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RadioPopper Test Shoot
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

If you haven't heard of the RadioPopper system yet you need to check them out!

I was privileged to be one the first photographers in the country to get these little beauties delivered to my door this week -- I was so excited! The beauty of these little gizmos is now you can finally use your ETTL flashes without the limitations of your ETTL flashes.

What do they do?

It's pretty simple, the RadioPopper Transmitter takes the IR (infrared) signal sent by your transmitter or on camera flash, converts the signal to RF (radio frequency) and sends it to your RadioPopper Receiver mounted on your off camera flash.

See the RadioPopper website for full reviews and pictures.

So why use these over Pocket Wizards or some other sync options?

The RadioPopper allows you to utilize the full ETTL features of your flash with high speed sync at shutter speeds of up to 1/8000 -- others don't.

So why add all this stuff when you have built in IR?

The built in IR has limitations of line of sight, distance, and bright sunlight can interfere with the IR signal. All of these limitations make IR very inconsistent and unreliable -- trust me I've tried to use it.

My first RadioPopper test shoot

I was just itching to try them out, so yesterday I had a friend come over and we went out around my house and did some simple tests in various lighting and environmental conditions, some that would have been a disaster without my RadioPopper setup.

A dual purpose test

Have you ever needed to do a shoot and not had that sweet light you need and wished you were in the studio?

Since I had all the makings of a studio lighting setup outdoors I also wanted use my new flash system as my main light like I do in the studio, not just as a fill light -- novel idea huh! I can't take credit for this great idea I borrowed it from John Hartman - he's so smart!

I've still got more testing and refining to do, next with multiple flashes. Natural light is great, studio light is great, the two combined is even better!

I highly recommend the RadioPopper system -- it will certainly change the way I shoot!

My setup for this test

Canon 1Ds Mark II

Canon 135mm lens

Canon 14mm lens

Canon ST-E2 transmitter

Canon 580Ex Flash

Canon Flash Battery Pack

RadioPopper P1 Transmitter and Receiver setup

Small flash softbox w/ stand

A patient and willing subject

A little Vegas wind and sun

Image Specs

Iso 100

All ETTL flash

Aperture priority mode

Wide open 2.0 - 2.8

Shutter speeds from 500-6000

Flash WB

All these images are straight out of the camera with some minor levels adjustments.

Standard headshot in the shade outside of my front door

Catch light from the softbox

Same spot, 3/4 length

Open shade near the fence, sun to her back behind the houses

Here's where the RadioPopper system really starts coming in handy! I'm shooting with my 135mm at a pretty good distance away so I can include the lighting setup for you and you can see that the flash is going off.

Now I zoom in, the old manual way, by foot!

Then for a little fun, who said you can't shoot directly into the sun!

Out in the middle of the street, sun to her back, standing in the shade of the houses. Gotta love that 135mm lens wide open!

Hey, Get in that pipe over there! Sure, I can kick flash in from the front side, but...

why not back light the pipe just for kicks, just because I can and the flash is no where in line of sight, but no worries I have a RadioPopper setup! This will come in handy especially at night with multiple flashes -- I can't wait to try that!

So, overall I'm hooked and give the RadioPopper system a big thumbs up!

You'll certainly be seeing more RadioPopper images from me...

Labels: Radio Popper, Wayne Wallace Photography

posted by Wallace Advertising @ 11:51 AM,

13 Comments:

At April 23, 2008 10:44 PM, Faith said...: Now if only one of these people would make a hot shoe trigger where I can stick the transmitter into the camera hotshoe, and have a 2nd hotshoe on TOP of the transmitter for an on-camera flash, I'd be the first to buy.

Not such an issue with portrait photography, but wedding photographers would be excited. The control of having a off-camera light, with the ability to walk away from the light stand and shoot something happening on the other side of the ballroom.

That's what I'm holding out for.
At April 23, 2008 11:25 PM, Wayne Wallace said...: Man that would be a stack of stuff on one hot shoe...

You could do it with a 580 instead of the ST-E2 transmitter shown in the pictures or that I used.

You could spin the flash head to point over your head and or reduce the power output and still get the IR signal to send to the off camera flash. I didn't try it but I will and let you know.

When you need the flash on camera, you can reverse the above so you do have both in one solution.
At April 24, 2008 9:48 AM, Faith said...: Eh, I'm not a huge believer in IR triggering from the Canon system.

Maybe someday, PocketWizard will make a really teeny skinny hotshoe transmitter with another hotshoe on top. I have a friend here who uses this other brand of radio triggers...not PW or ST-E2, but these really small compact units. I forget what they are called. But they are so compact! I would love it if they developed that.

Maybe Paramount cords could customize something for me!

I forgot to tell you, Wayne, that your test shots look great. Thanks for sharing. I've been following the RadioPopper threads on some forums, but no one had any real experience to share yet.
At April 24, 2008 11:32 AM, Wayne Wallace said...: Thanks, me either, that's why I'm using these, the solution I mentioned to you is using RP not IR, we'll technically it's still IR but converted to RF then back to IR

yes, I"ve seen those little ones as well, they are small, I forget the name of them, but they don't do what the RP does.

The real solution is for canon to develop it but they won't because of their global market, that's why I've heard anyway.
At April 25, 2008 3:18 PM, Rob said...: I'm afraid that faith didn't understand that he can use a flash On Camera as master + RadioPoppers to send via Radio the Ir signal of the master flash. Your problem is solved. And.. sorry if you already understood how they work.

Anyway.... about the standard radio triggers, maybe the tiny ones you were talking about are the elinchrom skyports, I've got a set, they are great, still they don't do what RadioPoppers do... Can't wait to get a set when they'll finally be available in europe.

Nice shots Wayne!
At April 25, 2008 11:05 PM, Josh Bobb said...: Now, if only I could do some high-speed sync with something a bit more powerful than the speedlights....even something as small as a QFlash.

I'm really interested in seeing the high-speed sync results with these Radiopoppers...syncing at speeds of 1/1000 and faster.
At April 26, 2008 1:02 AM, Wayne Wallace said...: Hey Josh,

As stated my sync speed ranged from 500-6000 on this shoot.
At May 4, 2008 9:30 AM, PhotoKy.COM said...: I just got my poppers in and used them the other night at a religious fund raiser. see the link here for the shots
http://www.photoky.com Press the "messiah ministries" link.

I had a friend assist by holding a mono pod about 3 ft behind me. Everything work great except me, who has a hard time get the "right" light for a shot.
I am using a Nikon D300, 2 SB800. The strobes work fine and when I up the ev on the master strobe, popper worked as expected.

Kind regards
Ken
At September 17, 2008 7:52 PM, Richard Lazaro said...: Great review Wayne!

The poppers will finally solve my problem of mixing speedlites with my studio strobes.

My only gripe is in what what to do with my pocket wizards, since I have quite a few. I'm also guessing that the Sekonic meters won't be able to trigger the radio poppers?
At September 26, 2008 1:09 PM, Aaron Potter said...: So, I'm considering getting these as I love to shoot with my SB-800's - but can they be triggered from the Sekonic light meter?

Pocket Wizards while they don't allow for high sync speeds - do allow for testing the exposure of the flash.
At September 26, 2008 2:11 PM, Wayne Wallace said...: Hey Aaron,

The whole idea for these is being able to use hi speed sync and ettl. Sure you could go manual on the flash but the whole idea is being able to use the ETTL and not have to worry about metering.

They are triggered by the IR signal of your flash or in my case canon transmitter which is then converted to RF and sent to the receiver on the remote flash and converted back to IR to set off the remote flash.
At November 23, 2008 12:21 AM, Michael said...: Hi Wayne... you wrote:

"The whole idea for these is being able to use hi speed sync and ettl. Sure you could go manual on the flash but the whole idea is being able to use the ETTL and not have to worry about metering."

I have to disagree slightly: you can use E-TTL ONLY for the high speed sync functionality -- being able to mix ambient and strobe at above your sync speed. But you do NOT have to let TTL decide your aperture/exposure - you can set the strobes for manual power which gives far greater creative control, in which case you may want to use a light meter. See the Strobist article below -- but in general the Strobist article is to use Speedlights just like studio strobes: know what the lights are doing and manually set aperture/shutter/ISO:

"RadioPoppers: Not Just For Wireless TTL"

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/03/radiopoppers-not-just-for-wireless-ttl.html

This is why I want to buy RadioPoppers!

Thanks!

-M
At November 23, 2008 12:54 AM, Wayne Wallace said...: Micheal,

I agree with you, I do use them like that as well I've been using them a lot since this writing which was the first time I used them.

I think I was responding to the use of them vs pock wizards, at the time pocket wizards and probably still now don't allow high speed sync and ettl these do.

Some times I go manual for more creative lighting but for brainless good exposure the ETTL works almost 100% if you have fresh batteries and the sensors in the right spot. It's a hack add on since it's not built into the flash itself, the sensors slip under the tape but I usually get them all setup and checked out before using them on a job.

They will last for a long wedding type shoot and it's really handy to just grab the light and stick it where you need it as a side light and forget about it on ETTL.

I even use them as a main on ETTL and dialing in the ambient exposure as necessary. I still recommend them as an ad on hack but I wish Canon would make it part of the flash.

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