Comments on: Nice Five Minute Radiopopper Mod

By: Radiopopper X – The Big Reveal | Nice - a mostly positive look at the world of creative photography

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:18:33 +0000

[...] PX Receiver ($249 – gulp!) sticks right over your flash’s “eye” kind of like the Nice Radio Pop Mod. No more gaffers tape on your flash – unless you’re into that sort of thing you kinky [...]

By: Mr.K

Mr.K — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:08:01 +0000

As of now I’m pretty sure you can only get it direct.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:23:13 +0000

Where can you buy the radio popper, is the only place at radiopopper.com? Sure would like to find it locally!

By: How To Use Radiopoppers To Trigger Your Studio Strobes and Non TTL Flashes | Nice - a mostly positive look at the world of creative photography

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:25:34 +0000

[...] may not be as clever as the Radiopopper mod, but it’s just as effective and adds a completely new [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:57:57 +0000

“2. Another consideration may be that this mod may block the focus assist lamp, depending on where you velcro the RP.”
Why would you need focus assist on a slave?
Just modded two of my newly arrived RP Rxers. No problem, almost, second fiber I cut 2 inches but it was a bit short, my advise better be a bit longer then 2 inches. I recut a little longer and second worked fine. Another thing: it is a little flimsy, 580 is not flush, it rocks left right. I’m considering a velcro belt around or maybe to use same scotch tape to hold the top part steady.
Thanks a lot for the info.

By: Tom Cuchara

Tom Cuchara — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:53:09 +0000

This is a great idea. This question may or may not be for this particular post. But I’ll go ahead, anyway in hopes that someone will have more insight…
Question: Has anyone used the radio popper with the ST-2 580ex and the Quantum Qd-5? Does it work? Radio Popper told me that they have not tested it, yet, but have heard on the web that is does work. Is this true and if so where is the thread? Thanks!!

By: Rex Larsen

Rex Larsen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:39:01 +0000

I really like the idea of the Radio Popper mod because I’m concerned about the fiber optic cable being a weak link in the system. However, having a glob of glue between the flash and the RP doesn’t seem like an optimal way to transfer important data. What do you think ?
Rex

By: andres mayr

andres mayr — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:18:53 +0000

Thanks a lot Mr K! I do not have any Radiopopper yet, I am asking myself what could be better / cheaper / more effective in terms of flash power / recicle time:
Nikon SB-800 + SD-80 = full power / recicle time of 1 sec (US 450)
Two Nikon Sb-600 = full power / recicle time of 3 sec (US 360)
… and wanted to know if one Radiopopper could fire 2 Sb-600.
Your link answered my question, thanks a lot!

By: Mr.K

Mr.K — Sun, 18 May 2008 07:52:18 +0000

Hi Andres,

I think you could trigger two with just one popper. You’d have to split the optic. There was a post on Radiopopper’s blog where they speculated about a way to do it.

http://radiopopper.com/blog/?p=28

Let me know if you get it to work.

By: andres mayr

andres mayr — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:01:38 +0000

Hi Mr K,
do you think it could be possible to fire two flashes simultaneosly with just one RadioPopper receiver? For example, with two optic fiber cables coming out of a single RadioPopper?
Just wondering if I could fire 2 attached Nikon Sb-600 flashes with just one RadioPopper receiver attached to them…

By: Radiopopper Review | Nice - a mostly positive look at the world of creative photography

Fri, 09 May 2008 23:44:53 +0000

[...] I really, I mean really don’t like that you have to unscrew the cute little bugger every time you want to change the battery. I know, they sip juice like it’s bathwater, but it still makes me coo-coo bananas. Fortunately this is an easy fix. At some point hopefully RP will offer a replacement back cover with a slip off battery cover (PLEASE!). I’m also not a fan of the “Tape It To My Flash” idea. You Velcro the receiver to the flash, but you tape the light transmitting doodad (to use a technical term) over the flash sensor. Uh, you do? Yep. I don’t like it. It works great, but I don’t want to put tape on my flash and worse, every time I want to pack up my flash I have to untape it. That’s not how I do things. UPDATE: I have come up with a SUPER easy mod to fix this issue. You can read how to do it on the Radiopopper Mod Post. [...]

By: Kevin King (RadioPopper)

Kevin King (RadioPopper) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:53:24 +0000

Great thinking Zeke – this really is a pretty sweet mod. We’d planned to build the units this way from the start except Nikon flashes have the IR sensor on the side, so it wouldn’t have worked – using the flexible optic insured unlimited mounting positions regardless of make of flash.

*** I do have one concern with your mount though, and you may want to add this for anyone else reading. ***

You really should turn the flash head away from the RP Receiver in this type of mount.

When your flash fires it creates a very strong magnetic pulse which is strongest right above and right below the flash head. The way you have it pictured (where the RP is “under” the head) – the antenna is directly in this very strong field. The P1 Transmitter is intended to stand up to this as it’s putting energy out – but the receiver on the other hand is tuned to be super sensitive, and hitting the sensitive input stage with this jolt time after time could possibly damage the unit.

Measured on the side (the normal mounting location) the magnetic jolt is almost zero, but right up under the head – it’s very strong. There is a bypass built into the receiver that should conduct occasional static electricity around the radio – but with repeated use… you get the idea.

Long story short – turn the head the other way and you should be just fine. Being it’s wireless anyway, positioning for your intended shot should be easy enough.

Cheers!

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:50:00 +0000

This looks like an interesting mod. My only comments are:
1. I’m guessing the reason the “Radiopopper people” didn’t design the receiver with this mod is because they wanted the RP to be able to work with as many flash units as possible. Using a long flexible optical cable allows this since different flashes have their sensor located at different places. See pg. 15 of the RP Users Manual for some examples.
2. Another consideration may be that this mod may block the focus assist lamp, depending on where you velcro the RP.
3. I’m just speculating here but this mod may reduce the maximum range of the unit because the antenna may not always be pointing straight up. See pg. 22 of the RP Users Manual:
“The radio signal emits outward in the shape of a doughnut from the sides of the antenna. The signal is therefore strongest 360 degrees to the sides of the antenna when the antenna is pointed straight up. The weakest signal is emitted out the very point of the antenna, as well as straight downward out the bottom of the antenna.”
This is probably not a big deal when using this mod indoors with lots of stuff for the signal to bounce off of.

Clever mod. Thanks for sharing it. Keep up the good work!

By: Mr.K

Mr.K — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:17:26 +0000

I made the images larger and added a few more words of explanation. But I really don’t know how better to explain it. It’s a really simple mod. Drill two holes, cable goes in one out the other. Add glue.

I wish I knew how to explain it better. Perhaps there are specific questions I could answer.

By: lane hartwell

lane hartwell — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:07:41 +0000

oh and i should add, i have canon 580EX flashes, X 2. can you tell me exactly where i drill the back hole? and that fat plastic end on the fiber optic tube pops out of there?