Trigger Happy :: Flashwave III Radio Triggers

I've been a heavy user of Nikon's Creative Lighting System for the past few years and it has worked well for me...if I'm shooting Nikon. But these days I need a radio system that would work equally well on the Nikon and the Fuji X-Pro1, X100 and now the X-E1. The latest pocket wizard plus iii's were looking like the direction I was going to go, but the system was a bit messy as the transceivers needed to be hung from the lights by lanyards. The Pocket wizards were also working out pretty expensive as I would have needed six units.

I was turned on to the Flashwave III system after reading that Billy 'the Fuji Guy' used these units and recommended them for the X cameras. I ordered two sets from Warehouse Express to try before buying the rest of the receivers that I required. A set consists of one very small transmitter for the camera hotshoe and one receiver to trigger a flash. One of the plus sides of the Flashwave system is that the receiver has it's own hotshoe that a strobe can be mounted on, plus because it has a flat base, the receiver also doubles as a Speedlight stand. These units can also be mounted on light stands via a threaded socket on the base.  A set of Flashwave III's also come with an impressive array of cables and adapters that most companies would charge as extras.

Built quality is pretty good and although the units are plastic, they have stainless steel plates on the flat areas that give them a quality feel. I get quite a few miss-fires with the Nikon SU800 commander unit (probably due to it being infrared line of sight), but the Flashwave's fire every time. Channels are controlled by 4 dip switches on all units, which gives a total of 16 channels. So if you do events with other photographers, both of you can select a different Channel and avoid firing each others lights.

It's great to use two cameras with a Flashwave transmitter on each! With a 50mm on one and an 85mm on the other, I can get through a full portrait session without having to change a lens. I used to either switch lenses or switch off cameras and move the SU800 from one to another.

The downside of using generic radio triggers is that you can't change power from the transmitters, they simply trigger and nothing more. But on the up side, I find that my lighting is more consistent when I come to editing a shoot, as I'm less likely to try to micro adjust power settings. Which of course means that photos can be adjusted in batches as the exposures are all the same.

Fujifilm X-Pro1 In The Studio

The X-Pro1 is an awesome camera for natural light portraits, but how about portraits with strobes? I ordered the camera back in January, when it was first announced, but the thought of it being a studio camera never crossed my mind. But I quickly became curious when I saw the results of portraits I had taken on the streets. I know that my photog buddy Patrick La Roque is also waiting with interest to see how the X-Pro1 does in a studio environment. Maybe this will be the final nail in his wallet's coffin? Check out Patrick's blog for loads of great X100 & X-Pro1 stuff.

THE SET-UP & EQUIPMENT I went old school for this test by using a PC sync cable (long one) and a light meter. I do loads of stuff with Nikon Speedlights, so I was really interested to see how or if they would work with the X-Pro1. My background was a collapsible Lastolite Black Velvet 6' x 5' and I also used a Lastolite Easybox Hotshoe softbox and stand. I placed an SB800 in the softbox and connected it to the camera via the PC sync cord. My second flash, an SB900, was set as an optical trigger (SU4 mode) and lay on it's back on the floor tilted up at 45 degrees to light the background and give separation between it and the subject. I set the front light to 1/8th power, the X-Pro1 to 250th of a second and ISO to 200. I should have read the manual as the maximum sync speed is actually 1/180th sec (see CONS). I sat in position and took a meter reading (taking the PC sync cable from the camera and plugging it into my Sekonic light meter) from in front of my face which gave me f4 which was fine. I usually shoot strobe stuff about F8, but I wanted a shallower depth of field for these shots.

THE MODELS The most difficult models to shoot are my own kids. With other peoples kids, I'm the stranger with the camera and they tend to sit still and behave. When you shoot your own kids, they don't sit still and they don't want to spend time being photographed when they could be outside playing with their friends. My son Teo can't sit still for more than 5 seconds, so the best way to keep him in front of a background is to let him do what he loves, tell stories. His actions become very animated and can look like poses (like the photo at the top of this post). My daughter Janel walks away everytime the flash fires and announces "that's us done". So this is a good test for the X-Pro1's auto focus.

THE CONS (or my stupidity) The SB800 would go into sleep mode if there was a gap between shots and would not fire when the shutter was pressed, but would be back on for the next. I'm pretty sure this is just a matter of switching off the sleep mode in the Speedlights.

The main con is that you get the odd shot where half the frame is black (see left) due to the flash firing when the curtain is half way across. I shot all these photos at 1/250th of a second, but the maximum flash sync speed for the X-Pro1 is 1/180th of a sec. So rather than this being a con, I'm amazed that only a few of my shots have the dreaded black line across them.

EVF is not very good for this type of shoot as the camera ups the brightness of the viewfinder to the point where it's mostly blown out. This could turn into a plus if your scene was just too dark to see.

THE PROS The OVF is actually really good for studio shooting and I was really surprised at just how few shots I got out of focus. In fact almost all of them were because the kids were moving so much. Another great thing that I hadn't thought about, was how little you have to chimp due to the viewfinder display giving a 2 second view of the shot. This really is a big deal, as you can easily lose the rap-ore with a subject if you're constantly looking at the back of the camera.

IF YOU'RE WONDERING HOW SHARP THESE PHOTOS ARE, HERE IS A CROP ON THE EYE OF THE PHOTO ABOVE

I was shooting with the 35mm f1.4 and it is absolutely, positively, one of the best lenses I have ever used. It is razor sharp and renders colours perfectly (the colours in these photos are untouched). Just look at the red Chinese dress below. I don't know how much is down to the sensor and how much is down to the lens, but there's something magical that happens with skin tones from the X-Pro1...It's beautiful!

CONCLUSION The X-Pro1 is without doubt a fantastic studio camera and I'm going to be torn as to what I use for portraits, my Nikon gear or the X-Pro1. If I'm using Nikon Speedlights for a location portrait shoot, the SU800 Commander Unit is really great as you can set each light individually from above your camera. Maybe it's time to think about the new Pocket Wizard Plus III's? Or maybe a set of Elinchrom lights with Skyport transmitters?

So one of the questions that I see on the web a lot is "Can the X-Pro1 replace a Canon 5DmkII, mkIII or a Nikon D4? Absolutely! It's not great for shooting fast moving subjects (especially sport), but for everything else, the X-Pro1 is proving to be a very capable camera and in some cases it out performs DSLR's. Fuji made a great move by releasing 3 prime lenses at launch, which shows the stunning image quality. I won't be buying any zooms when they're released as I love primes and would rather zoom with my feet to get the sharpest images. I thought I knew what the X-Pro1 was going to be like before it even arrived...it's an X100 with a jacket on, right? But the X-Pro1 surprises me almost on a daily basis. I'm looking forward to getting more creative with this camera.

Nikon SB910 Speedlight

Nikon have released the follow-up to the SB900. The new more expensive SB910 is supposed to solve the problem of the SB900 overheating and shutting down, by slowing the re-cycle time when the flash head starts to heat-up. It's an improvement, but to me, it still means missing shots. So it's time to sell my SB900, but not to buy an SB910. I'll be buying another SB700.

Nikon SB700 Review

The arrival of the SB700 brings my Nikon Speedlight arsenal up to a total of five. I also have an SB900 and three SB800's. But before I get to the new kid on the block, I need to talk about the SB900.

The SB900 is Nikon's flagship flash, but it's also their iPhone 4. Just like when Apple made the perfect smartphone with an antenna that didn't work (or was it because millions of us were holding it wrong...yeh right!), Nikon gave us the perfect flash, except that it overheats and shuts down doing the same job as the SB800 does standing on it's (flash) head. My SB900 has shut down on a few portrait sessions and it has shut down on almost every wedding that I have shot in the past year. When it shut's down, it stays down, until it cools down. The annoying thing is that the interface on the SB900 was a huge leap forward, it's brilliant! The SB800 is a more reliable flash, but it's not the most user friendly. It's buttons are not very intuitive and it can be slow to switch functions when you have to press and hold a button for a few seconds, but at least none of my three SB800's have ever shut down on me. So I've put-up with the SB900 and swap it for an SB800 when it shuts down. I shoot weddings with two cameras, so I either move to the camera with the SB800 on it, or I switch the flash's around to suit the body/lens combination that I need. But a flash that won't fire is as much use as a phone that can't make calls!

The SB700 is an iPhone 4 with an antenna that works. Although it's billed as the replacement for the SB600, it's more like an SB800 with a great interface. It has more in common with the 800. Size and weight are similar and it can be used as both a remote (slave) and a master for your CLS wireless set-up. What it doesn't have though, is a power socket and a sync cord socket. None of these missing features are a deal breaker for me as I never use external power on my flash guns and my TTL cord is the hot shoe type. But if you need these functions, you might want to go for the SB900 or a secondhand SB800. Its great to see that the infrared eye on the side of the flash has been moved up and is less likely to be covered up by a VAL (Voice Activated Light-stand).

The interface is probably even better than the SB900's as it has the addition of two switches. The one on the left selects TTL, Manual and GN (the guide number position also acts as an A/B selector). The AB selector is a nice feature that works in Master (commander) mode, and allows you to change the ratios of flash A and B buy simply pressing Select to highlight A/B and then spinning the selector dial in either direction. One flash goes up in power and the other goes down in power. This is a fast and easy way to set-up your flash ratios in a small shoot where you're time is limited. The switch on the left selects the Illumination Pattern to either Standard, Centre Weighted (narrow beam of light) or Even (wide beam of light).

The head on the SB700 feels solid and takes maybe even more effort to press in the button and tilt than it's big brother does. A lot of people I talk to don't know that the heads on Speedlights are in the normal position when they are one click up. That extra click down is for macro shots. Another good feature over the SB800 is that the head rotates 180 degrees in both directions. The SB700's zoom goes from 24mm - 140mm, which is not as good as the SB900's 24mm - 200mm. The battery cover has changed too, and you now have to press a centre button on the door before sliding it open.

Supplied accessories are a square soft case with compartments for the very useful foot/stand and the Soft Diffuser Dome, together with two correction filters. The later are hard plastic CTO and Florissant filters that are similar in shape to the SB900's Filter Holder, but are already tinted orange and green (no need for gels). The Soft Diffuser Dome can also be fitted on over the filters. My one and only negative with the SB700 is that the Diffuser Dome can be awkward to get on and sometimes you think it's on and it falls back off. But when you finally get that big click, it's a solid fit and can stay on forever. My flash guns have a compartment each in my camera bag and the Diffuser stays on, so unless I need to use the filters, I'm not that bothered.

Another plus point with the SB700 is that it feels more solidly built than the flagship model. The first thing I noticed when I unboxed the SB900, was that it felt cheaper and less solid than my SB800's. The new model also has the fastest recycle times, so this one will go on the camera I use most at weddings.

So which flash should you buy? If you need enough power to frazzle your subjects eyeballs, zoom in to 200mm, or need to use external power or a PC Sync cord, then the SB900 is the one to buy, but make sure you have a back-up! If however, you need a solid and reliable workhorse that is fast, easy to use and quick to recycle, then the SB700 is the one to go for. If you shoot weddings or events, then you defiantly need an SB700 or a second-hand SB800...the SB900 will let you down! The Nikon SB700 is available from Warehouse Express in the UK or B&H in the US