Wireless trigger for studio lights

I have a small portaflash kit that I thought I was using my flash to trigger however have just proved that the sync is too slow and effectively the lights are firing after the exposure. Really dont want a wired solution so was wondering what is recommended for a wireless trigger. If it were also able to be used as a P-TTL trigger for off camera flash work that would be a bonus but I know I am asking for a lot there !

What is probably happening is that the lights are being triggered by the camera's pre-flash. It uses this to set the flash exposure. On some cameras this can be switched off.

An INterfit IR trigger or similar will do the trick. It just fits in the camera hotshoe and fires an IR pulse that sets off the studio lights.

Kevin, take yourself up to Calumet in Maryhill. Do not take credit cards, only take enough cash to make the purchase They have IR and radio triggers, if you use big softboxes I have found IR to be more relaible but that depends on the design of your heads I suppose.

As John says, the P-TTL pre-flash (which you can't turn off) is triggering your Portaflash heads.

I have mislaid my wireless Rx and resorted to cables the other day and managed to break one by standing on it as it yanked out of the K20d's PC socket.

There are no P-TTL triggers as far as i know.
The only way to do P-TTL wireless is to use a Pentax dictated flashgun witch support that. The commands/cuminication are all done by use of the flashlight so without separate trigger, you can use the build-in flash to trigger the flashgun or use another flashgun on the camera.

We mainly use this for home portrait as a half decent but small portable lighting rig. eally dont want an extra cable for kids to trip over (!) so will have a look at IR. Never knew there was a calumet in glasgow, must go. At the moment we have one head with a softbox, the other "head" is just a diffused bulb with a brolly that slaves of teh main head. After yet more ebay madness ten minutes ago there may be a further two heads joining in soon !

Yeah, but only up to about 4 metres ...

John the Interfit one has mainly terible reviews (build quality), any others to be recommended ?

Depends on the situation, if it's dark you can go a lot further.
Have used the AF540FGZ from around 7 meters away on a cloudy day but you need to be sure the sensor is facing to the camera.

forgot to subscribe !

What's your budget?

The Cactus v5 looks quite good for the money but they are "budget" though...

There are probably six of them down at ADAPS, belonging to various people, and they all work. There are other makes if you don't like the Interfit one, but I couldn't specifically recommend one.

They fire okay with a borrowed radio on my friends canon so I have just gone fora couple of RF603's (cactus v5 ?) and see how we get on.

Thanks again

For about £110.00 you can buy the Seculine TwinLink kit (1 x Tx + 1 x Rx). These use both IR and radio and will work up to about 150 feet indoors, 600 feet outdoors.

Here's a comparison between the Pocket Wizard and the Twinlink kit.

The Cactus V5 product is cheaper but as far as I remember, all previous versions have had their issues.

Synch speed of the Twinlinks might be a bit slow. Mine work fine at 1/125th and 1/160th, but at 1/200th they don't work.

The Cactus V5s are good. So far they are reliable. Reviews suggest they have a longer range than Pocket Wizards. They are also more compact, have more channels and you can get 8 for the price of one PW. There is nothing budget about them other than price, £92 for 4 delivered and they are under the import tax threshold.I looked at the Twinlink triggers but the range is shorter than the Cacti and they are not as flexible. the cactus V5 is a transceiver and can tiger the camera as well. You can still mount flash on the camera if required. They only work to 1/180 with the K10D though as the flash will not fire higher than that.

Only place I could see selling the cactus V5 were out of stock so I ended up ordering a couple of YN603's from china on fleabay
Decided against IR in the end as I wanted to avoid the IR beam as we do some newborn shoots and parents stress enough over the lights !
I wil not be using the hotshoe on the 603 for my flash, thats for sure, really will only use to trigger teh portaflash lights, as these are low poer they will only be a few metres from the camera anyway.
Just hope they turn up now and are for pentax, as stated, dont want to blow my camera !