Speedlites and appropriate wireless triggers

wooster

Hi Neil

Are you able to adivse me please?

I have started shooting a few weddings/events and so far have stuck mainly to the flash on camera and bounced it, or else shot through a brolly nearby with STE2. I've used ETTL with all of this, but I do want manual control.
I am now looking to go wireless with my Canon system ( 580EXII, 580EX, 430EXII, ad STE2) I know that things have moved on a bit technologically with flash triggers since publication, of your last book so I thought I'd ask for your thoughts.
In particular I'm wondering whether to go with a "dumb trigger" solution like the Cybersync, or a more fancy one which allows for ETTL as well as manual. If I go with Cybersync I'm stuck with max sync speed and with my 5Dmk2 at the end of a wireless connection that might only be around 1/125s. Is this really enough? I know HSS has its problems but feel it might be beneficial to have a system which allows for this. What are your views?

If I go for a more highly specced system I'm torn between the Radio Poppers or the Pocket Wizards. The latter would worry me due to my using 580s and also I have heard a lot of reports of PWs frying these units. The whole thing seems a bit of a no-go for me!

That leaves Radio Poppers. Would you recommend them for my purposes. They are expensive but if they did the job I wanted I'd happily pay. The only issue is that I'd either have to lose a flash to sit it on my camera or use my STE2. The latter seems fine and I believe I could still use the flashes on manual when I wanted ( maybe most of the time?) as long as I made adjustments locally. This doesn't seem too much of a sacrifice to me.

Anyway these are my thoughts. I'd really welcome your advice on this and am grateful for your timein reading.

Neil vN

I do think that while you're investing money into wireless triggers, you may as well spend a little more money and get a system that allows TTL (and high-speed sync) too.

Then it's either the Radio Poppers or new PocketWizards.

Now, as far as I know, you can't set the flash to be manual from the ST-E2 ... it only allows TTL flash. (If I'm wrong, will someone correct me please.)

wooster

Thanks Neil. I'm pretty torn between the RP and PW solutions. I like the way the PW are supposed to work but keep reading about how they are finicky and unreliable with Canon 580s ( and sometimes other flashes)

All a bit of a gamble it seems

Neil vN

For the Canon flash system, you have to have a rigorous work-around method in place to circumvent the radio-frequence noise that the 580 emits.

The simplest and most reliable system then would be the Radio-Poppers