- Oct 9, 1999
- 15,216
- 3
- 81
So I went on a buying spree after I got my tax refund. First up was RF triggers. After much research here on AT-DVC, POTN, Amazon, etc etc. I settled on the ebay RF triggers.
There are several manufacturers on Ebay and there are several sellers so first job was to short list the good sellers then the my RF trigger.
The popular PT-02/04 system was nixed as it runs on the 433mhz RF frequency and also required use of AA batteries (which is nice but I cant carry that many AA's).
The Cactus V2 and V4 were nixed for form factor format and possible reliability issues. Also the cactus units while nice are considerably more expensive.
This left the CTR-301 models. There are two of these, CTR-301 and CTR-301P. Difference is that the CTR-301P has a plug output to connect to a studio flash.
Since this is an option for some of us, this immediately put it in the fore front.
Build Quality:
The CTR-301P that I got are built by YONGNUO and are very well built. Solid. The battery latch is good, the battery removal strap is tight. The over all build quality is not bad for a $50. The screws are secure, the unit is solid and there are no rattles. Looking at it one would be hard pressed to say this quality piece of engineering came out of a Chinese factory.
Contents:
I had opted for the deluxe, 1 RF trigger + 4 RF receivers. Each receiver box came with its own 3" 1/8" to 1/4" cable for the triggers. They also included a fully charged CR2 lithium battery (some reviews say this is not the case so YMMV). The transmitter came with the battery installed, only required to be unboxed.
Review:
First off there is not manual that this ebay trigger, so either you got to hunt for reviews or read something like this review.
Transmitter is very simple, it slips on the hot shoe, it has one center pin. It has a test button on the top and 2 dip switches on the bottom. There is no latch to secure the transmitter to the hotshoe, it might not be really snug but it wont fly off.
The receivers are a bit more complicated. They have a DPST switch that allows to switch between the W (Wireless) and L (Light) mode. The third option is OFF. The receiver is flat and can hold the flash upright on a flat surface. It has a nice 20mm metal screw in base for your tripod. The bottom surface also has the 2 dip switches to change frequencies. There is a small LED to denote flash fired on the side and a optical slave on the front.
In W(ireless) mode the unit works great. Distance was noted to be excess of 25 feet in a straight line. I was able to trigger the receiver located upstairs from the living room. So it goes through walls.
In L(ight) mode the flashes work quite well as long as you are facing the optical slave towards your primary strobe. I did notice the optical slave did not fire once or twice, but given that I was triggering it with my Canon SD960IS and that onboard flash is not all that great, I would think it was more of an issue with the position of the remote strobe than anything else.
One thing with these triggers its sync'ed 1/250, so I noticed that even though the flashes were going off with the SD960IS triggering it in optical mode, the flashes did not make any difference to the picture because the camera shot it at 1/60 of a second.
Overall it is a great buy for $50.
BTW: Testing was done with a Canon 40D, Canon SD960IS, Canon EX430 II, Nikon SB 900
There are several manufacturers on Ebay and there are several sellers so first job was to short list the good sellers then the my RF trigger.
The popular PT-02/04 system was nixed as it runs on the 433mhz RF frequency and also required use of AA batteries (which is nice but I cant carry that many AA's).
The Cactus V2 and V4 were nixed for form factor format and possible reliability issues. Also the cactus units while nice are considerably more expensive.
This left the CTR-301 models. There are two of these, CTR-301 and CTR-301P. Difference is that the CTR-301P has a plug output to connect to a studio flash.
Since this is an option for some of us, this immediately put it in the fore front.
Build Quality:
The CTR-301P that I got are built by YONGNUO and are very well built. Solid. The battery latch is good, the battery removal strap is tight. The over all build quality is not bad for a $50. The screws are secure, the unit is solid and there are no rattles. Looking at it one would be hard pressed to say this quality piece of engineering came out of a Chinese factory.
Contents:
I had opted for the deluxe, 1 RF trigger + 4 RF receivers. Each receiver box came with its own 3" 1/8" to 1/4" cable for the triggers. They also included a fully charged CR2 lithium battery (some reviews say this is not the case so YMMV). The transmitter came with the battery installed, only required to be unboxed.
Review:
First off there is not manual that this ebay trigger, so either you got to hunt for reviews or read something like this review.
Transmitter is very simple, it slips on the hot shoe, it has one center pin. It has a test button on the top and 2 dip switches on the bottom. There is no latch to secure the transmitter to the hotshoe, it might not be really snug but it wont fly off.
The receivers are a bit more complicated. They have a DPST switch that allows to switch between the W (Wireless) and L (Light) mode. The third option is OFF. The receiver is flat and can hold the flash upright on a flat surface. It has a nice 20mm metal screw in base for your tripod. The bottom surface also has the 2 dip switches to change frequencies. There is a small LED to denote flash fired on the side and a optical slave on the front.
In W(ireless) mode the unit works great. Distance was noted to be excess of 25 feet in a straight line. I was able to trigger the receiver located upstairs from the living room. So it goes through walls.
In L(ight) mode the flashes work quite well as long as you are facing the optical slave towards your primary strobe. I did notice the optical slave did not fire once or twice, but given that I was triggering it with my Canon SD960IS and that onboard flash is not all that great, I would think it was more of an issue with the position of the remote strobe than anything else.
One thing with these triggers its sync'ed 1/250, so I noticed that even though the flashes were going off with the SD960IS triggering it in optical mode, the flashes did not make any difference to the picture because the camera shot it at 1/60 of a second.
Overall it is a great buy for $50.
BTW: Testing was done with a Canon 40D, Canon SD960IS, Canon EX430 II, Nikon SB 900
In the mean time these $50 for 1 transmitter and 4 receivers will work mighty fine!
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