NERO multi-trigger reviewed

A couple of days ago I was contacted by the creator of Nero triggers and asked to make a review of their acclaimed product for camera multi-trigger and they sent me a unit to test.

They assured me this was a production unit but the hot-shoe mount was not yet completely finished so they had to replace it with a hand made one which fits perfectly on my Canon cameras.

 This is a multi-trigger system for sound, light and moving objects as well as time lapse and laser triggering.

This can work with any camera with the dedicated cable. I was able to test this with Canon 1D MarkIV, Canon 5D MarkII, Canon 5D MarkIII, Canon Powershot G12 and Olympus OM-D E5 all with great success.  

About the device:

NERO is a versatile device for photographers to take special photographs by triggering their SLRs or external flashes.

The device has been designed based on microcontroller technology. It is equipped with built-in light, laser and sound sensors, also incorporates a timer for flexible control of timelapse photography.

The Nero MultiTrigger has 10 built-in functions listed below:

- Lightning Trigger - Sound Trigger
- Sound Trigger with Lock
- Time Lapse (1-10 secs)
- Time Lapse (1-10 mins)
- Laser Trigger with Delay
- Laser Trigger with MultiShot
- Long Exposure
- Super Bulb
- Manual Trigger

So here are my thoughts about this great product that I've been testing day in day out on it's functionality.



The box come in well packed and delivered very fast by DHL express service.



Inside the box you will have a full booklet with the instructions on how to use the unit. You can also download it directly from the NERO page here.



It came with a Canon cable that was under the unit box.



Here is in detail the connection for the 5D and 1D Canon series.



After power the unit it looks like this with a bunch of lights that represent the mode settings.




Here is set to Timelapse Trigger (mins). Each bar represents a mode of the 10 the unit have available.



On one of the sides you have the mode button (M) and the selector button for the active function (C) and a wheel to change the sensitivity of the mode you have chosen.






On the other side of the panel you have the On/Off switch, the Flash input to plug and trigger external flashes and the SLR input to trigger DSLR or other cameras.





On the front of the unit you have the light trigger sensor.



On the base of the unit you have the hot-shoe mount.



This unit came with a hand made hot-shoe but the manufacturer assured me that this was a temporary situation and that the shipping units are coming with a well built hot-shoe. Although this was not a problem to mount it on the camera I did found that was a disappointment to have such a hot-shoe mount for the price you pay for the unit.



Here are the cables I used to test it. Canon 1D & 5D, Canon Powershot 50D/60D and Olympus trigger (Left to Right).



The one shipped with the NERO unit is the one on the bottom and it worked perfectly with my Phottix trigger that takes separate cables to work.



Here is the Phottix unit reversed (Phottix TC-501) so you can order cables from other places in case you have different cameras.



Here is a size measure of the unit in my hand so you will get a feeling how small this unit is.



Another measure of the unit compared with 3 standard AA batteries although the unit takes 2 AAA batteries to operate.



The unit needs a Philips screwdriver so you can replace the batteries has they are inside the sealed plastic cover.

This can be an inconvenient when out in the field and batteries needed to be changed.



When unscrewed the 4 screws here is what you will see.



Let's take a closer look...



When I opened the unit for the first time I also noticed that it was covered with dust and some metal parts were already with rust. Do not know if this is because of the sample unit or if all the production units will come like this.



Take the batteries out and as you can see the unit is a little rusty and with no care for dust. I had to blow the unit out of dust who also led me think that these are made one by one in a hand made in a no sealed environment. 



A closer look at the battery contacts and you can see the rust and dust particles all over.

After a few rocket blown the dust disappeared but the rust still remains, let's see how long it will take before the unit stop working. Only time will tell... hope they will take this in attention for the next built units.



After cleaning the unit it was time to close things up and make it to test.

The unit performed with excellent results for every camera I tested and under the situations it was build to.

I found out, and after playing with it for a while, that the bar system is a little complicated to memory leading you to almost frustration in the field in case you forget the instruction manual, also the fact that you cannot replace batteries on the fly is another inconvenient.

I also wish they could have implemented an external input so you can add and use your own inputs.

I contact NERO about this and they told me that they are preparing another unit with an LCD and an easy access to replaceable batteries without removing the cover.

Hope this will come soon than later has there is another unit on the market with some of this functions and with an LCD.

Features of the unit:

• Multi-Cable / Camera Capability is now STANDARD. No need to buy another trigger if you have two cameras or when you upgrade to a different model/brand
• It is possible to trigger Flash or DSLR with standart 2.5 and 3.5 mm interfaces (unique NERO feature)
• Extremely sensitive optical sensor to detect lightning events
• Day or night detection of fast lightning events
• Allow for Image Review after Every Shot
• Response (lag) time in milliseconds level
• 10 level sensitivity adjustment and display
• Optical isolated output to fully protect DSLR from any potential harms
• Hot shoe mount for most SLR/DSLR cameras
• Includes Duracell 2xAAA battery
• Microcontroller-based design

The price of the unit starts at US 117,00 and goes up depending on what functionality you would like on the unit.

You can also buy dedicated cables at their web page for Nikon and Canon models look them here.

This is an excellent product for a specific kind of photography and it's one of the smallest I came across also the price is very good considering the number of things you can do with it.

Extremely recommended!!!

Check out the photo gallery of what you can do with this baby.

Here are some example videos:

Lightning Trigger mode



Sound Trigger mode



Time Lapse mode

Nero triggers DSLR by Light, Sound and Motion

Ever thought of how they do it to trigger the lightnings that occur in Nature or even how that make those crazy dynamic photos of exploding balloons?

Well, think no more... Nero multi trigger will make that and much more into your photographs.

Such a small device that you can attach to your camera via hot-shoe mount and capture all those great moments.

The device is powered by 2 AAA batteries and will last a couple of ours until it drains out, it also have an intervalometer with time lapse features, built in audio, optical and laser sensors so you could easily use it under any situation.

You can get them for Nikon and Canon at the manufacturer page here.

If you like to shoot this  kind of scenarios you would not want to miss one of these babies.

DIY: GI Triggers Antenna Mod

After making the "DIY: How to Assemble an Antenna to GI Triggers" and watching the excellent video I had to push myself to make this modification for my triggers.

I always wanted to make this change on mine not that I use them for distance purposes, nor to measure how far can I trigger them without really having the use for them at those far distances but I needed to make this mod for stability purposes.

Everyone knows that Gadget Infinity triggers are very inexpensive and great but they lack reliability in terms of trigger and also because their plastic is somehow very sensible and not has tough has many would think they would be at for 25,00 euros a pack I think they are more than enough when you plan on playing with your flashes off camera.

Take a look at a simple operation that you can make yourself even with a not so good experience on welding, like myself ;)



First things first, let's grab our Gadget Infinity Trigger (I will be refering to them here as GI so I won't have to write it down so many times).



These are the tools you will be needing for this:

- Knife (to cut the wire).
- Pencil (to wrap the wire and make it curly).
- Philips screw driver
- Piece of wire (I use one from the wrap cables)
- Welding Iron
- GI trigger
- Welding



Open the GI with the Philips screw driver, you can find the screw near the hot shoe adapter on the bottom part.



Here is what it looks like when you have open it... don't be afraid this is a simple straight forward task.



The wire measure more or less 19,5 cm. This was on wrap that I had that was big enough to fit the measures for the antenna. You can find this baby wrapping any cable that comes packed.



Remove the plastic cover with the knife, this you can measure as much as you feel comfortable with. I just removed enough so I won't get too much wire outside after welding it to the GI.



Here is the place where you are going to weld. You can see that there is another hole near the F6-616 and some people been using this hole to, but from what I've been reading around the left side one is a more reliable one.



See why I mentioned the pencil, this would make the wire curly so it fits inside the GI without having to make any holes on the cover.



This is what it will look like after welding it.



Before welding be sure to remove the battery, we don't want to blow out anything wouldn't we?

Be sure to put some weld on the cable before you weld it to the hole this would make it much easier to weld and you will not damage anything inside.



Here it is the final shot after welding and putting the cable inside. No holes needed on the front cover of the GI, as I said before I was not looking for distance measurements but reliability.



Here is a shot from my balcony through my kitchen, living room and the light was at one of the living rooms at the bottom of the house.

I can tell you that the walls here are pretty stiff and has you can see on the above image the GI couldn't get the job done.



The same place, or at least almost the same place and now with the mod already done.

It did triggered the GI on the other end of the house as you can see, now I can have more reliability on these inexpensive triggers and hope you will do the same to yours.

Not only you will get less misfiring from the trigger but you will also get more reliability from them even at close range.

I will let you make some distance test, since this was not my main goal when I wanted to make this mod, also as you can see from others I decided to NOT make the hole for the antenna, simply because distance is not one of my goals for the GI.

Enjoy.

Other places to visit:

* GI Cactus V2s Modification Tutorial
* How To Solder
* Increase effective distance
* Gadget Infinity Cactus V2s Trigger Mod
* 4 channel transmitter mod
* Ebay trigger antenna mod
* Cactus "ebay" V2s Trigger mod that looks good and works
* GI Cactus Mod
* Gadget Infinity Mod

Nikon with Pocket Wizards Inside

Today while driving through the Pocket Wizard web page I stumble with this excellent news for Pocket Wizard and Nikon users.

It seems that they can mount an Internal Radio Transceiver just like the ones we are using today on the hot shoe mount.

Take a look at the full Press Release after the jump...

Press Release from Pocket Wizard (you can find the original post here at their page):

"Taking the ultimate step forward, PocketWizard is now offering the first built-in digital radio Transceiver in a digital SLR camera. The newest generation PocketWizard takes the shape of a wafer-thin electronic computer circuit board, that interfaces with existing technology found in the Nikon® D-Series Digital SLR cameras. This built-in PocketWizard Transceiver offers the same advantages as the external units without the need for pre-triggered motor drive cables, batteries or PC cords and it leaves the camera's hot shoe available for other accessories such as an on-camera flash.

Installation of the PocketWizard inside the Nikon D-Series cameras is available from Mamiya America Corporation in the U.S. as an after market modification to current owners of Nikon's D1, D1H and D1X series of digital SLR cameras.

The PocketWizard technology inside modification is fully compatible with all current and previously released PocketWizard Digital Radio Triggering Systems. Offering 32 channels plus "Multi-Zone Triggering", this modification also features auto-channel detection. Setting the radio channel on the Nikon® D-Series camera is as easy as holding the camera's flash key down and turning the jog wheel, until the flash or camera fires.

Since the PocketWizard chip inside is a Transceiver, it can send or receive digital radio signals independently or simultaneously. That means you can trigger your camera remotely and your camera will trigger your flash units remotely, all at the same time, wirelessly up to 1000 feet away.

The PocketWizard inside also offers features such as Pre-Triggering release circuitry that keeps the camera from going into sleep mode, SpeedCycler mode enabling rapid switching from one flash unit (or Zone) to another.

Relay Trigger sequencing, offering the photographer the ability to trigger a camera wirelessly and the camera, in turn, triggers electronic flash units wirelessly. The PocketWizard inside accepts the trigger signals from other PocketWizard radios, (such as the PocketWizard Classic, Plus, MAX, MultiMAX or also a Sekonic radio- ready exposure meter).

An external antenna that screws into the Nikon's PC socket is the only indication that PocketWizard technology is inside. Once the antenna is removed the PC socket automatically switches back to a standard PC terminal. With a triggering range estimated at 1000 feet or more and total compatibility with all PocketWizard Inside or PocketWizard Ready professional photographic equipment, the Nikon's D-Series cameras with PocketWizard technology inside is the perfect addition to the "Digital Wireless Freedom" system.

Future photographers won't know the limits of a wired world, why should you?

Features include:

* Wireless auto-detection - Channel ID setting
* Transceiver Technology - Transmit, Receive or do both at the same time, all in one radio
* 32 selectable channels - Allows multiple users to work together without interference
* Multi-Zone Triggering - Selectively control which camera(s) or flash(es) triggers remotely
* Pre-Triggering release - Prevents a remote camera from going into sleep or standby mode
* SpeedCycler mode - Allow sequential triggering of cameras or flash units
* Relay mode - Offers simultaneous triggering of a camera and flash units remotely
* Removable external antenna - Retains standard PC socket function
* 1000 foot operating range - Offers reliable remote operation at great distances.

PocketWizard inside Nikon D-Series Specifications:

Range: 1000 feet +
Frequency: 344mhz (Standard Triggering channels 1 thru 16)
346.5 - 354 MHz (Quad-Triggering 17 thru 32)
Code: Complex 16/24-bit digitally coded signals
Channels: 32 digitally coded Channels
16 original PocketWizard classic Channels
16 PocketWizard Quad-Triggering Channels
Synch Speed: Up to 1/400 (focal plane)
Power: Uses the Nikon camera body's power source
Weight: Internal wafer board adds only 0.16 oz. to the camera

Note: PocketWizard Digital Radio Triggering systems may be used only in countries where a permit for the control frequency has been issued by the government office in charge.
Specifications are subject to change without notice.

PocketWizard Inside Nikon D-Series [Instructions & Warranty]

MODIFICATION PROCEDURE: When requesting a Nikon D1, D1X or D1H digital SLR to be modified with a PocketWizard inside, the PocketWizard Inside Modification order form (link to Order Form) must accompany the camera. The camera must be in good working order before MAC can perform the modification. If the camera is not received in good working order it will be returned. Once the modification is completed, the camera will be shipped back to the sender.

MODIFICATION TURN-AROUND TIME: MAC's service department receives the camera, providing that all components are available, the standard turn-around time is 48 hours. If you require a faster turn-around, special arrangements can be made (additional charges apply) including overnight shipping and drop-ship procedures.

WARRANTY COVERAGE: MAC will warranty the PocketWizard inside modification
and Nikon will continue to warranty the Nikon camera. This means that if a require service with for your Nikon radio-ready camera, you must first send the camera to MAC's service department. MAC will remove the radio board and send the camera to Nikon USA for servicing. If the problem is with the camera, Nikon will honor the warranty. If the problem is with the PocketWizard, then MAC will honor the warranty."

I Just hope this feature soon will be available for Canon 1D series soon :)

Could RadioPopper be the future of Wireless Radio Trigger System?

RadioPopper finally released a picture of their so awaited Radio Flash Triggers.

If this radio flash trigger is what they are praying for then I think Pocket Wizard will have to make a twist on their best selling products, or maybe not.

But what are Pocket Wizards and what they can do for you?

PocketWizard Digital radio slaves offer the photographer creative freedom to position electronic flash and/or cameras anywhere you want to without the need for wires. Triggering your camera or strobe is as easy as pushing the shutter release on your camera.

This is what we all Strobist fans been using unless you have opted by some other inexpensive triggers say Gadget Infinity that do "almost" the same.

Now comes in game another product that has raised the bar by the name of RadioPopper.

But what other features has this RadioPopper that could deserve our attention?

So let's take a look what they offer versus the actual Leading Brand (PW):

The Leading Brand
Make no mistake about it - for triggering flashes or studio lights in manual mode, nothing beats the industry standard. If you’re getting paid for your work and the shoot is important - then don’t hesitate for a moment to purchase the current standard product. It’s worth every penny and you’ll never regret it. The leading product works in both directions (“transceiver” operation), you can trigger your camera, and you can program it to do lots of additional special functions, and many studio lighting systems have built in support for these 3rd party products. That’s solid - and if that type of lighting is generating your pay check, then just buy the right tool for the job and don’t look back.

RadioPopper P1 / P8
This product addresses a very prevalent need in the event photography world. As wedding shooters, we’re usually chasing our subjects through questionable lighting conditions. We walk into a hotel lobby and in five minutes, we need to create model cover-shot quality work. We’ve got a pair of 580’s and a vision. We’re flying by the seat of our pants and we need to put light where we need it, and we don’t have time to think about metering. Just toss a flash on a ledge and shoot. But the existing IR technology means that slave flash doesn’t fire reliably. That’s there the P1 and P8 come in. To give people facing this lighting pinch every weekend an option - a better way to work. This opens up all kinds of new possible lighting setups that require zero setup and very little thought other than visualizing the lighting pattern itself. The P1 and P8 are intended for a completely separate niche of the market than the current leading brand devices.

RadioPopper Jr.
This is a standard manual flash slave trigger. It does not include the TTL functions of the P1 or P8. The Jr. is directed to the amateur and pro-sumer market. More people purchased D-SLR’s last year than ever before, and they’re excited to try off camera flash. Someone in this market who isn’t generating much if any income from their photography has to choose between a short range inexpensive product, or the full fledged pro system with lots of features they won’t use. Once again, the Jr. seeks to fill a niche. It won’t have the advanced functions and programming options of the name brand devices. It’ll likely only have 2 “channels” - “A” and “B”, and it’ll just send a trigger instruction one direction. These limited features are perfectly suited for the amateur, but the professional will certainly require and desire the more rich and expanded feature set of products offered by other manufacturers.

Choose the Leading Brand:
* You’re getting paid for your work
* Your lighting and scene are fairly constant
* You require lots of channels, integration with studio gear, etc
* Buy it once and use it for a career

Choose the P1 / P8:
* You’re on the run in fast changing situations
* Weddings, on location portraiture, PJ work
* You already own a pair or more of IR capable ETTL / iTTL flash units
* You require high speed synch functions
* You need to quickly place a light and shoot without first metering manual exposures

P1 Price: $175 per Tx / Rx - $349 complete 'ready to shoot' kit. Proj.
Release Date: February 2008
P8 Approx Price: $225 per Tx / Rx.
Ship Date: Summer 2008

Choose the Jr.:
* You’re short on cash and big on vision
* You’re experimenting with light and any reliable wireless trigger will do
* You won’t shoot in large gatherings with others (press conferences)
* Two channels is probably one more than you actually need
* Going wireless on the cheap may spark a career of growth and inspiration

Price: about $25 each.
Ship Date: Summer 2008

So will this be a subject for a Wireless Radio Trigger revolution or what?

Hope to have my hands on one as soon as they are available in Europe and for sure I will make a full review here about them.

You can follow the news on about their development in the blog and the official site is here.

Follow the discussion of the RadioPopper at Flickr.