Monday, March 22, 2010

Calumet Four Channel Radio Flash Trigger Set


Sync cords evil.  I hate to think how many sync cords I've purchase and how many shots I missed because they failed.  As I dusted off my vintage 1984 Broncolor Flashman (named when the Sony Walkman was at the height of its popularity) power packs with the idea of using them for a project, I realized I did not have a reliable sync cable.  So, rather than buy a $20 cable, I decided to pop for a budget model radio flash trigger from Calumet $39.  After a quick test this evening, I'm kicking myself for not buying one in 1984.  Well, not too hard - Broncolor charged about $900 for their model back then.

The piece on the left is the transmitter, which goes in the camera hot shoe.  The spring pin is a little long, so it takes some effort to put it on a Nikon D700 for some reason.  The larger piece on the right is the receiver, which can be attached to the strobe with a clip or the supplied Velcro tape and plugs in to the strobes sync jack.  The plug felt a little loose, but there were no mis-fires in my test.  I was able to trigger the strobe from just fine about 60 feet away, through a wall.  

On a side note, for the test, I bounced a single head off the ceiling with the Broncolor Flashman set at 1/4 power, the lowest setting.  It lit a 10x14 room so well that at ISO 200 I had to stop down to f/22!  I'm truly amazed that the Broncolor packs still work after 26 years.  By the time I bought my first Broncolor kit, I'd worn out three Balcars, three Normans and one Pro Photo kit in the course of nine years.  I guess it pays in the long run to buy the best if you can afford it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't shoot on the second curtain wiht this trigger, you'll see the curtain on almost every shutterspeed!