Nikon ML-3 wireless remote

[chrisk]

I know most people here have opted for Poons wireless anyway but just a bit of a cautionary note for anyone considering looking at the ML-3. i don;t recommend it. its $250AUD and i borrowed it off a friend yesterday to test it out and it SUCKS.

they made the unit too fat and when you put it on the hotshoe the pop up flash cannot be raised. if you move the ml3 to the very rear of the hotshoe then you can just raise the pop up but then the flash gets in the way of the IR sensor and it can't be used anyway. you can swivel it from side to side but that doesn;t really help becasuse then you have to be standing on that side to activate...not very convenient for self portraits or photos you want to be part of. if they had made it tall and slim to be able to mount and clear the top of the popup, then it would have been much better.

the build quality is somewhat suspect. feels quite flimsy and for $250 i expected alot better. if it didn't have the "nikon" badge on it you'd swear it was a $50 ebay cheapie or a canon. it's THAT bad.

it is NOT realiable. i found myself clicking my ass off with variable success. i think it would fire maybe 60-70% of the time even when standing directly in front.

the sensor feature where you can set it to take a picture as soon as something enters its field of vision is crap. it takes far too long to fire the shutter. when i say too long, its maybe 1sec at the most but by that time whatever has passed thru its field of vision has long gone. even me walking past it, i was not in the frame when the shot was taken.

all in all a thoroughly dissapointing bit of kit and i strongly urge anyone considering it to rethink. its a piece of shit.

[sirhc55]

I have this piece of so called ”shit” and it performs flawlessly.

[Alpha_7]

Have you tried it on more then one body ? Perhaps you got a dud one.

[chrisk]

alpha, i used it on my d300 but it belongs to a friend who uses it on a d2hs. he doesn't have quite the same issues i do cos he doesn;t use the pop up on the d2hs so nothing gets in the way. but it does present other issues for him cos when he uses his pocketwizard on the hotshoe he has to have the thing dangling down or use a seperate hotshoe bracket, which has to be bought seperately. this really is a design flaw cos it has a hotshoe mount and its a nikon product so obviously they know people will use the pop up for triggering strobes as the commander so why make it in such a way that you cannot use it with a pop up ? it's bloody stupid. he does however have the same issues with the sensor activating the shutter for passing objects, it just doesn;t work as well, (as fast), as it should. i tried this with 3 different lens' aswell. 85/1.8, 70-200/2.8, 150mm/2.8 macro, all had the same issue.

the only thing i said that he didn;t notice was the unreliable triggering. he thinks it works fine. my expereince with it, as noted, is not so pleasant. certainly not as reliable as the ml-l3 remote used on my d80 thats for sure. i expected a heck of alot more from a genuine product, especially one that costs $250 which is really quite outrageous in itself.

photix here i come.

[sirhc55]

This was originally designed for pro cameras, which do not have a pop up flash! Obviously, any add-on product can cause a problem if you wish to use two at once. In my case it could be the SB800 and the ML-3. Now the SB800 does require hot shoe contacts but the ML-3 does not, so the SB800 is mounted and the ML-3 can be velcro’d. Nikon also make a special bracket for just these situations but at present I can’t remember the model number.

If anything is bloody stupid (this is in Nikon’s court) it’s using the ten pin connector on cameras that can’t use an item such as the ML-3 when also using the pop-up flash.

[gstark]

it belongs to a friend who uses it on a d2hs. he doesn't have quite the same issues i do cos he doesn;t use the pop up on the d2hs so nothing gets in the way.

The D2Hs .... doesn't have a built-in flash, does it?

but it does present other issues for him cos when he uses his pocketwizard on the hotshoe he has to have the thing dangling down or use a seperate hotshoe bracket, which has to be bought seperately. this really is a design flaw cos it has a hotshoe mount and its a nikon product so obviously they know people will use the pop up for triggering strobes

Well, no. How is this a design flaw when the camera it's originally designed to be used with has no pop-up flash? That would never have been a design criteria.

I've always felt that an IR remote is problematic because it's dependent upon line of sight: it's difficult to use the small IR remote on a D70 from behind the camera because the receptor is on the front of the body. And if you're on the wrong side of the lens, with the lens obscuring the receptor, again you may experience issues.

RF or cable is the way to go.

And the Phottix is RF.

[Benny2707]

Which cable would you recommend Gary?

I've been looking at a few sites lately and there are so many options. What do you get if you want to be behind the camera and trigger the shot? I've been using the timer function on mine of late and it works well but would perfer some kind of remote or cable.

Is there a remote that will work in front and behind or are you just better off getting the cable and using the timer for front of camera stuff?

[gstark]

An RF remote works fine, and we have tested these over the length of a Sydney (Neutral Bay, actually) block.

The receiver connects to the ten pin socket on the D200/300/2/3, but also doubles as a tethered release. The transmitter ... just use it.

Or just get the N1 remote cable. I have one sitting on my coffee table right now.

[Matt. K]

I have the Poon $30 remote and it seems to work very well also.

[Benny2707]

An RF remote works fine, and we have tested these over the length of a Sydney (Neutral Bay, actually) block.

The receiver connects to the ten pin socket on the D200/300/2/3, but also doubles as a tethered release. The transmitter ... just use it.

Or just get the N1 remote cable. I have one sitting on my coffee table right now.

Garry could you give me a few model numbers for the RF remote?

Ta

Benny

[ar03n]

Bought one in Singapore last year, haven't had any problem with it.

I think it's quite good, small and easy to use.

-ronald

[gstark]

An RF remote works fine, and we have tested these over the length of a Sydney (Neutral Bay, actually) block.

The receiver connects to the ten pin socket on the D200/300/2/3, but also doubles as a tethered release. The transmitter ... just use it.

Or just get the N1 remote cable. I have one sitting on my coffee table right now.

Garry could you give me a few model numbers for the RF remote?

Perhaps you missed something, Benny.

The model number is the same; you order the cable remote, or the radio one.

Cheers

[who]

And info from Poon's ebay store on the Phottix options - go knock yourself out

(To suit D200 / D300 / etc with 10pin port, not D40*, D70, D80 etc.)

Wireless....
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Phottix-Wireless ... dZViewItem

Wired....
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Remote-Switch-N1 ... dZViewItem

Or a wired timer remote
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Timer-Remote-Cor ... dZViewItem

[chrisk]

got the phottix today and it works great. excellent stuff. fires first time every time and there are no line of sight issues at all cos its RF. a very clever thing about this new model is that they included a shutter release on the receiever aswell so you can also use it as a wired remote and not need the wireless controller to take pics. i thought this was a great touch.

screw nikons overpriced POS.

Gary FYI: this is the new style remote which they sent me which has a couple more functions and is a bit cosmetically different, so i guess they have phased the old ones out ? may want to update the product list.

[seeto.centric]

Gary, am i right to guess that i will expect the new "cleon" style N1 remote if i order the Phottix wireless N1?

thanks
-j

[losfp]

An interesting sidenote is that if you ALREADY have pocket wizards, you can get a cable (around $30 from ebay?) that will let you use them to trigger your camera.

Now obviously they are rather an expensive thing to buy JUST for the camera-triggering functionality, but it's a nice little bonus if you happen to have a couple PWs already for off-camera flash.