Hello and welcome again to another tip for lower money. I do not dare on making a comparative with both since they are at different levels but at least the cost could somehow make you use more your small flash off camera without having to pay a fortune.
This is my short Side-By-Side between my new Gadget Infinity (GI) and my good old Pocket Wizards (PW).
This is not a comparative of the both systems (you can find that in a lot of good websites around the web) this is my review for the low end money and reliability of use of the GI units.
I was searching for something to trigger my flashes cheaper than the PW, something that could be more portable and with less cables to plug-in and carry around than my actual PW system.
At Strobist I got the review, at the Strobist London seminar I saw them and wondered and on the GI website I ordered them.
The GI guys are really fast on delivery since it only took 4 days to arrive after order confirmed.
Here is a picture that can demonstrate how small the GI's are compared to the PW's. The GI's are almost the size of an AA Alkaline battery, more of this on next pictures.
Enjoy my small Side-By-Side and if you feel that you need one of this systems to use and abuse here goes the link to both ;)
You can by the GI at www.gadgetinfinity.com under the Flash Triggers category.
The PW are available at www.pocketwizard.com/.
For Strobist here is the setup shot. An SB-26 left side through a white umbrella.
A close look at the setup of the improvised diffusion box.
This box was made with four A4 white sheets of paper glued together with scotch tape to create the professional studio look... guys remember that you do not need those expensive boxes for this kind of thing... use your head instead :) and figure out a way of lighting it.
Tip: Read the book Light Science and Magic it would help!!This is my short Side-By-Side between my new Gadget Infinity (GI) and my good old Pocket Wizards (PW).This is not a comparative of the both systems (you can find that in a lot of good websites around the web) this is my review for the low end money and reliability of use of the GI units.
I was searching for something to trigger my flashes cheaper than the PW, something that could be more portable and with less cables to plug-in and carry around than my actual PW system.
At Strobist I got the review, at the Strobist London seminar I saw them and wondered and on the GI website I ordered them.
The GI guys are really fast on delivery since it only took 4 days to arrive after order confirmed.
Here is a picture that can demonstrate how small the GI's are compared to the PW's. The GI's are almost the size of an AA Alkaline battery, more of this on next pictures.
Enjoy my small Side-By-Side and if you feel that you need one of this systems to use and abuse here goes the link to both ;)
You can by the GI at www.gadgetinfinity.com under the Flash Triggers category.
The PW are available at www.pocketwizard.com/.
For Strobist here is the setup shot. An SB-26 left side through a white umbrella.
A close look at the setup of the improvised diffusion box.This box was made with four A4 white sheets of paper glued together with scotch tape to create the professional studio look... guys remember that you do not need those expensive boxes for this kind of thing... use your head instead :) and figure out a way of lighting it.
This is the front side of the original package of the GI units.
What's inside the package:- 1 Cactus PT-04 (Receiver)
- 1 Transmitter
- 1 CR2 battery
- 1 Mini Sync cord cable (Jack on one side and and SC-11 on the other)
- 1 Instruction Manual (with the channels combination)
A setup shot of the box picture. One SB-26 triggered with GI on the above left side through a white umbrella.
The package:
- 1 Cactus PT-04 (Receiver)
- 1 Transmitter
- 1 CR2 battery
- 1 Mini Sync cord cable (Jack on one side and and SC-11 on the other)
- 1 Instruction Manual (with the channels combination)
A picture of the inside of the receiver unit and the backside of the transmitter and the little CR2 battery.
This is the PW setup box. Unfortunately I do not have the original box and the instruction manual but this was what came inside except for the batteries.
The cable also brings an adapter so you can have a connection Jack-Jack on end to end.
GI mounted on the Manfrotto stand Nano001 attached to the SB-26 flash unit.
Another view of the GI mounted on the Manfrotto stand Nano001 attached to the SB-26 flash unit.
Another view of the GI mounted on the Manfrotto stand Nano001 attached to the SB-26 flash unit.
The PW mounted on the Manfrotto stand Nano001 attached to the SB-26 flash unit.
P.S. - You can see the amount of things that are on the stand. The PW needs a hot-shoe mount to work with the Canon flashes since they do not have connection.
Another view of the PW mounted on the Manfrotto stand Nano001 attached to the SB-26 flash unit but this time the PW connects directly to the SB-26 but the hot shoe is still there to support it on the stand.
P.S. - You can still see the amount of things that are on the stand. The PW needs a hot-shoe mount to work with the Canon flashes since they do not have connection.
The triggers GI (Left) and the PW (Right) on the Canon MarkII.
Can you see the difference in size? :)
Hey it's not fair the left camera is bigger ;)
To end this Side-By-Side I put 3 different flashes firing together Canon 580EX (L), Canon 220EX (C) and a Nikon SB-26 (R).
All fired at the same time... you must take in account that all were in manual mode but the 220EX does not have any commands it just blast the way with full power so I taped it with some white paper to lower the power.
A setup shot and added the main light.
So I ended up with 4 lights firing with GI:
- Canon 580EX (L), Canon 220EX (C), Nikon SB-26 (R) and Nikon SB-26 (Umbrella).
With this last shot I wanted to try them on different rooms away from the camera sight.
Well it run good.
1st Image top left(From Left to Right) SB-26, 580EX, 220EX.
2nd Image top Right SB-26
3rd Image bottom Left 580EX
4th Image bottom Right 220EX
Well I think that with this you could take some conclusions by yourself and get your system working, so what are you waiting for...
Above all have fun!!!!
7 comments:
nice work :)
thanks
Hey Rui: Nice site. Came from David's link to the pencil/brolly trick and stayed for the rest.
I just picked up the GI remotes. Find they work great, but they feel flimsy.
Am trying to come up with a way to attach remote (or perhaps flash) to a stand without having it perching, and possibly breaking.
Thought I would issue a challenge to you (and to anyone else who is interested) to come up with an easy, secure, cheap way to attach these to a stand without worrying about breaking the darn thing....
Hi trent,
thanks for the comment and concerning that issue I have already talked to Gadget Infinity and they are planning on releasing a new version with that fixed... let's wait and see.
I'm scratching my head to come up with something to at least make it more flexible in order not to beak.
Until now I have not break any of them but you have to be very careful since they are all made of plastic.
Well we will see about that...
Thanks,
Rui
I have heard, that it is possible to combine PW and TTL, when you only want to fire one flash, which is out of sight, with the pw and the rest with TTL. I just don´t have the money for PWs and wanne buy those Cactus-Triggers from Hong Kong, is it possible to combine these triggers with ttl? I have 2 580 EX, 1 430 EX and a 20D.
Hi Gabriel,
thanks for the comment.
It will not be possible to make the TTL available while using the Gadget Infinity. They simply trigger the flash.
Regards,
Rui
I got the follow up version of the Cactus triggers, and they now have an aluminum "L" bracket. It still is a bit wobbly and I avoided the problem by using a hot shoe to PC cord adapter (about $12) and removing the bracket from the trigger. The trigger has a PC connection on it, so I just jacked the cable from the hot shoe adapter into the trigger and mounted the small box to my umbrella mount with some Velcro.
It is now super stable, has a lower profile (closer to the original orientation for the flash on the bracket) and is a very clean setup. You can also set up a dual flash unit off of one trigger by using a hot shoe adapter with a longer cable and triggering one flash from the PC cable connection and the other from the hot shoe on the top of the trigger, they will both work at once.
Are you sure that's all that was in the cactus package?
If you have the box, i would check it out...
Mine included a flash standard, something like this:
http://camerashop.in/images/FLASH-STAND.jpg
;)
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