Off-camera flash

Just wondering what people's recommendations were for off camera flash. I'm using a gx20/k20d with a Metz 48 at the moment and have been toying with getting a flash extension cable or a wireless system of some kind to fire the Metz. Does anyone have any thoughts on which approach is best, or can anyone recommend particular products? Cheers. wg

Wireless works great with my Metz 50 (basically the same as the 48 ). I use a cheap Chinese transmitter & receiver.

Cactus V5 radio triggers seem to be about the best value for money. I bought some cheap chinese radio triggers (1 x Tx, 3 x Rx). I found them unreliable to the extreme and replaced them within 12 months with Seculine Twinlink devices. Two of the chinese Rx's have since failed completely and have been confined to the recycling bin.

Off camera flash lots and lots of options and prices depending on your wallet. But you could look at the following sites and your match their products to your needs

http://www.phottix.com/ Very good products at reasonable prices

http://www.aputure.com/en/product/trigmaster_versatile_trigger_for_strobe_speedl...
You can find these on ebay for about £30 I have five of them, they work for me, are reliable and very well made for the price. I use them with my K5 and Metz flashes

Of course you can step up to Radio Poppers or Pocket Wizzard if you want to spend a lot of cash


If you are new to off camera flash best place to start for info and advice is http://strobist.blogspot.com/ everything you will ever need to know about flash.

Thanks guys.

My budget is fairly small - I was originally looking at just a cable but after I saw the cost of those I started thinking that I might as well buy a radio trigger.

I would only use it infrequently and don't have plans for significant studio lights or multiple flashes.

I'll have a look at the strobist website and the products you guys have suggested.

Cheers

WG

Be good to see who has tried what from the cheap options, with links to ebay, or other sources. And info as to reliability

Well you can do your own EBay search but I've used Yongnuo (the same people that make those excellent manual flashes) for more than a year now .... without even a hint of a glitch. For what they cost (can't remember exactly but very little) buy two sets and you're covered !

I have been using these from lilyrst china for about 3 months and have worked without any problems.

For $A39.99,you get one trigger and 3 receivers.

lilyrst china,
★OFF-CAMERA★PT-04→Wireless Remote Flash Trigger←PT04✚❸R

Depends on your budget and what type of photography you do? I have a Metz 50 AF-1 and use it off camera quite a lot for portraits combined with the built in flash.

I wanted a flash set up where I could be a little more creative on a very tight budget, I plumbed for a Yongnuo YN-560 off e-bay new for £49, I must say I was impressed with the build quality and power of this unit and purchased another one (comes with a storage bag & stand) these are just as good as the Metz at a fraction of the cost.

K5 set to manual mode, shutter to 1/180, ISO-100 and control exposure with the apature. Usualy a setting, F6.5 & F8 gives the correct exposure. set built in flash to wireless mode in either control or master, when using the latter set -EV as required.

Metz 50 - Slave, full power no EV compensation.

Yougnuo YN-560 - set to "S2" which ignores the pre flash, full power no EV compensation.

This set up works flawlesly without the need for wireless triggers or sync cables, only if your working in an environment where other flashes may trigger your flash optically or if you need the range will need the triggers!

Best £98 I've ever spent, and to be honest if I'd have done a little more reserch before I purchased the Metz, I would have bought two Yongnuo and some wireless triggers.

I use this system and have had no problems with it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Channel-Wireless-Flashgun-Speedlight-receivers/dp/B002RD...=pd_cp_ce_1

Avoid cables, they're far less convenient than wireless and usually more expensive.