Elinchrom Skyport Review Continued

Wednesday 20th Jun 2007 - Blewbury

Introduction

Before reading this I recommend you read the first part of this article. Just a brief recap, the Elinchrom Skyport is a system for triggering remote strobes/flashes from a camera. Also this is a photography review, not a BMX one!

I’ve now had my Skyport set for about three months and so thought I would write a more complete review, and put up some answers to questions people have asked. I've also included pictures which hopefully make how you connect them up to flash units clear.

Group flash mode

One of the most powerful and versatile features of the Skyport, is the 'Group' system which allows the photographer to set up each flash or group of flashes on a different Group and either select a group to fire individually, e.g. a particular flash (1-4) or use the trigger all setting. Using combinations of groups means you can essentially trigger four separate flash groups, or all of them at once.

The diagram below attempts to demonstrate this, the flash fired is at the top, and the trigger setting is shown below it. The green underlining shows the setting the switch should be on.

Group mode, group 1 (left)	Group mode, group 2 (right)	All mode (both fire)

The above diagrams show how groups can be used to fire single flashes or both just using the on camera trigger unit. (This requires the Groups to have already been set on the receiver).

There are a great many creative photographic uses for this, and it has one up on pocket wizards in this respect as they do not have a fire all feature that I am aware of.

Connection Methods

Paramount hot-shoe and cord

There are also specific cables out there for connecting directly from the hot-shoe into the Skyport receiver unit, such as this one available from Paramount cords. These may seem expensive but are much better built than the standard hot-shoe adaptors and as it is an all in one unit there is less to lose!

The Paramount cord next to the input socket on the Skyport receiver

The wired up setup with a Vivitar 285 (non-HV)

Generic eBay hotshoe adapter

The units come as standard with male mini-phone to male mini-phone (like stereo headphone jacks). One end of this connects directly into the Skyport and the other end plugs into a hot-shoe adaptor.

This system works reliably for me, but the hot-shoe adaptors are extremely flimsy. As you can see in the picture, two out of the four ends have come off, exposing the wiring inside. It still works but doesn’t look very pretty and is likely to break any day!

The broken off sides...

I got my adaptors as part of a set from my original cheap eBay slaves, and so can’t give you a particular part number, sorry. The cable is supplied with the Skyport kits though.

Other

You can quite easily make your own cable by splicing one of the miniphone cables which comes with it, into a standard pc connection and using a standard pc hotshoe adpaptor. (Do so at your own risk).

Channels

As the Skyport has 8 channels and within each channel there are 4 groups you could potentially have 32 people using Skyports in the same place, provided people aren't using multiple groups of flashes.

Battery Life

One of the biggest concerns I and others had was the battery life of the units. It is worth noting that the triggers have replaceable, non-rechargeable battery and the receivers have a non-replaceable, rechargeable battery. Try saying that fast... The receivers work whilst plugged in/recharging, perfect if used in a studio.

I have had the original battery in the trigger for three months now and it is still going strong. I couldn’t put an exact number of hours on this, but they were being used for a couple of hours at a time, a couple of times a week.

I have had to recharge the receivers once during this three month period. I was ‘caught out in the field’ and had to make do with just one receiver. This was a annoying but just keep tabs on the amount you use it and recharge regularly to avoid this happening.

Weather Sealing

I haven’t used this in any extreme weather conditions yet, the most being some light rain, and I quickly put them back in the bag to protect them. They might be able to withstand a limited amount of water, but I don’t fancy trying.

Durability

One of the most talked-about features of the Skyport is the rather flimsy looking aerials. Mine are still going strong and this is partly due to them being not as flimsy as they look, but more importantly, transporting and storing them properly. You wouldn’t just chuck an expensive lens into a bag, so the same thinking applies here, and then you should be fine.

Range

I haven’t once gone out of range in normal shoots, even using a 70-200mm lens . The radio signals will still go through glass etc if your shooting the inside of a car from outside it with slave flashes inside, for example. Again with a 70-200mm when used to take bmx shots from way back in dense woodland they still worked (see here).

Extra receivers

You can now buy extra receivers on their own, rather than buying 2 part sets. The on/off button is in a slightly differnt position see Paulo Rodrigues picture of this 'The Difference Between Recievers'. The on/off is now a button on top, not a switch on the side like before... Doesn't sound like a great idea as it would be easy to knock them on or off by mistake.

Sync speed

Paulo Rodrigues also said that "I can now confirm that they will sync upto speeds of 1/1000 on a camera that is capable of it. Which IMHO is pretty good."

So great for Nikon D50 users etc.

Where to buy

UK

I brought mine in the UK, from a place called Robert White who were very fast and helpful. Another good option is the Flash Centre who were also knowledgeable .

US/Canada

I live in the UK so I don’t know where you can buy them, sorry! Heard good things about Vistek in Canada, haven’t used myself though, also doesn’t ship to US apparently?

Conclusions

I’m still really happy with how the Elinchrom Skyport triggers are working out, and using the Groups properly you have very good radio control of your flashes. Their size and weight means its no hassle to take them to places, so you always have the option of using off camera flashes. Remembering to keep them charged can be a bit of a bitch. But I guess if you’re really concerned you could buy an extra unit and it would still weigh and cost much less than a pocket wizard set.

For more information see the Elinchrom site, or visit Strobist for more useful flash and camera related stuff.

Please ask any questions below, or go to my photograhy website for contact details. Cheers, Ed.

Posted by Ed at 08:47 pm in the Reviews > Blewbury section. Permalink.

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