[photodad]

Have any of you had any experience with Wireless flash triggers from the eBay store Gadget Infinity? They are out of Hong Kong and I have heard some pretty good things about them. I'd like to know if any of you have had any experience either good or bad.

I would like to fire my flash from off camera and need a way to do it. I will look at an optical slave this evening and it may be the cheap way to get it done but the triggers they have on eBay are about $20 - $30 + shipping. they are not expensive. they will also fire from farther away than an optical slave will. the other plus I think is that i could fire any flash with them on manual so a set of old Vivitar 283's could be made into a mini studio pretty inexpensively.

Thanks everyone,

Ed

[tranq78]

Hi, I'm not sure I'm answering your question but here goes.

You don't need a separate optical trigger. You can set the flash on your camera to "control" and when you trip the shutter the control flash can set off your AF360/AF540 wirelessly.

[photodad]

Won't work on the DL unless I have another 360 or the 540. The onboard flash won't do it.

I got an optical slave which doubles as a wired slave if needed so if others are shooting at the same time, their flash won't trigger mine.

Best,

Ed

[ccallana]

Can you use the onboard flash to trigger the 360/540 as a slave flash? I was just looking at this - may not be exactly what you want, since there isn't any metering,and you have to have the flash popped up, but does this work?

Edit - I just tried this with my DL and 540... works fine - you have to play with exposure since there is no discussion between the camera and flash, and you have 2 light sources, but it works fine firing the off-board flash.

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Last edited by ccallana; 02-03-2007 at 12:02 AM.

[photodad]

Chris,
I am confused, I talked to Pentax and the guys at Action Camera and they both said the DL won't do this. I could not get it to work at all with the 360 flash although it is supposed to with the K10 and I think the istD.

How did you set it up?

Ed

[ccallana]

Had to read the manual (crazy, I know!) - I set up the flash in SL2 mode - then set it as Wireless, Slave in Manual 1/1 mode. Then, whenever the builtin flash fires, so does the 540. Got some pretty wierd lighting when I was playing around last nite - I shot in M, got lots of shadows, brightly light from one side, dark on the other... I can give more details on how to set it up in those modes if needed.

[brainanta]

the other plus I think is that i could fire any flash with them on manual so a set of old Vivitar 283's could be made into a mini studio pretty inexpensively.Ed

Hi Ed, I've also been searching the net for info on using a couple of old flashes for mini studio setup. It seems that davemsdn has good experience with this cheap wireless flash trigger. You might find this thread useful (unless you have read it already)
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/2290-k10d-external...ing-wrong.html

Sorry to add more question on this matter, but I'm still wondering if using this radio transmitter trigger will allow ttl flash mode or only manual? Anyone has the answer? thanks

Data

[photodad]

Hi Ed, I've also been searching the net for info on using a couple of old flashes for mini studio setup. It seems that davemsdn has good experience with this cheap wireless flash trigger. You might find this thread useful (unless you have read it already)
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/2290-k10d-external...ing-wrong.html

Sorry to add more question on this matter, but I'm still wondering if using this radio transmitter trigger will allow ttl flash mode or only manual? Anyone has the answer? thanks

Data

Thaks for the info, I will check out that link.

There is a fantastic blog called "Strobist" by a guy named David Hobby. He shows how to set up a portable studio pretty inexpensively except he, as a professional photojounalist, uses Pocket Wizard wireless triggers which are abou$400. That $ doesn't include flashes, stands, umbrellas, brackets, etc!

A friend and I set up a version of that studio last night with his Nikon equipment and got some excellent results. We will have to experiment a bit more before we can be really consistent or accurate with our set up or can set it up quickly.

I think the radio triggers will allow you to fire the flash in manual or auto mode only - thats one of the reasons that old Vivitar 283 or 285 flashes are attractive. I found that setting the flash on manual was pretty intuitive once I played with it just a little while.

Best,

Ed