Radio Poppers

There are a lot of products on the market that allow photographers to wirelessly trigger an off-camera flash from their camera. They fall into two categories: infrared communication or radio communication. Some will trigger shoemount speedlights, some will trigger studio strobes and some will trigger both. For years we’ve been content with these devices because our cameras and flashes have lacked the sophisticated controls now routinely built into professional shoemount flash units, and even prosumer cameras.

But Canon and Nikon professionals now have the ability to control the lighting ratio of their off-camera compatible speedlights from their on-camera flash, or using an on-camera speedlight controller. While it’s great to be able to control lighting ratios remotely as well as trigger flashes from the camera, these systems are limited by line-of-sight communications. It isn’t always possible to position the remote flash in a way that it sees the coded infrared signals from the control unit. And the distance from the remote flash to the control unit may be too great for it to even see the infrared signal.

Leap Devices LLP has the solution to these limitations with its RadioPopper systems. The RadioPopper PX system clones control signals from Master devices, converts them to radio signals and transmits the signals to Slave flashes. Currently, the RadioPopper PX system is available for Canon (full E-TTL compatibility) and Nikon (full i-TTL compatibility), with other camera manufacturers promised. The RadioPopper JrX system is more of a traditional radio trigger, compatible with any slave device or studio flash in manual mode.

However, the feature I liked best was the ability to connect a JrX Studio receiver to my Alien Bees, White Lightning and ZEUS studio strobes through their modular data connector, and adjust and trigger them with the PX transmitter mounted on my Nikon SB-800 or SB-900! If I had any other studio strobes or a Quantum or Norman, I could have triggered them with JrX Basic receivers, though I would have had to adjust their outputs manually.

The RadioPopper PX system consists of a transmitter and a receiver. Both are identical in size. The only external differences between them are the removable antennas and a small window on the back of the receiver. This window transmits the closed control signals that the receiver has decoded to the slave speedlight.

The transmitter attaches to the top of the master flash (or to Canon’s ST-E2 or Nikon’s SU-800 wireless commanders) with heavy duty Velcro that comes with the transmitter. I wrapped a heavy duty rubber band around it and the flash head also, “just in case,” and to keep it from rocking when changing settings.

Mounting of the PX receiver is far more elegant and very tricky. The mount for each camera line is included with the receiver and consists of a mounting bracket/base that not only securely holds the receiver in its correct position on the slave flash, but it also allows the whole configuration to sit on a flat surface, or mount on a ¼-20 screw. At the same time you still have full access to the controls on the receiver. Very nicely done!

Both the PX transmitter and receiver are powered by two AAA batteries. The first readout in the menu when you turn on the units is the state of charge on the battery. I was warned to remove the batteries from the transmitter if I wasn’t going to use it for an extended period as the unit is always in “sleep” mode, waiting for a signal, rather than fully “off.” I forgot to do this for a week and the power setting went from 65 to 64, so I don’t think this will be much of an issue. In use, I am told that power drain is negligible and that seemed to be the case during my testing.

In use, the operation of the PX system was perfect. I tested it outdoors to about 500 feet, not to its quarter-mile maximum range, and it never missed an exposure or a control setting change. I set my Nikon SB-800 inside an apartment, went outside and down the staircase, triggered it with the transmitter mounted on my SB-900 and never missed a shot. It even worked in high-speed sync mode at 1/8000 shutter speed outside in sunlight so I could shoot wide open to throw the background out of focus. This system would be the answer to outdoor group photos with remote lights on either side of the camera, or any time when you need to control remote speedlights from your camera.

While the performance of the PX system was perfection, setting it up properly required a phone call to Leap Devices, now located in Vancouver, B.C. The manual I received seemed like a work in progress, and perhaps it was. There are only two membrane buttons, labeled “P” and “X,” on the unit, and a two-character liquid crystal display. With only two characters, the display is obviously very cryptic, and I found the manual to be less than clear as to the correct information to have displayed for what I was trying to do.

For example, even though there are three “Groups” possible with the PX system, they are unrelated to Nikon’s A, B and C groups, which confused me for a while. Within each group, each device must have the same power setting, from 00 to 32. It took a search through the manual before I understood that “32” was full power, not 1/32 power, and that the numbers were totally arbitrary indications of power level. To reduce the level, you must hold down the “X” switch and the “P” switch simultaneously since the power settings don’t roll over from 32 to 0, which turns out to require some dexterity with the small membrane switches and the unit mounted on your on-camera flash.

Another minor annoyance on the transmitter is the need to cycle through all of the settings when making any change, in order to save the settings. You cannot fire using the unit if the display menu is open. But in time you can get used to these quirks, or at least I found myself willing to put up with them for the control the PX system gave me.

The RadioPopper JrX system is also made up of transmitter and receiver units. There is one transmitter and two receivers, the JrX Receiver and the JrX Receiver Studio. The transmitter can be used with any camera with a hotshoe mount or with an external PC sync cable. Both receivers will trigger most flash units that take a 3.5mm mono or stereo male plug. RadioPoppers provides a chart of the cord needed for your flash on their Web site. The Studio version also incorporates a “telephone” style data port that is compatible with the remote port on Alien Bees, White Lightning and Zeus studio flash equipment.

JrX and PX transmitters and receivers can talk to one another, as long as the channel settings match. I used my Nikon SB-900 in Master mode with the flash cancelled to control my Alien Bees. Although I had the extra size and weight of the flash and PX transmitter on the camera, it was worth it to be able to independently control the power output of three Alien Bee monoblocs without moving from my camera position. Leap Devices even includes shorting plugs to insert into the sync ports to disable the optical slave on the Alien Bees so that the data port will control operation.

The eight tiny DIP switches on the Studio receiver must be set to the proper channel and even though their settings are clearly illustrated in the manual, I needed to keep the manual handy because I didn’t find the setting positions to be intuitive. Once you are set up for your studio you should rarely need to change them.

Operation of the JrX Receiver Studio, like that of the PX system, was flawless. Although I didn’t have a JrX transmitter to test, a representative of the company assured me that it would allow me to change the power settings of the Alien Bees without having to cycle through all of the settings, as I had to do with the PX transmitter.

There are other units coming onto the market that will allow photographers to add radio control to their Canon and Nikon speedlights and retain full E-TTL or i-TTL capabilities. They will have a tough time improving on the RadioPopper systems. And for photographers using studio strobes by Paul C. Buff, Inc., there is the enormous advantage of being able to wirelessly control them with elements of the same system.

MSRPs of the PX transmitter and PX receiver are $249 each. MSRPs of the JrX transmitter and JrX Basic receiver are $79.95 each. MSRP of the JrX Studio receiver is $99.95. Visit the RadioPopper Web site at www.radiopopper.com for more information, and to order.

Stan Sholik is a commercial photographer with over 30 years of studio and location experience. His specialty is still life photography for food, jewelry, medical and high-tech clients.