.
I agree that's it's a party trick, but then again, so is real HSS (pulsing from a speedlite)... light is wasted, power is consumed, range is reduced.
AB1600 has a T.1 of 1/600"
So if the party trick allows me to use half of the AlienBee's light output curve to get a shot with SS=1/1200", that's better than not having the option at all.
Tony Hoffer wrote:
I just retested... I WAS able to achieve HSS up to 1/8000th, but as Alan said, the light variance was very different across the frame.
Thanks. For giggles, can you try something less extreme, like 1/1000".
