Off Camera Flash – Elinchrom Skyport review
December 6th, 2008 Get notified of the next post
About 6 months ago, a friend of mine, Sybrand Cillie (Pro Photography) introduced me to “Off Camera Flash” (OCF). He uses the Elinchrom Skyport system and suggested I get my hands on a set.
At the time, Orms charged me R1800 for a Transmitter and Receiver. Not cheap, but far cheaper than the Pocket wizards (alternative).
The Skyport units are often used in a studio set-up, but we use it mainly for outdoor OCF at weddings. The transmitter unit fits onto the camera’s flash mount and the receiver unit needs to be connected to your flash.
When these units work, they are fabulous, but if you are not a tech savvy person, it can take a while to figure them out.
Here are a few problems I encountered:
- Connector Cable does not come with the set – When you buy the Transmitter & Receiver pack, it does not come with a cable that can connect to your flash (580EX II). You have to go and buy a seperate cable with a minijack on one end and a normal studio light connecter on the other. The 580 EX II has a studio plug connecter that you can plug it into.
- The Receiver hangs loose – In order to avoid a dangling receiver unit, you will need to trap it to your flash with velcro. You have to stick a strip of velcro on your flash and one on the receiver unit.
- The Transmitter is not secure on the flash mount of the camera – Don’t let your camera hang over your shoulder with this unit still attached, because it will fall off!!!! All the alternatives like the Pocket Wizard, have a clamp down mechanism that avoids this from happening – but not the Skyport.
- The operation is not stable – The manual does not provide a lot of information on how to operate the unit. We have found that the units work fine now and 1 minute later it does not work. After some experimenting we discovered that the unit will work again if you press the plus or minus buttons on the transmitter!
- You need to buy a hotshoe cable in order to use it with the Canon 580 EX.
But not all is negative. Some positive points:
- It is very small and does not take up a lot of space in your bag. (Unlike the bulky Pocket Wizards)
- The battery life is long
- When you get it working – it works very well
- It is rugged – I have dropped my transmitter unit in the sea – dried it and replaced the battery – 2 weeks later it still works!
- You can add up to 8 receivers (that will work with 1 transmitter)
Conclusion:
This is a must have addition to your kit, if you like the effect of OCF. It is light weight and as soon as you get the hang of it, It works well. I do recommend you going online and reading more about the Skyport before you test it in the field, as the manual is not very helpful.
The biggest drawback with this system for me is in the design – the transmitter just sits too loose on the camera’s flash mount and I have lost this unit on 2 occasions already – luckily I found it again both times.
The most recent time it came off, was on the beach – dropped in the sand – had sea water washing over it! The only thing I can suggest is by fixing it to your camera with velcro like in the picture above. But then you have to stick a nasty piece on velcro on your camera body….
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