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Radio triggers: An introduction

Wireless triggers to fire flashes or the camera's shutter
by Gisle Hannemyr

This article is an introduction for photographers looking for radio triggers for flash and digital cameras. A lot of different triggers exists, and this article tries to gives an overview for the entire field, with links to other articles that discusses specific radio trigger systems.

If you also are interested in optical triggers, please see this article.

While optical triggers may be fine for wireless control of off-camera flash indoors, nothing beats radio for range and reliability outdoors. Also, if you want to have off-camera flash inside cars or behind furniture, radio is your best option.

Radio Frequencies

Several radio bands are made available for more or less unregulated use in different geographical areas this includes the bands used for RKE (Remote Keyless entry, i.e. garage openers) in North America, and the ISM (Industrial/Scientific/Medical) bands.

Equipment designed to operate in these bands is designed to be tolerant for interference by other equipment operating at the same frequency.

The common ISM and RKE bands available for industrial and commercial applications are:

  • 220 MHz (ISM, China).
  • 315-317 Mhz (RKE, North and South America, Japan).
  • 340-354 Mhz (ISM, North and South America).
  • 433-435 Mhz (ISM, Europe, Australia, Africa, China, India and some other countries).
  • 869 MHz (ISM, Europe).
  • 900-930 MHz (ISM, North America, and some other countries).
  • 2.4 GHz (ISM, worldwide).

Note that because of the different frequency allocations, use of the 315-317, 340-354 Mhz and 900-930 MHz devices is illegal in Europe, and the use of the 433-435 Mhz and 869 MHz devices is illegal in the USA.

Types of triggers

To make it simpler to find a particular trigger, we've separated the triggers into five types, as follows:

  1. Basic manual triggers
  2. Grouping triggers
  3. TTL pass-through triggers
  4. Premium manual triggers
  5. Dedicated TTL radio triggers

At the end of each section describing the type, there is a list (with links) to those units that has been evaluated by DPanswers, along with an indication of what price you typically will have to pay for a kit consisting of one transmitter (TX) and one receiver (RX), or a pair of tranceivers. Note that one particular model may be listed more than once, if it has features matching the criteria of more than one type.

We plan to add more as we can find the time for testing. Watch this page for updates.

1. Basic manual triggers

If all you want to do is to trigger a manual flash or a camera's shutter release wirelessly by means of a radio signal, and you do not care about additional features such as grouping or TTL power control, then you're looking for a basic manual radio trigger.

This is the cheapest type of radio trigger available (for even cheaper, take a look at optical triggers.

The basic manual radio triggers are all produced in China and are sometimes referred to as Poverty Wizards or FleaBayTriggers.

2. Grouping triggers

A step up from basic manual triggers, both in price and in functionality, are triggers that let you operate groups or zones of flash units from camera position.

A grouping trigger let you distribute your remote flashes into groups or zones (usually 3 or 4). You can assign each receiver to belong to a specific group, and choose from the transmitter which of combinations of these groups you’d like to trigger. Grouping can save photographers a lot of time in complex lighting setups without having to go back and forth between flash and camera switching units on and off.

3. TTL pass-through triggers

A TTL pass-through trigger does not offer TTL wireless control. But the TX unit has a dedicated hot-shoe on top that pass-through the any TTL communication from the camera to a TTL commander mounted on top of the TX. The pass-through feature let you fire both TTL-controlled flash units (controlled by a commander mounted in the hot-shoe of the TX that is sitting in the camera's hot-shoe) and manual units (triggered by radio and connected to a radio RX) at the same time. However, the TTL computation does not take the light from the manually controlled units into account, so mixing modes like this is only practical when TTL is used for key and the manual units are used to light up the background.

4. Premium manual radio triggers

This segment consists of radio triggers that are built to take a lot of abuse, are very reliable, and packs a lot of power for an extended range. What they do not support is TTL exposure control, since that tend to have a negative impact on both reliability and range.

5. Dedicated TTL radio triggers

The most advanced type of radio trigger provides full TTL exposure control by means of radio, similar to the TTL control provided by the light-based Canon and Nikon wireless flash systems.

6. Final remarks

If you know about other radio triggers that deserves mentioning on this page, please use the comment field below to add your experiences.

Radio trigger suppliers:
Alien Bees
Bowens Pulsar
Elinchrom EL-Skyport
Gadget Infinity
Hensel Studiotechnik
MicroSync
Pixel Enterprise Ltd.
PocketWizard
RadioPopper
Quantum
Secu-Line
YongNuo
Zap-Shot
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11 responses:

avatar
Radiotrigger

From: Frank — 2011-12-20 18:13

Hi,
I'm looking to buy a radiotrigger for my Nikon D300s – used with Nikon SB900 flashes.

I'm interested in one where you can adjust the output on individual flashes directly on the transmitter (and not thru camera menus).

I usually use my flashes in manual mode, so TTL-ability is not necessary.

I looked at “Pixel TTL Wireless Flash Trigger Set Knight TR-331”. Does this set give me the control that I want?

Hope somebody out there can help. Thanks!
Frank

avatar
Only with Speedlights SB-600 and SB-800

From: Gisle H. — 2011-12-21 10:57

The Pixel Knight TR-331 for Nikon let you adjust the output on individual flashes directly on the transmitter, but not with them Speedligh SB-900, SB-910 and SB-700. This feature, however, works with the discontinued Nikon Speedlight SB-600 and SB-800. This feature depends on the legacy quench protocol, which is absent from Nikon's latest Speedlights.

For more information, see our Pixel Knight review.

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YongNuo RF-603 for Canon Powershot G9

From: Dave C. — 2011-12-29 16:04

Hi,
I'm looking for an inexpensive radio trigger for a canon G9 and a Vivitar 285HV. I like the YongNuo rf-603 but the manufacturer says it is incompatible with the G9. Is this only because the G9 does not have an external trigger or will this remote just not trigger with this camera? If it won't work does anyone have another suggestion.

Thanks
Dave

avatar

From: Gisle H. — 2011-12-30 01:28

You say the manufacturer says that the YongNuo RF-603 is “incompatible with the G9”. Where is this said? I have not found anything about compatibility (either way) on the YongNuo website. Nor have I ever tested the combination of Canon Powershot G9 and YongNuo RF-603.

However, the YongNuo RF-603 has a tranceiver construction that you mount in the camera's hot-shoe. It must be able to recognise the camera to operate correctly. If the Powershot G9 is not recognised by the tranceiver, it will not work. (However, since I do not have a G9 here for testing, I can't verify that this is the case – I would love to hear from anybody that has tested this particular combination.)

As an alternative, I suggest you consider the older YongNuo RF-602. It has a conventional design with a separate transmitter and receiver unit. I have found the transmitter to work in the hot-shoe of many different cameras, (including some non-Canon ones), so I am sure it will work with the Canon Powershot G9 as well.

avatar
G9 and RF-603

From: Dave C. — 2011-12-30 07:52

Thanks Gisle H.
When I did not find my camera on the compatibility list so I emailed the manufacturer through their store on Ebay. They say it is "not compatible" with no further explanation. What you say makes sense. I will continue to try getting a more extensive answer from the manufacturer and will ask about the RF-602 but I am not expecting any useful information due to the brevity of their previous communications. I too hope that someone here has tried one of these with the G9. I have a vague memory of seeing a list of compatible cameras which listed the G10 and G11 but not the G9. as being compatible but I can not find it again. The G9 does not have any type of external trigger for the shutter release so the RF-603 remote trigger function is useless. Since I do not need it I thought the G9 might be otherwise compatible.

I am hoping to see more information here.

Thanks again
Dave

avatar
Cactus V5

From: Arne — 2012-01-04 09:59

Hi,
where would you place the Cactus V5's? Are they a good product?

Thanks!
Arne

avatar

From: Gisle H. — 2012-01-04 10:51

When we do a review of Cactus V5 (I hope it will not be too long), it will be grouped with the basic manual triggers. I consider it one of the top products in this segment (the two others in top three are the two YongNuo models we've already reviewed). It is slightly more expensive than the YongNuo triggers (about USD 70 for a pair at Amazon.com), but also has better ergonomics and build quality.

The Cactus V5 is competing directly with the YongNuo RF-603. It operates in the same 2.4 GHz band as YongNuo, and has about the same range (about 200 meters with line of sight). Cactus lacks the wake-up function of the Yongnuo, but has a locking collar to secure the trigger in the camera's hot-shoe. If you have old high-voltage flash units, Cactus V5 can handle them, while YongNuo only works with units with a trigger voltage below 12 volts. So if you want to fire old high-voltage units, you should pick Cactus over YongNuo. Otherwise I would say it is a toss-up between these two models.

Note, however, that the Cactus V5 does not work with the following DSLRs: Canon DSLRs EOS 10D and EOD 300D. These are pretty old now, but I mention it just in case you own one of them.

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New to strobist

From: Vanessa — 2012-01-20 09:27

I am new to strobist (well, heck! Photography in general...) and am researching heavily before making new purchases. I would like to use a wireless trigger only on my nikon camera hot shoe for nissin di866 and di622 flashes. Is this possible with any of the triggers mentioned to have it be iTTL? Or will I need to have the di866 be the master and on my camera body? Sorry if this seems stupid...thanks in advance!

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From: Gisle H. — 2012-01-21 02:13

There is a list over radio triggers that will give you iTTL above, in the section with the headline dedicated TTL radio triggers. You need to buy the Nikon version to have it work with iTTL.

If you want to use light instead of radio for wireless communication, then the Nissin Di866 in the camera hot-shoe can be used to wirelessly control the Nissin Di622 Mark II. Note that you need the Mark II version of the Nissin Di622 for this to work – the original version of the Nissin Di622 Speedlight did not support the iTTL wireless mode.

Also note that many Nikon DSLRs (but not D40, D40x, D50, S60, D3000, D3100, D5000, D5100) can wirelessly control the Nissin Di822 and the Nissin Di622 Mark II with light using the camera's pop-up flash as wireless master. Nikon calls this “commander mode”. If your Nikon camera supports it, there should be a section about “commander mode” in the camera's manual. Using the camera's pop-up flash is an alternative to using the Di866 on camera as master.

avatar
di866 mkII strobe

From: boba — 2012-01-25 12:17

Can the strobe mode be used with cameras which don't have that settings (like D3100, d5100..thay allso don't have commander mode neither high speed sync)?

Thanks.

avatar

From: admin — 2012-01-26 22:00

@boba
The Nissin Di866 Mk II is not a radio trigger. It signals using light.

If you want to know about the Nissin Di866, please see our article about the Di866. Ask below that article if something is still unclear.

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