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I was out last night taking some shots and decided to try the new (to my house) S5 Pro with my SB-800 and SB-600 and had all sorts of trouble getting them to fire with CLS (outside with about 5-6m range).Seeto also has told m'e he has trouble of triggering SB-800s over distances using either a SB-800 or the pop up flash as the commander (both of us use D300's).

This kind of makes me consider getting something similar to the Pocket Wizard (not these due to the cost and the likelihood of me using them regularly) so other than the skyports are there any other cheaper, but reliable, alternatives?

BUT then there is the problem of not being able to use CLS with these which leads to the SU-800, will this work? will this actually let me use CLS over longer distances reliably?

Anyone able to cast some light over the issue?

the su-800 will not help much. it relies on similar trigger mechanisms..ie: infrared, line of sight. you need a radio trigger.

i had all sorts of issues with the su800 triggering outdoors especially when i bought the R1C1 kit even in line of sight when you make sure the IR sensors of your strobes facing the right direction for some reason, i assume due to other interference (??), the strobes wuld still not fire reliably. so i sold the su800.

This recent post about Radio Popper is interesting:

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=31570&p=347319&hilit=radio+popper#p347319

I'm not sure that they are available outside the US yet.

haha Cameron, 30% of the time i forget to set the SB800 to the correct mode - ie. Remote rather than SU4 mode.
but yes, generally i cant get it to fire reliably even in the right mode, esp outdoors. Not all that of a fuss to me - i only play with it occasionally

-j

... Obsolete ...

PocketWizards are pricey, but they're excellent remote triggers.

... Obsolete ...

Obsolete? This I gotta check out, heading over there now (wow there are a lot of remote trigger topics active atm).

Pocket wizards wont do iTTL but the radio popper's look good, kinda almost seems primitive, seems like there is margin for error there.

bring on the bluetooth/RF CLS!! I'd pay for it, maybe!