Pixel King Wireless E-TTL Trigger for Canon

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Chicorob

Guest
I don't have the King's, but I do have the previous generation Knight's with similar functionality. I really like them, especially given the price. They rarely misfire but do require about a half second to communicate before triggering. This really is the difficult issue I have had during my shoots. They will go 100 yards, high speed sync works, and they work well with my 5DII/580/430 setup.

The only real drawbacks are that you can't turn them on or off with the flash on the unit and they use the expensive CR2 batteries, both of which seem to have been resolved with the King's. You can't set ratio's effectively but for my use it normally isn't a problem and you can use them as manual triggers if you choose to as well..

I have had mine for over a year and they have been reliable. If you are looking for ETTL without spending tons of cash I could certainly recommend them and have used them in quite a few paid events. If I were a full time pro doing really high end events where money wasn't and issue I would probably go with the pocket wizards but really, how many people are doing those?
 
Upvote 0
C

Chicorob

Guest
I realized I didn't review your original question. Since the Kings simply send transmit the signal generated by the flash and camera, the metering is as effective as the Canon IR unit. I have found it very accurate in most situations. I have also used them with a umbrella and soft box. I but up the flash composition at times, which you can do in camera. My wife is usually my assistant and if she had to mess with the flash at all she would no longer be my assistant. All she has to do with these is point the flash in the direction I tell her.

I sometimes underexpose images but that is user error when I lose flash output at high sync speeds when I am not paying attention.
 
Upvote 0
I have tried Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 and some times the pictures are overexposed more than 1 stop while using TTL mode. I thought it coould be the way that the data from/to camera to/from flash is translated. Why does your pixel flash trigger have a long recycle time. I thought the recycle time should be zero since it is just sending data back and forward.
 
Upvote 0
N

niccyboy

Guest
try 'yongnuo' RF-602tx...

they are cheap and amazing.

I have a set in my studio and a set in my portable kit... great great triggers

Ive broken a few pocket wizards and cant justify the price. I also found they chewed through the batteries and offered no extra performance gains than the yongnuo.

The yongnuo receiver also has a hotshoe mount so it can fire a speedlight if you need it to.
 
Upvote 0
N

niccyboy

Guest
http://www.ishootshows.com/2010/08/18/review-yongnuo-rf-602-wireless-flash-triggers

Quite a good review

After I wrote that post last night I bought the new versions the rf603 for 30 on eBay!

I'll let you know what the new version is like. I want it for the remote shutter release for when I'm shooting product tethered and the camera is mounted near the ceiling.
 
Upvote 0
Dec 13, 2010
4,932
1,608
Hi!

I finally got PocketWizard to take my Flex-system back after over three years with email back and forth because they don't work. They replaced the radio's and I replaced my flashes, still didn't help. So they have been great in assisting me and now refunding me. So for me, and many others, this is the system to AVOID at all cost. Luckily there's an answer, it's the Phottix Odin. Set you back about one third (!!) and put batteries in and start shooting. It NEVER misses. YOu can do everything the PW's can and in addition you can remote-control the zoom-spread of the flashhead and (when sensible) it will trigger the AF-assist on your remote-flashes.

It's the only option I have tried that makes me able to shoot at 1/8000s with my studioflashes (Elinchrome). They've included those sync-cables.

After shortening my life with about 10 years of PW-BS, this made me want to use my lights again. It just frikkin' works! 100% of the time. Exactly as promised without spending hours in software to "tune" them. PW really dropped the ball with the Flex system.

Oh, and yes, the ETTL of the Phottix is at least as good as Canon's for the little I have tried it. ;D
 
Upvote 0
J

jzucker

Guest
Tried it with my 580EX flash and Canon 5d MK II.

After initial power-on it works fine but after that it consistently under and overexposes by 2-3 stops. Clearly, the communication between the camera and flash are not happening after the initial exposure. I tried re-configuring channels and groups and no change in behavior.

Also, it does not work with NiMH AA batteries. It wouldn't power on until I put alkaline AA. This is likely because it requires 1.5v / battery instead of the 1.2v you get out of NiMH. The thing is, it's rated to work with 1.2v batteries.

Anyway, it might work for you depending on your camera and flash but it doesn't work for me...

[EDIT]

Someone me about a firmware upgrade. Spent 15 minutes nosing around on their site and finally found it. Unfortunately, the usb plug and play in windows 7 does not recognize the transmitter or receiver device so the firmware upgrade utility was unable to proceed.

NEXXXXXXXXXXXXT...
 
Upvote 0
Status
Not open for further replies.