Today over at strobist.com, Mr. Hobby himself got to play with my new girlfriend - don’t tell the wife.

Though we are still a few weeks out from the official release, strobist got a sneak peek at the (fingers crossed) magnif-i-ta-rifical Radiopopper! David Hobby sounds excited by the radio poppers ability to enable high speed syncing at distance, “Think telephoto portraits shot wide open at 1/4000th of a sec to blow out the background focus — yet still lit with a nearby flash, for instance. This means you could shoot outdoor portraits with your flattering tele at noon on a sunny day with both controlled light and a nice, soft background.”

If you don’t know those words in that combination mean, you are the last person on Earth who isn’t a regular reader of the strobist.com blog-a-rama. What’cha waiting for? Get over there, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do!

Back to the radiopopper -

Though I can’t see straight I’m so excited about the high speed sync at a distance feature - that alone is worth the cash, I’m, as American Idol’s Randy Jackson says, “a million billion percent” more jazzed at the ability to control my 580ex II flashes right from my camera.

Am I lazy? Sure I am, but it’s more of a creative work flow thing. Sometimes I’ll have a flash mounted to a stand 15 feet in the air, tucked inside a softbox, or I’ll have a flash inside a custom waterproof housing (ziplock bag), or maybe the flash is inside a private jet barnstorming my abode (okay, haven’t done that one yet), and to be able to shoot, evaluate, and change the manual power output without having to tear down and reset my light setup is going to be a mega-boon to my aunt flow. If you know what I mean.

Here’s the specs from the radio popper site:

Specs

• Size: approx 2.6 x 2.0 x 0.75 inch
• Weight: approx 3 oz.
• Power: one “AA” size battery
• Batt Life: 20+ hours, continual operation
• Range: 300+ ft. real world
• Antenna: user replaceable flexible - approx 4.5 inches
• Light Sensor: user replaceable fiber-optic tube
• Mounting: double side tape, hook & latch
• Proj Release Date: february 2008
• Price: $175 per Tx / Rx - $349 complete ‘ready to shoot’ kit
• Discounts: additional discounts for larger quantities

Read ‘em and weep - with joy, that is.

(Full review to follow once I get my sweaty fingers on a couple sets of these pretty, pretty ladies!)

Kisses, radiopopper, I think I love you.

-N-

Del.icio.us | Technorati | Stumble it! | Digg