I’m kind of a geek about photography gear, and get a genuine enjoyment out of DIY, saving money, and trying new things. My gel holder and flash velcro strap are a good example of that. I don’t even want to admit that I tried print your own gels (quite successfully, BTW) after I already had a gel folder full of more gels than I’ll ever use.
Wireless triggers are no exception. I mean really, it’s just not fun to spend $400 on pocket wizards when there might be something out there that will work just fine for $60. Enter Yongnuo RF-602’s stage right. So I bought some to try out.
I have to say I am severely, SEVERELY not bummed. These are great! I previously had the PT-04/V2s/Cactus/GadgetInfinity type triggers and they just weren’t cutting it.
This is what I had:
These are what I now have:
For $55 I got the transmitter and 3 receivers, with the various cables and accessories they come with.
Attached to camera and flash – first shutter release:
Put on the other receivers:
Several shutter releases later still going strong:
OK, I love these things! Granted, I haven’t had much experience with them yet, but they have worked perfectly so far.
I heard that these were more sturdy and of higher build quality than the cactus triggers.
Verdict: I haven’t thrown them down on the ground or anything, but they feel much stronger and better built than the cactus triggers!!
I heard that these were more reliable than the cactus triggers.
Verdict: I have not experienced a single misfire as of yet. When I received the cactus triggers there were connections that were not properly soldered so we had to do that. And the battery compartment did not keep the battery in the proper place so it was always shifting and then not working. Theses are well engineered, well built, and work!!
I heard that these have more range than the cactus triggers.
Verdict: I haven’t tested that yet, but I’m sure they do!
For more info:
My experience with cactus triggers:
I bought 3 complete sets of the cactus v2s triggers. They were OK, but frequently would not fire at all, or fired when they weren’t supposed to. Did they get the job done when they wanted to, yes. Would I want to use them on a job where someone was counting on me, no.
What we found was that there were connections in every one of them that were not soldered properly. So my husband took them apart and soldered every one of them which greatly improved their reliability.
But we still had times that they would not fire at all. We finally figured out that if the battery wasn’t pressed completely against the receiver wall it didn’t connect well and wouldn’t fire. The problem, though, was every time we would take our thumb off from pressing the battery toward the side wall it would slide back over because of the poor construction and wouldn’t fire. After fighting with it a while it would stay and work well, until the battery shifted.
On build quality: First I had one with flash mounted on a stand about 1 1/2 feet off the ground. My son knocked it down with only the pressure of the flash mounted to it from 1 1/2 feet high and the side wall of the receiver where the hotshoe mount attaches broke completely. There was a hole in the side wall and the hotshoe bracket could no longer be attached. Then, I was using it once, didn’t screw down the transmitter and it fell off my camera into soft dirt and broke the hotshoe mount of the transmitter. Granted maybe I should be more careful, on the other hand things happen and they should be able to stand up to a certain degree of it.