Cheap flash set up !

Ijustwant1

Ijustwant1

Senior Member
Hi I have the D5100 and want to do some off camera work but don't want to spend over $200.00 so what flash , trigger ect ect do I need ? Thank guys :-D
 
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STM

Senior Member
You have quite a multitude available to you, with a pretty good range of prices too. Some are designed to work with specific cameras and others are simply the RF equivalent of optical slaves. I use all manual strobes in the studio as well as Sunpak 544 hand held's and found some really excellent ones on Fleabay for less than $40. It included a transmitter and 2 receivers. They are very small, and I have found very reliable out past 100 feet if there are no obstructions between you and the receivers. You can also use them in separate rooms if you are going to do stuff like interior room shots. The transmitter uses an inexpensive 23A battery and the receivers use 2 AAA's. The battery in my transmitters have lasted me a good year and a half wth fairly heavy use. The transmitters and receivers also have dip switches (2 on mine for the handheld strobes and 4 for the studio strobes), like your remote garage door opener, so you can key them so that you don't get interference from other devices. The reason my hand held ones are different from my studio ones is the fact that the studio strobes have a larger PC cord male pin than do the hand helds so the two are not interchangeable.

I would check out Fleabay first and see if you can find something that will work best for you.
 
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Ijustwant1

Ijustwant1

Senior Member
Thank you for that I am thinking about the Yongnuo RF-602 2.4GHz Wireless Remote Flash Trigger and two Yongnuo YN560II Flash Any thoughts on this I want to do some portrait shots and some artistic shots
 
S

STM

Senior Member
Ijustwant1 said:
Thank you for that I am thinking about the Yongnuo RF-602 2.4GHz Wireless Remote Flash Trigger and two Yongnuo YN560II Flash Any thoughts on this I want to do some portrait shots and some artistic shots
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There are lots of things you will have to eventually consider. How many flashes are you looking to use? Are you going to be using them in manual or automatic and are you going to be using something to soften the light like a softbox or umbrella? I will confess I don't know much about the lastest Nikon SB's which "talk" to the camera and whether or not you can set them up with different ratios. But for portraiture it is best to try to use your flashes in manual, at least indoors, so you can have the most control over lighting ratios and such. Of course to do that, you will really need to have a flash meter, none of which are cheap, even used. They can range in price from a couple hundred to five or six hundred dollars depending on the make and how sophisticated it is. I suppose you could use the picture preview on your camera as a makeshift flash meter and just keep adjusting the strobes until things look right to you.
 
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Epoc

Senior Member
Get the Yongnuo 603's. They can be used as a sender or receiver and are a generation newer. I have 3 and 2x 560II's as well. Great budget gear. Never had a misfire. Triggers will fire from miles away. Well not really miles, but you get my drift, a long way away. For the bucks, go for it. Just make sure you get the Nikon triggers.
 
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pistnbroke

Banned
If you want to go for iTTL off camera you need a yn 565ex as a minimum . This will be triggered by the built in flash on your camera.. BUT i dont think your camera has command mode so off camera iTTL is out...read the specs on any flash you buy very very carefully as the exact capabilities are hidden in the technospeak.

There are no remotes that do iTTL unless you spend megabucks

The YN 468 II is a very good flash and will trigger from your built in flash in manual mode or you can buy the YN608 as suggested if there are other flashers about.
 
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