Kim St. Dennis Photography

Its been a few days since my last post. Ok, maybe even a week or more. It was Halloween and ive been working on PP more than not. Lots to do.

As of late Ive realized that I need new strobe triggers. Oh the conundrums that ensue. The long short of it is that there is no one trigger that does it all. This kinda sucks and makes it tough (if you dont want the novella, this really is my conclusion, sans buying a new set of triggers).

Source: pocketwizard.com

As most photogs will tell you Pocket Wizards are the defacto standard. They are super well built, never fail, and extremely expensive ($200 per device). Their most recent release is the mini TT1 and TT5.

These PWs (from here on out) are able to do highspeed sync and achieve TTL (through the lens) flash control for your specific speed light be they Canon or Nikon. Alas, the TT1s for Canon dont work with Nikon and vice-versa. Also, they dont control the output of any other type of speed light, mono block, or head& pack system. They can however achieve highspeed sync (HSS from here on out). Which is a major upsell. For us Nikon folks we can sync around 250 - 320 now. The Canon folks get 200 or so.Also, the devices can be controled with a pc/mac via usb. Also a nice feature but a little over kill for me.


Next contender is the Radio popper (RP from here on). There are two new lines from them, the  JrX and the PX. The PX system can achieve the HSS as the PWs can and costs about the same with a longer range and no usb support. It canot control any dflash output that Im aware of (this is all a bit confusing and requires a good deal of reaserch). There is some tests you can find on the web where the RP can do about 10x the distance that the PWs can do. I think it was 30' for PW and 300' for the RPs.

Source: radiopoppers.com
The JrX system is very reasonable at $350 for 3 receivers and 1 transmitter, can control Paul Bluff mono blocks as well as most modern speed lights with some DIY work. It has 3 groups of which you can control each groups power indivuadly. The major down side... No HSS. The max sync speed being 1/250th.


 There is a third option from Paul Bluff, but Im vague on the details as its release date is a carrot dangling on a rope. Its been moved around a lot. The thing I do know is that it will be able to control Bluff's mono blocks, but thats about it.

So whats a guy to do? Be lazy and control the lights from the cameras hot shoe or have the added ability of HSS for a lot more money? Its a tough call and a confusing one at that.