I respectfully counter that you seem to be stuck on convention so rigidly that you are too quick to dismiss innovation.
Conventional means are wonderful. I study and grow in my use of convention every single day, especially strobist conventions, but things-they-are-a-changing. I simply refuse to accept that it has to be the way it is. The conventions we are "stuck with" today have moved a long way from the conventions of the last decade or two as people have pushed the envelope. We wouldn't get very far if it weren't for individuals sporting a determined dissatisfaction with the way things are.
The Radio Poppers are changing the industry. Most of the current explosion in radio trigger technology can be traced to the fact that they finally ran the proverbial 4 minute mile last year with radio triggered HSS. The Radio Popper engineers have developed a phenomenal product line much loved by a lot of the top talent in the industry including Mr. Strobist himself, David Hobby.
In fact, the Pocket Wizard Flex seems to have been a direct response to the Radio Popper innovation and it seems to work just as well. Here is
the Flex pulling the same stunt in the hands of a user who is not making a dime on them. This whole technique is kind of a side benefit to the primary goal of the engineers but it's one that will see a lot more development in the future, I'm sure of it.
I respect your opinion a lot. I get the impression that you have probably forgotten more than I know, but you are making up limitations in your head based on your extensive experience and well educated preconceived notions. Healthy skepticism is a virtue but so is an open mind. Please, let down your guard, and set aside your neutral density filter methods for a second, and try to wrap your mind around the possibilities.
The Radio Poppers appear to be intercepting the pre-flash info and are triggering the strobe before the front curtain opens so that it is already at its brightest when the first shutter opens. I looked at your link the first time you posted it, and again just a moment ago, but I don't see any studio strobes on it. Many studio strobes, particularly the cheaper ones such as the popular Alien Bees, have fairly long and consistent burn times that will evenly cover a 1/1,000 or longer exposure before they "flame out." Some strobes, like the one being used in the link I posted above, appear to actually burn longer at lower power, which again, completely goes against all conventional speedlight wisdom, I know.
So, it's conceivable that we might even see specialized studio strobes engineered for longer burn times as a direct result of this discovery, effectively creating an adjustable, high powered, short burst, "continuous" light source as one answer to the limited mechanical shutter sync speeds we are stuck with right now. Wouldn't that be a hoot?
Last edited by GoldenWreckedAngle; 07-07-2009 at 04:45 PM.