Techie question. (radio slaving strobes)

[Phloating Phlasher]

I finally gave up on optical "Slave Flash" triggers & am looking into radio units as an upgrade.
Looking for user experience.
I have basic requirements, no dedication, No TTL just Hot shoe.
Equipment

Cameras
Fuji Finepix S 7000
Fuji Finepix S 9100

Lights
Sunpak 622 auto
(5v trigger)

Sunpak 611 auto
(180v trigger via Wein safe Sync so 5v)

Vivitar285HV (new version)
(6v trigger)

Sunpak auto super 383
(6v trigger)

Vivitar 5600
(6v trigger)

I'm looking for the ability to use up to 4 Units for mini home studio purposes. Maximum distances will be probably 50' so real long range is not a particular benefit
Any reviews, based on actual experience preferably.
Good & bad points please totally uncommitted at this point, but the "GoDox CT16" with 4 receivers seems to be leading the pack. Any experiences with that exact model?
Sorry for the rubbish video image quality.

[Doc Sharptail]

I'm having a hard time getting on here. Android phone based Google is the only way I can get the site to open.

As to the flash triggers I have no experience with the modern stuff. The built in optical slaves on the Bowens monolights always worked for me.

[Phloating Phlasher]

I have 4 Wein optical slaves. I've used them for years.
They're a lot more directional than I need now.

[Ltdave]

godox seem to be pretty good. there is also the vello freewave fusion (on BH Photo Video) but i dont have any experience with them

i had pocket wizards with my canon 580EX II but had to use an RF baggie (cotton sleeve with faraday coil wires inside) because the 580s had too much interference and they did not have much reliability. probably much better with the speedlites you have listed.

currently using the canon 600EX-RT with the dedicated canon 3st-rt (?) transmitter but obviously that wont work for your situation.

[Phloating Phlasher]

Thanks. you may have made up my mind for me! The vello freewave fusion uses ALL "AAA" batteries. Both receiver & transmitter. The "GoDox CT16" with 4 receivers uses "AAA" for the receivers, but a 12V 23A lithium battery (Not included) for the transmitter.
I've never seen such a battery locally.

[Phloating Phlasher]

UPDATE!
I've discovered the real problem with sync slaving a 285HV, (NOT a 285, this only applies to the newer units).
Trigger voltage!
Yep the old 180v units worked, & the optical slaves parasitically stole this from the sync contacts to power the units. (the HV The new ones easily ID'd as HVs & have the external power socket.) had that reduced drastically so as to not wreck modern flash sync solid state switches. Unfortunately they did it too well!
The modern stuff is all geared to a 6v system, but they reduced it to a 4v trigger, less than the 5v threshold needed to trigger!

[Phloating Phlasher]

Well, I found a deal on a set of 4, 16 channel "Tranceivers" yep they can be either, both, or switch to just a receiver.
It also includes a different brand of dedicated transmitter & a single dedicated receiver. With the Chinese habit of co-branding one line through multiple brand names, all with both legit & not, clones & copies its claimed the transmitter will work all the receivers, so its a 5 light setup potentially! Not that I'd probably ever us it that way! (I like MAIN, FILL, HAIR (or BACK), with maybe a "shadow eliminator" on the background.
They had decent reviews & as all i need is sync they're more than adequate.
Fingers crossed.

[Phloating Phlasher]

UPDATE!
FAIL, Grr.
It turns out they are dedicated (boy howdy are they ever) for Canon exclusively.
Bummer they won't even wake up from battery saving mode on mine because they check for the camera being in focus before "waking up".
Other than that they seem to be really nice, well made units.All are both transmitter and receiver. Because of that they can be a cordless cable release, a flash trigger or both.

[Doc Sharptail]

UPDATE!
FAIL, Grr.
It turns out they are dedicated (boy howdy are they ever) for Canon exclusively.

That's too bad. Perhaps the seller would be willing to exchange for what you need on the camera side?

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Phloating Phlasher]

Oh, I do hope so.
He doesn't accept returns, (or reply to messages either), but E-bay has a money back warranty. I want to give him a fair chance to reply first though. I think its more selling stuff he doesn't really understand than criminally defrauding.
In the interim I've ordered a set I know will work & am waiting for them to arrive.
Meanwhile a few images with the old optical slaves. They work, kinda-sorta. But I have now obtained a Vivitar 5600 which will work with them, unlike the 285HV.
Nothing fancy just checking the lighting setup that will both work with optical slaves & look good with "Soft" & "Hard" images.

The long suffering stuffed penguin (It works fer cheap), sometimes with a grey rabbit. It's lit with
Sunpak 611 with a little diffusion for main at 2 o'clock & 40? up as MAIN.
Sunpak 622 (bounce diffusion) as "Fill" 8'o clock 30? at 1/2 power.
Vivitar 5600 zoomed out to "tele" as a rim-light. Full power, 11 O'clock 80? up.

80 ISO 1 125@ f11.

In practice I'd drop the MAIN to 1/2 power, the Fill to 1/4 power to let the backlight "pop" a little more on the dark black "feathers".

The slaves I went with main & fill as above but moved slightly to kill reflections from the shiny plastic & polished metal

flash triggers.jpg

Penguin.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

Note: sorry the "?" is a "degree" symbol, but the site doesn't seem to understand it.
Click the thumbnails for bigger image

[Phloating Phlasher]

Ebay intervened, based on the fact he sent me the wrong item.
He sent me a return shipping label.
Still awaiting delivery of the replacements! (groan)

[Phloating Phlasher]

The "New" radio triggers arrived, finally.
Yay they work!
The red lights indicate a signal received from the transmitter, initiated by firing the camera shutter.
It also confirms Sync.
Godox CT-16 4 .jpg

- - - Updated - - -

first test.
Godox CT-16 test 1 .jpg
Now to build the lighting setup(s)
I still have the photo-slaves so in theory I have an 8-light (No Idea why but if needed it can be done, I think) setup.

[Doc Sharptail]

Glad you got it worked out to something usable.

My work with studio flash was generally pretty limited. I did find a surprising amount of image quality improvement by going to the umbrella based mono-lights system~ very nice and strong diffuse light with little effort. The built in incandescent key/set-up lights helped a lot. I also used a vivitar 285 for a back/hair light at 1/4 power an awful lot.

My photographic interests have changed quite a bit over the years, and I'm more drawn to natural light (which can be a real pain at times), and what I can do with it.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Phloating Phlasher]

When I was working I had a 3-light "Multiblitz" setup from Germany, the whole thing went in a supplied suitcase. Similar to mono-lights. 3X 200 W/S units.
Very handy for traveling location shots for the sports magazines, which we did a lot of. Way overkill for a home studio doing mostly firearms & table-tops though.
I can easily add smallish umbrellas to these as the triggers all have a mount on the side too!

https://fk-secondhand.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/093792_multiblitz_minilite_200_3er_set_mit_zubehoer_01.jpg

[Phloating Phlasher]

Latest from E-Pay.
They absolutely will credit me for the wrong item shipped.
any day now . . .
Any Day now. . .
Meanwhile I replaced them & ordered a couple of umbrellas.
One arrived defective, the catch that holds it open disintegrated bits flew off across the room as I opened it for the first time.
They're crediting, not replacing it.
any day now . . .
Any Day now. . .