New Canon Speedlites and ST-E3!

[briansquibb]

US$470 purported for the new ST-E3 is more than 2 x ST-E2 price. Of course, 3rd part 'cloners' will beat this by half

http://www.lightingrumours.com/yongnuo-st-e2-vs-canon-st-e2-review-published-689

Dozens of reviews/YouTube videos show the Yongnuo ST-E2 has better reach than Canon ST-E2 both indoors/outdoors and in all light conditions, so will the Chinese version of ST-E3 have an orange backlit LCD screen on their 'knock-off' replica when it comes out this summer??

You will find that any radio system is better than IR for reach. That is one reason why the radio controllers such as PW are so popular.

With the PW you mount the ST-W2 on the miniTT1 and all its functions become radio - making the AC3 unecessary. The same applies when mounting a 580EXII.

This may apply to the other radio systems such as Odin

[Jamesy]

With the PW you mount the ST-W2 on the miniTT1 and all its functions become radio - making the AC3 unecessary. The same applies when mounting a 580EXII.

This may apply to the other radio systems such as Odin

I was not really familiar with the with the AC3 - just checked out a brief video - it is pretty cool. Can a ST-E2 control  remote flashes manually? I owned one for a brief period and sold it and can't remember that functionality. Does the miniTT1 transmit any signals it receives via its hotshoe?

[briansquibb]

With the PW you mount the ST-W2 on the miniTT1 and all its functions become radio - making the AC3 unecessary. The same applies when mounting a 580EXII.

This may apply to the other radio systems such as Odin

I was not really familiar with the with the AC3 - just checked out a brief video - it is pretty cool. Can a ST-E2 control  remote flashes manually? I owned one for a brief period and sold it and can't remember that functionality. Does the miniTT1 transmit any signals it receives via its hotshoe?

ST-E2 and 580EX2 control the groups in the same way that they do without the mini - except that with the miniTT1 they do it through radio rather than IR

[Maui5150]

I like the functionality in the system, but I am turned off by the price. You can get an Odin set and an extra receiver for the price of the ST-E3 which will do just about the same thing. 
I wouldn't worry too much about the stated range of 98' as I think that Canon is being overly cautious in promising more than it can deliver. A real working range for a 2.4ghz system is more like 100 meters than 100 feet. They must be working under the assumption that most people will use it in the same area as a wifi setup, microwave, and cordless phone which all can potentially cause interference. I guess that it can still function consistently within 100' under those conditions.

Actually with Odin or PW Flex you get MORE, because you can hook up and fire other speedlites as well as studio strobes and anything else that can be hooked up to the Statos or PW II, PW III, etc...   For that reason alone, I would opt for an Odin or PW over paying $450+ for the ST-E3

[briansquibb]

I like the functionality in the system, but I am turned off by the price. You can get an Odin set and an extra receiver for the price of the ST-E3 which will do just about the same thing. 
I wouldn't worry too much about the stated range of 98' as I think that Canon is being overly cautious in promising more than it can deliver. A real working range for a 2.4ghz system is more like 100 meters than 100 feet. They must be working under the assumption that most people will use it in the same area as a wifi setup, microwave, and cordless phone which all can potentially cause interference. I guess that it can still function consistently within 100' under those conditions.

Presumably with the PW and Odins we will be able to mix 580s and 600s as well?

Actually with Odin or PW Flex you get MORE, because you can hook up and fire other speedlites as well as studio strobes and anything else that can be hooked up to the Statos or PW II, PW III, etc...   For that reason alone, I would opt for an Odin or PW over paying $450+ for the ST-E3

[wickidwombat]

i really want to see a performance comparison between the 580 and 600 as on camera flash using a 70-200 f2.8 at 200 to see how the 200 zoom compares to the 105 max of the 580, That would be the only reason for me to consider this flash since i already have quite a few 580s and odins for remote

[Jamesy]

i really want to see a performance comparison between the 580 and 600 as on camera flash using a 70-200 f2.8 at 200 to see how the 200 zoom compares to the 105 max of the 580, That would be the only reason for me to consider this flash since i already have quite a few 580s and odins for remote

How do you like the Odin's? I would imagine you prefer them over the PW miniTT system and the Radio Poppers since you own them.

[wickidwombat]

i really want to see a performance comparison between the 580 and 600 as on camera flash using a 70-200 f2.8 at 200 to see how the 200 zoom compares to the 105 max of the 580, That would be the only reason for me to consider this flash since i already have quite a few 580s and odins for remote

How do you like the Odin's? I would imagine you prefer them over the PW miniTT system and the Radio Poppers since you own them.

I love the odins the on screen controls are really cool and super easy to use
you can adjust power in 1/3 stop increments
and balance your A/B group power ratios really easy with the rear display
reliability and range is great too
1 button push to enable / disable HSS
its very clear from the way the odins are layed out they were designed to complement the canon flash system the best


I did look at the PW and radio poppers but for the price I think the odins take the win

[Jamesy]

i really want to see a performance comparison between the 580 and 600 as on camera flash using a 70-200 f2.8 at 200 to see how the 200 zoom compares to the 105 max of the 580, That would be the only reason for me to consider this flash since i already have quite a few 580s and odins for remote

How do you like the Odin's? I would imagine you prefer them over the PW miniTT system and the Radio Poppers since you own them.

I love the odins the on screen controls are really cool and super easy to use
you can adjust power in 1/3 stop increments
and balance your A/B group power ratios really easy with the rear display
reliability and range is great too
1 button push to enable / disable HSS
its very clear from the way the odins are layed out they were designed to complement the canon flash system the best


I did look at the PW and radio poppers but for the price I think the odins take the win

Thanks. I have not really had much time to investigate them. Can you have more than A/B groups? Can you have some strobes on TTL and others on manual. Can you control manual power levels from the camera (trigger)?

[wickidwombat]

yep it does more groups

this guy has done a good review of the odins
http://smokingstrobes.com/odin

[Jamesy]

yep it does more groups

this guy has done a good review of the odins
http://smokingstrobes.com/odin

Thank you - I will check it out.

[V8Beast]

I love the odins the on screen controls are really cool and super easy to use
you can adjust power in 1/3 stop increments
and balance your A/B group power ratios really easy with the rear display
reliability and range is great too
1 button push to enable / disable HSS
its very clear from the way the odins are layed out they were designed to complement the canon flash system the best


I did look at the PW and radio poppers but for the price I think the odins take the win

What kind of range are you getting out of the Odins? The new 600EX is intriguing, but I'm put off by the advertised 100 foot range. I need a trigger than can work in open spaces outdoors at 150-200 feet.

Also, how is the build quality and durability of the Odins? They look much better than you're typical Hong Kong triggers, at least in the pictures.   

[Jamesy]

They got an excellent in depth review here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157628093126883/?search=odin. I really like the notion of the new Canon system and if I was ready to drop 3k on speedlites I would dive right in. The Odin's (and other like them) OTOH offer a road-map to go RF wireless over TTL by not limiting me to 600EX-RF flash units. I will likely go with 600's over time and the nice thing is they would likely work  with the Odin's too.

[alew3]

i really want to see a performance comparison between the 580 and 600 as on camera flash using a 70-200 f2.8 at 200 to see how the 200 zoom compares to the 105 max of the 580, That would be the only reason for me to consider this flash since i already have quite a few 580s and odins for remote

How do you like the Odin's? I would imagine you prefer them over the PW miniTT system and the Radio Poppers since you own them.

I love the odins the on screen controls are really cool and super easy to use
you can adjust power in 1/3 stop increments
and balance your A/B group power ratios really easy with the rear display
reliability and range is great too
1 button push to enable / disable HSS
its very clear from the way the odins are layed out they were designed to complement the canon flash system the best


I did look at the PW and radio poppers but for the price I think the odins take the win

Do you know if they fixed the pre-flash on manual exposure, so that it works with light meters such as Sekonic?

Also, can you confirm the 1/3 stop increments, because, what I read on the reviews they mentioned only 1 full stop increments!

Those are my only restrictions, that prevent me shifting from a PW TT5 / TT1 / AC3 solution, which misfire a lot  and only do 1 stop increments. The only advantage left would be, that they are integrated with Sekonic to fire via radio.

thanks!


EDIT: to clarify, 1 stop increments in MANUAL mode, I know it does 1/3 increments in TTL

[SPG]

Do you know if they fixed the pre-flash on manual exposure, so that it works with light meters such as Sekonic?

Also, can you confirm the 1/3 stop increments, because, what I read on the reviews they mentioned only 1 full stop increments!

Those are my only restrictions, that prevent me shifting from a PW TT5 / TT1 / AC3 solution, which misfire a lot  and only do 1 stop increments. The only advantage left would be, that they are integrated with Sekonic to fire via radio.

thanks!


EDIT: to clarify, 1 stop increments in MANUAL mode, I know it does 1/3 increments in TTL

The preflash on Manual is due to the fact that the flashes themselves are set to TTL even when the Odin has that flash set to Manual. By setting the flash to TTL, the Odin can talk to it and tell it what power to flash at. So basically, no...it's still going to preflash when the Odin is set to Manual. The way to overcome this is to just walk over to your flash and set it to manual and use the Odin like any other "dumb" trigger. If the flash is set to manual it won't preflash, and you'll also get those 1/3rd stop adjustments.

What kind of range are you getting out of the Odins? The new 600EX is intriguing, but I'm put off by the advertised 100 foot range. I need a trigger than can work in open spaces outdoors at 150-200 feet.

Also, how is the build quality and durability of the Odins? They look much better than you're typical Hong Kong triggers, at least in the pictures.   

Build quality seems just fine to me. Not anything better or worse than typical camera gear. I've used them in the rain and they worked just fine. They've been kicking around in my backpack for weeks now and they still fire 100%.

I did a quick range test and they fired just fine up to about 300-400' for me...I don't know if they work well beyond that as I ran out of room to go further. I've been using them in much shorter distances like 100-150' regularly and they've been 100% reliable there. Like any 2.4ghz trigger (canon 600ex rt included), you should get good consistent results for a couple hundred feet, but they can still be susceptible to wifi interference. I haven't had that problem yet since I'm out in the woods, but I know it's a potential problem. The 600exrt has a nice feature where you can compare signal strengths to choose a good one. That's pretty cool.