Saturday Speedlinks, 8/18/2007
We have two cool speedlinks on tap today. I'll be away from the computer all day, brainwashing Seattlites (is that a word?) in person. So please be patient on the comment moderation.
• Strobist Reader Duncan Babbage has
tested the crap out of the Gadget Infinity remotes. His finding: Performance varies widely, depending on the synching channel chosen. He's using an older model, but the same may be true for the newer versions, too.
• Photoflex (maker of various lighting modifiers) has a pretty neat selection of tutorials on their site. Of the three sections, I found the still lifes to be the most interesting. (Thanks to Chris H. for the heads-up.)
Get the Full Monte: Follow Strobist on Twitter.
Now Shipping from USA and UK: Strobist Lighting Seminar DVDs
Feed your brain: My Favorite Lighting/Photo Books
by David, at 2:48 AM.
15 Comments:
I love Seattilites...
especially the idea of brainwashing them.
i've never been to Seattle
but I know two Seattlites
they're very nice!!!!
We have a bar here in Reno.
it's one of my favories
called Satellite...
it's very nice.
and a few Denny"s...
all owned by my friend's sister... really!
sometimes i go there... to Denny's
Does that make me a Denizen?
or maybe a Satellite?
or better yet a Strobistope !!...
Dean Burton
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7674496@N02/
i am having a hard time with a non-credited hotlinked image at the top of your post. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it sets a bad example...
Jeff
So how much did you pay to use the Speed Racer image? Sincerely, Scott Ely
Myself and 2 friends recently put in a group order of those wireless triggers and although we haven't done any 'scientific' testing we did come to the same conclusion; that reliability was definitely based on the channel selected, we now only use what we affectionately call the "God Channel" (that's 0010 in binary) - these results back us up.
Warner Bros. has bought the rights to make the oridinal series into a big-budget movie.
I wrote to Warner Bros. when I started using it a few weeks ago, but do not (and did not) expect to get a reply from them. But I am sure they track their inbound traffic metrics pretty closely at the promo site, and equally sure thay are well aware of the sources of their traffic.
Actually, this is the kind of thing you hope happens a year before a movie comes out. Creating buzz is the only reason to have web sites far in advance of your release.
I am sure they would rather a Big Dawg like Gizmodo or Engadget be doing it. But buzz is buzz. That is what the machine is there to create.
I'm cool with being part of it because I am basically a fan. Albeit one with the ability to pass the word along to a ew friends.
-D
Googling, it appears that "Seattleans" is the leading moniker by which citizens of that burg are known. Being that they are on the Left Coast, they are already brainwashed, but may still be receptive to Strobist-type indoctrination in more useful knowledge.
I haven't done extensive testing with my recently acuired V2 remote and triggers. But my limited experience shows the same. Reliability varies widely based on the channel they are on. My first outing with them -- to a family function -- I wanted to take a family photo. One of the triggers kept firing at random and that same trigger wouldn’t fire at times. The other trigger seemed to be pretty dead on.
I contacted Gadget Infinity about the problem I was having with one of the triggers, they suggested just what Dean has found. Try a different channel. I found better reliability, no more mis-firers, but some no-firers.
I'd have to do more testing, but I'm pretty sure the V2 triggers are showing a bit more reliability than what Dean was testing. My limited testing once I changed the channel on them showed better reliability than what Dean shows in his graphs.
The machine seems to be working. Over a millions page hits for "speed racer" and movie:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=%22speed+racer%22+movie&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
We are called Seattlites, not Seattleans. Even if we weren't David can call us whatever he wants.
I am in Seattle, with a spot in the Sunday workshop, and I can't go. I'm sure there are people on the waiting list who would want my slot, but I don't know how to reach anyone to hand it off. If you're reading this and you want to go tomorrow (Sunday), reach me at 2doug at dougplummer.com. Or David, perhaps you're on top of this. Let me know.
I have been using the V2s exclusively for about 2 months now and have noticed only a handful of misfires and only when I was using low speed continuous shooing (3fp0.
The biggest thing I have noticed is that the probability of misfires increases when using the system via hot shoe mounts ie transponder in camera hot shoe and flash in cactus V2 hot shoe. Once I switched to using only the PC connections on both the transponder and receiver I very rarely get misfires.
Though I have zero experience with the older cactus triggers I must say I'm impressed with my 30 dollar set of V2s.
I have been using the V2 triggers from Gadget Infintiy for a few weeks now to do house shots. I am using them with two Canon flashes, a 580 EX and 580EX II. In both cases I have had good luck with syncing them up to 1/250th of a second. I did have to modify them a little bit physically due to the nature of the shoe mount of the 580EX II. The new weather tight seal at the shoe mount was obstructed by some of the plastic housing of the V2 receiver so a little dremel work solved that problem. One thing to keep in mind with the recevies that I have seen is that the shoe itself can be a little quarky in that as you tilt the flash off axis apparently this will sometimes lift the trigger pin away from the contact inside the shoe. The result of couse is no flash. So I have fiddle with it every once in a while but not too often.
As for random firing, yes they do fire randomly and depending on the RF environment, very often. The other day this was made more entertaining because I was also using a large studio strobe bare bulb in a dark home. The studio strobe was being slaved by flash so every time the V2s miss fired so fired the large strobe. This of course happen everytime I was moving the large strobe with it 8 inches from my face, OUCH. I think I have a new tan.
One thing you need to do is buy new batteries for the units as soon as possible. The supplied batteries are there purely so you can take them out of the box and go poof, once or twice. Don't go to a job and count on the cheesey batteries the units come with.
In closing I would say the best testimonial is that I am buying another set to have as backups. Not because I think they will break but stuff (<- polite form of Sh$%^t) happens on a job. As noted in the Duncan's Wavelength article, these things are cheap enough so why not. If you think about the cost and consider the old saying you get what you pay for, your getting more value than trouble so be happy earn some money with them. Then go and buy the pocekt wizards at ten times the price.
Mark Hensley
Yarmouth Maine
PS: If you go to my web site it is a mess so before you tell me so, I know I know. LOL
Between the religion and the nomenclature, I can't help but feel a song coming on..
'God's going buy you a Seattlite'
Same reliability issues with the V2s for the 285HV.
Mine would fire reliably from afar but not up close. ie: I couldn't use the strobe hand-held.
Only channel 00 (mine is 4-chan) does the trick.
I live out in the middle of nowhere. Nobody has garage door openers etc.
Have had my V1's for a couple of months. Several hundred exposures
No unwanted fireing. Reliable range, about 25 feet.
The only reason they dont fire has been either:
- I forgot to turn something on
- flash has gone into standby
- I tried my Oly Fl-36
(last prob solved by buying the modded rx)
I'm going to take them into town one day and I'll prolly have lots of probs.
YGWYPF
Tom
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