I took delivery of the Yongnuo CTR-301P wireless flash trigger and receiver yesterday. So far I like the kit.

Build Quality

I've heard a lot about the questionable build quality of other makes of "poverty wizards". One of the major differences between the more professional pocket wizards and poverty wizards has always been the build quality. I think the CTR-301P may have narrowed that gap significantly. As of yet, I can see no issues with build quality. All switches and buttons work fine, all sliding doors easily fit open and close. I've been comfortable enough with the hotshoe to put a Nikon SB900 on top, even when the flash is facing down.

No Misfires

I've taken 300 or shots with the CTR-301P flash trigger set-up and have yet to have a misfire. Actually, at one point, I thought I had been experiencing misfires, only to find out that I'd left the receiver switched off after the break.

Ease of Use

They're very simple to set-up. I used these with a Nikon SB600 and a Nikon SB900. In each case, I just slid the flash onto the receiver. Switched the flashes on, switched the receiver to 'W' for wireless, slid the transmitter onto the camera body's hotshoes and started shooting.

Distance

It's proven more reliable than iTTL indoors. I'll post back after I've had chance to check more thoroughly.

Sync Speed

The camera body has a sync speed of 1/200. The SB600 works well at 1/200 with either receiver and at any range that I've encountered. The SB900 sometimes has a slight darkening of the bottom 5% of the image. Being left a minimum exposure of 1/160 instead of 1/200 will become annoying, but I may not be stuck with it. I put fresh, good batteries into the SB900 just in case. I'm not sure if the sync speed issue gets worse with distance since the SB900 seems to work ok at 1/200 when the flash is about 1m away. Any more and there's a chance of the dark band. I haven't tried replacing the transmitter or receiver batteries, although I did swap over the receivers in case one was performing worse than the other; that wasn't the case. Not sure what other variables I can change.

PC Sync

The cable that comes in the package by default isn't for PC Sync, but is for studio strobes. It looks like you can get an adaptor for PC Sync.

Technorati Tags: Array Photography