Radio Popper PX Test and Review
Radio Popper was kind enough to send us some PX units for review. We have been using other wireless flash triggers for the past 15 years. After hearing nothing but good things about the Radio Popper PX system from pro’s like Ed Pingol and Bob Davis we decided to give them a try. After talking with Rachael from Radio Popper the PX systems showed up at my door in 2 days!
Unboxing & Assembly:
The packaging of these units is great. The units are very small and unobtrusive. I went through the instruction manual and had my two 580 EXii flashes set up in no time. There are also instructional videos on the website www.radiopopper.com/education Since the PX system operates off TTL they will basically work off default settings. The menu is a bit tough because of the two button operation. But once you get your settings down, it is a breeze. I really like the feature that tells you your battery level. I believe you can get about 25 hours from Alkaline batteries. Once we got our channel and other settings dialed in on our flashes it was time to test!
Testing
We decided to use a Canon ST-E2 with our PX system so we can control our flashes from the camera. The ST-E2 along with the PX system allowed us to extend the range of the Infrared signal without having to be line of sight.
One of the best features I was excited to test out was the High speed sync ability of this unit. Previously we were unable to go past 250 shutter. To our surprise we were able to shoot the PX system at 1/8000 of a second!
We took our subject out for some portrait shots in mid daylight to utilize the HSS feature. We began with some shots around 250-8000 shutter with a 16-35 lens for some wide shots so we could capture the sun and sky. As advertised, we were able to shoot at 1/8000 of a second which will bring a new era of outdoor mid day flash shooting into our style!
Next, we started distance testing with our 70-200 2.8 is ii lens. We started shooting at 15ft, 30ft, 50ft, 100ft, 150ft, 1200ft, and 1500ft. We ended up running out of street to see how much farther they would fire at.
I think this will be awesome for wedding receptions when you want to have a few flashes around for fill light. To our surprise, after working with other flash trigger units, the Popper fired 100% of the time!
Here is the video review of the PX system by Ken Sato from Satostudios
