Event photographers know ‘em. Fashion Photographers know ‘em.
In the world of off camera lighting they are pretty much ubiquitous.
*Everyone uses pockewizards* And until recently there wasn’t much alternative. If you wanted to fire your flashes off camera you either used a)sync cords b)optical wireless or c)pocketwizards.
Sync cords and optical wireless both have significant drawbacks. Basically if you needed to place a light wherever you need it, and have it fire regardsless of circumstances (ambient light, no line of sight for optical wireless) you needed pockewizards.
then earlier this year Elinchrom released their version of pockewizards called “Skyports”. They have a version that integrates directly with their own strobes, and one “universal” which work with any strobe.
The kicker is that they are only about 1/2 the price of the ‘wizards.
Enter RadioPoppers: (http://www.radiopopper.com/)
Still in the “vaporware” stage, their claim to fame is to bring TTL to RF transmitters. In other words a pocketwizard that preserves your flashes TTL capabilities – pretty awesome, huh? Of course they are still expensive, about the same price as the Skyports (still cheaper than ‘wizards) Now if that was it, it would still be a great entrance into the off-camera-flash-trigger world, but the radiopopper folks didn’t stop there…
They just announced that they are stripping the TTL capability of the poppers, and releasing them as a “Jr” version (don’t worry they are still keeping the TTL models) for a whopping $25 per trigger.
If these are even remotely as good as ‘wizards it will blow the whole market wide open.
This is definitely going to be an interesting year for “Strobist” folks. I’m going to wait and see how it pans out, while I suffer along with sync cables for the time being 
3 Comments
What about the Cactus (aka ebay/gadgetinfinity/cheapo) triggers ?
Jr seems to be only more commercial release of the Cactus, in direct competition. No wonder why Radiopoppers wants to join the “cheap” niche,
They are pretty reliable ; sure, you lose all TTL hability, but hey, the price is awfully low. Last but not the least, your beloved, old-fashioned 70′s/80 flashes are more than wanted, for a cheap lighting threesome !
Yes I forgot to mention the ebay triggers… however, I’ve gotten 3 sets (both 4 channel and 16 channel) and *none* of them have worked reliably *at all* so I don’t really consider them suitable for “serious” work – ie when you are depending on your equipment to get the shot. The Jr.s seem to be claiming pocketwizard reliability (2000′ range!) at ebay prices, which is very exciting.
Frankly I don’t much care about TTL other than for “event” type photography (which I don’t do much of anyway!) so it’s generally manual all the way.
Now whether radiopopper can actually deliver on their promises remains to be seen!
Yeah, quality may vary, but using the 4-channel v2, i didn’t experienced any misfiring of any kind with my 4 receivers set (despite few friends did, but it’s not the disastrophe I used to fear before buying’em).
There’s also a few mods, as the cheap 433mhz antenna, which works fine on is extending-the-range duty.
Sure, “cheap” is the keyword. But I really like the way it works, as I’m able to use a bunch of flash which are older than me for a few bucks, plus one or two “real”, contemporary, trust-worthy flashes. For a guerilla-multilighting semi-impromptu street shoot, it’s more than you even dreamt fot the price.
I used them in a few event/interview/fashion shots with a satisfying feedback, I guess I’ve been lucky not experiencing any problem…
But you’re right, freakin’ exciting stuff about the RP/Jr, still… The 2000 miles range, if real, can even beat the PW (1500-1600, right ?), with “quite” the best of both worlds …
Now, they have promises to deliver, to a bunch of hungry strobist, but it’s another story to tell…