I posted on twitter that I would be reviewing some lighting gear, Aputure mentioned it in this interview the published of me on their blog, so here it is my review of their Trigmaster Plus 2.4G and the Trigmaster 2.4. I’m doing it as a joint review simple because the differences are minimal and two reviews would just sound repetitive.
In the above picture you see the Trigmaster Plus on the left and the Trigmaster on the right. Some quick things you need to know. The Trigmaster Plus is actually a trigger and receiver in one unit, so you would need to get multiple units to trigger the flash and receive the signal. On the other hand the Trigmaster comes as a pack with a trigger and receiver. Which could be a great starting point for someone who needs a complete set to get going with. That is the major difference between the two devices. I also want to mention that both the Trigmaster and Trigmaster Plus can actually work together.
I also need to mention that although I have never used this function they both can act as wireless remotes for your camera. If your into taking self portraits or long exposures on a tripod you won’t need to invest in another accessory, if you have either the Trigmaster or Trigmaster Plus.
So let’s get into the good stuff, using them as triggers and receivers for off camera lighting. Straight away I can tell you that I like the look of the Trigmaster Plus more then the standard Trigmaster. It just looks that little bit more premium, but both devices are said to have a range of 100 meters.
I’ve used them in both studio and location work and I’ve found them to be terrific. I’m comparing them to the standard ebay Triggers, iShoots, which a lot of people buy, over and over again. I have noticed that they “go to sleep” after about 5-10 mins which I only noticed in the studio. It hasn’t really been a problem and I only notice it after a lengthy outfit change so I can’t really complain. I should mention that i’ve noticed the same sort of sleep issue with the Skyport system so it’s not that big of a deal. Apart from that they fire every time. I’ve never once had that feeling of “I wonder if it will trigger” which is great as there is one less thing I have to worry about.
I mentioned this a little above but the Trigmaster Plus is both a trigger and a receiver. So what this means is that if you have a few units you could mount one on your camera hotshoe, one on your flash and use one as a wireless remote. This would then trigger the camera to take the photo the one on the hotshoe would trigger the other receivers to fire the flash. Confused?
So in short what does all this mean? Well these are great triggers. They work well, they have a decent range I haven’t tested 100m but I have tested about 50m and they worked fine. I haven’t used the whole camera wireless shutter function but i’m sure if your into that sort of thing it would work really well. One more item I want to point out that you don’t get often these days. Both the Trigmaster and Trigmaster Plus come with batteries, so your good to go as soon as you open them up.
I use them on commercial shoots with out any problems so if your looking for something reliable get yourself either the Trigmaster Plus or the Trigmaster and you shouldn’t have a problem.
There are a couple of things I would like to see. Maybe getting rid of the whole wireless camera shutter release. Maybe it’s just me cause I haven’t used it. It’s not a major deal but it would be great to see them create just a dedicated trigger / receiver combo. Secondly there is no test button. Again not a major issue but I thought I would mention it.
If your getting into off camera flash and you’ve bought any of the gear that I’ve been talking about on RAW send me some of your photos. I would love to see how your going.
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I have been using a pair of Trigmaster Plus 2.4G transceivers since December 2011 and I can only report good things about them.
They just work, unlike some of the cheap alternatives I have used over the years. Like anything that runs from batteries, they do show a drop in performance as the battery charge drops. Primarily range gradually drops off, which isn't normally a problem within a studio or home environment. The shutter sinc speed suffers at 1/250 on very low batteries, buy this can be overcome, changing to 1/200 until the batteries are completely drained, when they just don't work.
There is never that uncertain time, of whether they will fire the flash or not. If the batteries are good, they work and if the batteries are poor they don't.
When I bought these I got an amazing deal on eBay paying less than £40 (40 pounds stirling) for two, I see they have gone up since then, but still an excellent buy.
It's a great product, just buy it, use it & forget it's there.
PS. if you have an appropriate lead, you can rig them to fire two flash guns from one unit switched to RX mode, as I discovered by accident the other day while figuring out how to mount one of these attached to an old Nikon SB-24 onto an adaptor bracket for a Bowens soft box. The lead I have, is fitted with a spare hotshot connection. I plugged in a second flash & it was triggered too. That's cool.
[...] prize is a Trigmaster pack from Aputure (read the review). For those that don’t know i’m a huge fan of the Aputure Trigrmaster range. They seem [...]