Quick first impressions of JrX's

RadioPopper JrX's First Impressions from Tim Norman on Vimeo.

After playing witht the RadioPopper JrX's for a couple minutes I was immediately impressed by being able to flash sync a Canon 1D, Canon 550EX flash and Nikon SB26 flash at over 1/1000 of second with the flashes at 1/8 power. I was able to go up to 1/1250th without seeing any cut off of flash in the frames on the camera screen. Above that shuter speed I could see the flashes were not syncing.

Comparing them to the ebay remotes I was using, they would sync at a maximum of 1/500 but I would lose just a hair of light at either the top or the bottom of the frame. i cannot remember which. Usually this was an acceptable loss and not all that noticable in the finished photograph. On the other hand if the batteries were running low then getting them to sync at that shutter speed involved a couple of satanic rituals or just dropping to 1/400. Not wishing to owe my soul to the devil I usually opted to just drop my shutter speed to 1/400. 

And as far as reliability, the ebay remotes required deep prayer and devine hope. Invariably they always stopped working at some point in time and I would have to readjust myself an inch to the left right or not shoot vertically or move the receiver because I found a dead zone where the transmitter and receiver wouldn't talk.

Pocket Wizards were the exact opposite of the ebay remotes. I wasn't able to go above 1/500 without seeing some drop off light in the frame, but the wizards were more reliable than the sun coming up everyday. That is unless there was a user error like forgetting to put batteries in them.   

I'm hoping the JrX's will be as reliable.

As promised in the video I uploaded 2 photos to flickr from what I took with the RadioPopper JrX's after first trying them.

One note of dissapointment, shortly after making this video I hooked up one of the JrX receivers with a remote cord to the Canon 1D and the other receiver remained attached to the Nikon SB26. Firing the transmitter manual, I could not get them to sync at even 1/60 of second. I didn't drop the shutter speed any slower figuring it was futile. It appears the flash is firing off before the shutter is opening on the camera. I'm dissappointed in this, but this is not my initial intended use for the JrX's.

I have only had 1 instance that I can remember in the past few years where I have wanted to use a remote to fire a strobe and the camera. I was placing a camera inside a locker and firing off a strobe to light the subject who was involved in an anti-bullying campaign at a local high school. At the time, I resolved the problem by setting the camera on its 10 second timer and just pushed the shutter button and had the subject watch for the flashing red light on the camera. It worked, but it would have worked better to have a remote control for both flash and camera.

There maybe a setting I can change on the RadioPopper JrX's to get them to sync, but I'm not sure. I will probably write RadioPopper and see what they say.

I follow up soon with my impressions of the JrX once I use them on a few assignments.

By the way, I bought the camera remote cord and the hot sync cords at www.flashzebra.com. I put my order in on Friday for the cords and had them Monday. I had never used them before that, but they had good prices on the cords compared to some other places. I have been quite happy with them. If you need flash gear please check them out.