Cheap Speedlight options

[Mj]

So I'm planning on buying a number of flashheads for location work where studio kit just isn't practical... not ready to invest in profoto battery packs and the like and don't really want to lug that much around anyway.

What are the best options around on the market right now? Should I just grab a few s400 (might be looking for up to 6) or would one of the Nissin models at around a similar price be a better option?

What the strobist's amongst us using ???

[gstark]

I think that Vivitar make some small heads especially for this purpose, with built in optical triggers. Not very expensive either, but I've not seen anyone locally who carries them, so it may mean a trip to eBay. I'll bet you're surprised at that.

[surenj]

Make sure you ask/search at Flickr:strobist forum.

Yongnuo makes a few. (inconsistent quality)
Lumopro is highly regarded.
Unfortunately SB28 etc are crazy pricy thanks to the strobist revolution.

[aim54x]

Im going to go in with my usual Phottix plug......Phottix Foton is coming....

I really hope you dont mean the SB400 when you said S400 (the SB400 is pretty impossible to use off camera...I spent a lot of time experimenting with doing so).

The Nissin Di622 has a nice built in optical trigger, but it is not great with RF triggers from memory.

Strobist is a good place to start looking at recommendations.

[Mj]

I seem to recall that Phottix Foton been coming now for about a year !!!
I was meaning the sb400 and yes I gather that it would not be a great option.

Seems to me that the Nissin Di622 Mark II or the Lumopro 160 are reasonable options @ about $160 each but I also need to look closer at the Vivitar 285HV as its almost half the price again.

[aim54x]

Yes it seems like the Foton keeps getting delayed....it went from one model to a trio of flashes with differing feature sets.

I would look at the Vivitar 285, and try to avoid the Nissin DI622....something tells me that we have had trouble with using it with RF triggers.

[Mj]

The Nissin di622 Mark 1 didn't support RF triggers... the mark 2 does... still it comes in at $160 vs $90 for the Vivitar though so if I can find a source of the 285HV it's likely to be the most econonmic option... especially as I need to allow for triggers in the overall cost as well.

[aim54x]

The Nissin di622 Mark 1 didn't support RF triggers... the mark 2 does...

That is a very useful piece of info! The Vivitar does have PC sync as well though....that is points in my book (PW compatibility!!)

[Mj]

So step one in stobist acquistion exercise completed... I've purchased a handful of nissin di622 Mark II speedlights as the price was right, they were available and appear to resolve all the key issue that the mark I had. Possibly I could have found some vivitar 285 for a better price but they seem to have become hard to find and anyway lack a few features that 'might' get some use (e.g. ttl).

Next step is working out what the best trigger options are...

Options appear to be:
the yongnuo-603,
the cactus v5 or,
one of the ttl capable set (either from Poon or Poppers etc).

I think I can live without ttl across the set and aim not to make this a major investment so I think it's a toss up between yn603 and catcus-v5. Whilst the yongnuo are a good price the lack of any locking mechanism seems to mean a serious risk of flash and trigger heading south as it slides of my camera. So maybe I'm left with the cactus-v5 ???

So my question is now inevidently... what are others here using? Is there some absolutely compelling reason I should spend a small fortune on a pack of the top end units? I'd be buying 6 so unit cost starts to matter.

[ozimax]

I've been using Cactus v4 triggers for a year or two and find them great. Occasional mis-fires but all in all a good cheap product. I haven't used the V5 series.

[surenj]

handful of nissin di622 Mark II speedlights

How much was the damage per unit? Where did you buy it from?

How about RF 602s? I think they have a funny battery in the trigger though. The receivers were AA according to my memory.... You'd better double check.

[Mj]

So I ended up grabbing some speedlights from t-dimension... cost of about $130 each. I could probably have tracked down some vivitars for about $90 each but they would have lacked a few tricks, been not quite as powerful, and been a whole lot more painful to purchase. The t-dimension purchase was easy and went without any hitch. Most of the bigger ebay players have it down pat these days... only trap is if they don't have stock they often takes your money and leave you waiting and waiting till stock comes through... of course some local suppliers do the same.

The rf602 use separate trigger/receiver units and yes the trigger uses a CR battery instead of good ole AAA.
Both the rf603 and the cactus v5 units are setup as transcievers, power off AAA and allow some level of passthrough to a camera attached flash.

I guess my concern about the lack of locking mechanism on the 603 can be overcome by never using on camera flash with them... this might well be a reasonable compromise given the price.

[surenj]

Thanks Mj.

Have you used the Di622 as wireless slaves with your Nikon in a multi flash situation indoors? Does this work ok?

I would urge you to carefully search strobist for the RF 603 because I swear there were some other issues as well. Cactus V5 on the other hand has been more positively reviewed.

[Mj]

Yep... used them in wireless slave mode and they all appeared to work fine... what you cannot do is multi channel multi group setups using CLS to its fullest capabilities but I wasn't expecting to and doubt I'll feel the need to get that fancy. I'd rather be spending that money of a fully mobile studio light capability.

I'm not jumping into any trigger decision just yet... and I'll certainly be doing more research before I do... that's a bad habit of mine I'm told (researching the buggery out of things).

[Marvin]

I have the 603's. They have no locking mechanisms but are very tight on both my camera and on the flashes. I have to push them on hard and they don't move at all. Very happy with them so far though.