If you use your camera’s advanced infrared flash control system – such as Canon Wireless or Nikon AWL – you may find you have problems using it outdoors or through obstacles. Moreover, bright sunlight can cause interference with the optical signals.
Simple radio triggers overcome these problems but sacrifice many of the capabilities of infrared triggering, such as wireless TTL and remote power control. There are radio TTL triggers out there such as the PocketWizard FlexTT5, Pixel King and Phottix Odin but these can be expensive and require you to learn a whole new system.
Furthermore, if you use a less popular brand such Olympus, Pentax or Sony then third-party trigger manufacturers don’t seem to want to cater to you (with the possible exception of the Pixel King for Sony).
Another solution is an infrared relay radio trigger. This takes in the optical signal from your master flash, converts it to radio, transmits it wirelessly to a receiver and converts it back into infrared for your slave speedlight. Using this method you get the best of both worlds – the capabilities of infrared and the range of radio. Until now, the RadioPopper PX, made by an American company, has been the only known commercial product that does this.
The Radioflash Digi 8 TTL is a Brazilian product with the same features of RadioPoppers and more. As well as an infrared relay, the Digi 8 also works as a conventional manual trigger and a remote shutter release, complete with autofocus support.
Both transmitter and receiver run on lithium batteries that are recharged via the Mini-USB port. Dedicated sockets allow you to plug in fibre-optic cables to transmit infrared signals to and from your flash units.
The transmitter can quickly be turned into a normal manual radio trigger with its interchangeable mount – one is covered in Velcro and the other one has a hotshoe foot.
Like the transmitter, the Radioflash receiver also works as either an infrared relay or a simple manual device. It’s even backwards-compatible with a more basic product by the same company, the Digi 4.
For more information on how the system works, we recommend you visit the manufacturer’s web site, where you can download the instruction manual and watch demonstration videos (in Portuguese).
Where to buy
A kit, comprising one Digi 8 transmitter and one receiver, costs 880 Brazilian reals (about US$470, £290) with individual units 440 reals each. Visit the Radioflash web site for a list of distributors. At this stage it doesn’t look like the Digi 8 TTL is sold outside of Brazil.