How good are your ebay triggers?

FreeloaderJoe

FreeloaderJoe

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Joe
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Bought some Chinese triggers on ebay and i must say they are awful. They just never fire when i want them to. Is this normal. The battery has not been replaced yet (And arrived fitted in the transmitter) so perhaps this should be my first step.

What sort of range do other people have?

Also is there any way of preventing my flashes going on standby?
 
Mine were bloody awful! They kicked off by themselves, flashing off multiple times, and then wouldn't fire when I wanted them to - I ended up selling them on eBay... but wait for it... they worked perfectly for the buyer! I ended up buying Cybersyncs instead - fantastic, and considerably cheaper than PW's.

It is recommended that you replace the battery, although I doubt this is hardly going to affect the reliability issue.
 
Mine were awful - 5 full sets and I could never get more than two receivers and one trigger to work at any given time. Gave up and bought Pocket Wizards...
 
Mine were fine once the batteries were replaced but the build quality let them down so I baught skyports.
 
I've got some ebay v2 triggers and they have seemed fine so far, got good batteries in the receiver and the transmitter had one fitted already, had the occasional misfire, but normaly when theres been some metal to metal contact somewhere else in the room thats seems to have sent a trigger response .. if that makes any sense

Phil
 
Mine are 100% working !!! lucky me!
 
The first set I had were rubbish. I then got a second set from another seller and touchwood they've been ok.
 
I've got a pair of the ones with AAA batts in the recievers. I modded them to have a headphone jack for easy interfacing, and a small hole so I could put a torch strap through them and hang them, pocket wizard style.

And while I need to get one more, I've never had a problem with them really... reliable firing (as long as you're not trying pw length distances), they just...work. I thought I had issues at one point, but it was just a dodgy cheap pc cord.

On the other hand, CLS is just so much easier, and pocketwizards so much more durable... those two systems are a match made in heaven imo :P
 
I got some V2s last week, they work fine; the only problem is my crap external flash with rubbish recycle time. The triggers seem good for £16 though.
 
only had one issue with mine when I knew I was pushing the range and only one flash fired, makes me want pocket wizards but I can't justify them yet as my v2 's work great
 
Absolutely fine. Had the odd time not fire, but no missfires yet and 95% of the time fires fine. Got the cactus V2s.
 
Just ordered Cactus V4 triggers for £32 delivered. Can't wait to try 'em out.
 
i'm pondering getting some of these myself so which sellers/shops have you lot who've got working ones bought from? :)
 
My CTR-301 set is perfect! No misfires and I've not found a range I've needed that they don't fire with a 100% hit rate. Hot-shoe is perfect for Nikon mount too, unlike Cactus :clap:
 
My Catcuc V2s have been spot on, no misfires and everything works fine haven't even needed to change the battery yet.

Then again I haven't used them outside yet, so not sure how versatile they will be.
 
I put an external aerial on my transmitter and it works fine to about 60'


Steve.
 
I have a set of no brand cheapos and they used to work, albeit with limited range on my old Centon flash.

However, since I got my Speedlite 430 EX II they work brilliantly. The range is much increased and I have had no misfires. Problems may be down to the flash rather than the units themselves.
 
mine (PT-04) are fine.

Apart from the one I blew up... Pesky high voltage flashes.
 
my pt-04 have luckily been working good for about a month now, and hopefully for a little while longer aswell..
 
However, I use a Yin Yang infrared trigger which was dirt cheap and works just great with the following limitations:

1. You need an optical slave in the flash unit you are attempting to fire. No problem, all studio strobes have optical slaves built in.

2. You need line of sight from the Yin Yang to the optical sensor. No problem I use mine in a small studio,

3. You cannot adjust the flash with the Yin Yang trigger - simply fire it.

4. If there are other photographers shooting flash in the area - their flash burst will trip your flash. This is no problem for me since I am the only photographer working in the area.

Other than those limitations, it works just great and I have had mine for over two years with no problems. It is certainly cheap enough,,,
 
I've just ordered a set of Cactus V4's for my 580EX II. If I buy another 580EX II, can I buy another 'something' so it fires both of them?
 
I have Cactus V2s and they are rubbish. The transmitter seems OK but one out of three receivers didn't work at all and needed to be replaced, one will only work if I remove or loosen the battery cover and overall I suffer from random firing or complete misfires. I even bought new batteries for everything but that made no difference. I barely used them when I got them and now they're buried somewhere and will probably never see the light of day again. I keep them, just in case, as I have no interest in spending PW or Skyport money.
 
I've been using a set of 16 channel receivers / trigger from Hong Kong (via ebay) to fire off my Elinchrom Dlite2's. Had absolutely NO problems whatsoever. No misfires yet and have been really pleased with them. Had them for over a year now and I don't use them every day but on the occasions I do, they suit me perfectly. Tested the transmitter from out in the back garden and they fired my lights in the front living room of my house no probs.
 
Kryptix said:
I've just ordered a set of Cactus V4's for my 580EX II. If I buy another 580EX II, can I buy another 'something' so it fires both of them?
Click to expand...

I believe that if you set one 580 to 'master' and the other to 'slave' and when the master fires (using the trigger) the slave should also fire without the need for "another something".
 
Kryptix said:
I've just ordered a set of Cactus V4's for my 580EX II. If I buy another 580EX II, can I buy another 'something' so it fires both of them?
Click to expand...

I hope so as I've just ordered a 2nd V4 receiver
The firing one from the other works fine, but
I'm also firing some Lencarta flashes off the flash from the 1st 580
and it swamps the 2nd so it never fires
so I'm gonna use the 2nd receiver to allow me to fire both 580s together
still with me? :thinking:
 
:plusone: for the CTR-301's. Never had a mis-fire, great range outdoors, work behind obstacles/through walls.
 
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