| Inexpensive radio wireless flash for 645N
Not having $983.29 to buy a new Pentax AF-500 FTZ speedlight from Amazon, I reversed course and went for the jugular, price-wise. Like a Yongnuo Yn-460-II priced at $71, which I bought at $48, the Amazon Prime price. Then, I bought a Yongnuo YN-560-II, priced at $150, for $73... Amazon Prime. Last, I bought the CowboyStudio NPT-04 4-Channel Wireless Trigger Set... with 1 Trigger and 2 Receivers, priced at $32, or $30 Amazon Prime. All up, $151; Amazon Prime ships for free.
By contrast, a PocketWizard-801-130 Plus-III-Transceiver costs $149, and you need 2 at a minimum -- one to act as an on-camera transmitter, the other as an on-flash receiver. To cover the two flashes above, you'd need 3 PocketWizards -- a $447 outlay. PocketWizards, they say, are for professionals -- at 300', they have a longer range than the CowboyStudio units, at 100'. And, also on the high side, I could have bought a used Nikon SB-800 flash from Keh, EX- condition, for $350 ($811.50 new). But then.
So the cost differences are significant. Can you get by with the cheaper package? Will it work on the Pentax 645N?
Yes! Indeed it does. In their M manual mode, both Yongnuo speedlights work perfectly with the 645N. They are modern designs, with voltages that do not affect the Pentax or its autofocus. The flash fires on both A Aperture, or on all-manual aperture and shutter speed settings. Didn't try it on Program, haven't read my manual enough, don't know if the 645N would automatically reset the shutter speed to 1/60 or less. Will try that next.
Limits -- the Yongnuo speedlights, and the Cowboy transmitters, are for manual flash control only. No TTL, or I-TTL or P-TTL or any other kind of TTL. You have to estimate the power yourself, for any distance to the subject. This would be a real pain, given two speedlights, except for a miracle -- the preview screen on the back of my digital Olympus XZ-1. I can set the speedlights where I want them, set them each to half-power, put the transmitter on the XZ-1's hotshoe, and take a few test pictures, quickly adjusting the flash power settings. Then, from about the same camera position, I put the transmitter on the 645N's hotshoe, and take the same picture on film... with equivalent aperture/shutter settings and ISO, of course.
The big win? At low cost, I can set off my speedlights outdoors in daylight -- conditions where the sunlight wipes out the infrared optical-slave ability. As optical slaves, the Yongnuos work perfectly indoors, but that's it. With radio wireless, anything goes, anywhere. Real off-camera flash convenience -- you can just hold a flash anywhere you want. A secondary benefit -- used with the XZ-1, you don't have to use the on-camera popup flash to set off the slave triggers. You can totally control the light direction, without having to put with a direct flash from the camera position.
A single $32 CowboyStudio NPT-04 set should be all you need. If you want to add more than two speedlights, you could just use the additional ones as optical slaves -- indoors -- set off by your radio-controlled units. Outdoors? You'd have to spring for another NPT-04 set to control two more speedlights.
Anyway, hope this helps anybody looking to work with radio-controlled flash -- at low cost!
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