This is the kind of product we all expected to be using by the year 2021 but alas. Hopefully they'll get the support they deserve and stay in business because I want camera equipment manufacturers to know this is what we want. Unfortunately I already have the Godox pro model and can't justify getting it at this time.
To everyone complaining about the price, this isn't a commodity product where they can spread the development cost over millions of units. This is a very niche product that only small number of people will buy, yet a lot of work went in to creating it.
I am so glad that I stopped in here today! My pocket wizards have been very fickle on location these days so I've started looking for options. I think channel noise has been an issue with location uplighting, and other wireless gear all around a wedding reception. A battery level indicator on the back is also fantastic! No more guessing.
Love that a company even decided to build a super cool flash trigger like this. So many great ideas+features in it, kudos! Especially the track ISO/Aperture feature is so awesome.
The big idea behind the device is the parallel triggering of multiple flashes from different brands. That is the real sensation. (That's what the video should have been focusing on) Now some people might say "I don't own different brands". Not today, but maybe tomorrow, maybe your favorite flash company goes out of business and you buy a new flash from a different company, you can combine it with you "old" flashes, you don't have to throw everything away because you changed the brand. Or you own a bunch of Godox and need to rent something for a bigger job, but the rental shop only has Pro Photo. You need only to rent 1 or 2 flashes to complete your setup and not the entire package to get the job done.
This is fantastic for me. I have older Dynalite strobes that still do a great job with Pocket Wizards, but am transitioning to Profoto. If needed, I can now mix my Profoto and Dynalites in one shot. And I know hockey, basketball and other indoor sports photographers who shoot with strobes will like the ability to adjust their sync speeds up!
You cant stack the triggers with the one Tony showed. I do it all the time. it works fine in manual and hss still works too. i dont do ttl so i dont i know if that is fine but probably is.
I think being able to combine different kinds of flashes, and adjust multiple flashes by a stop at the same time is useful. Not sure about the other features. If it were $150 I'd probably buy this.
I purchased this trigger and while it’s really expensive it’s worth it if you can afford it. Very reliable compared to the Godox triggers. I shot 2,200 exposures using flashpoint strobes and the misfire rate was 2%. That rate was much higher using the godox triggers. Could not rely on them if my work was critical.
I like the idea of being able to mix flash brands. I have Paul C Buff studio strobes and Godox speed lights. I shoot Fuji, so I’ll have to wait for the next version.
I arrived at a decision crossroads last summer (2021); replace all my strobes and speedlights or spend $450 on this trigger. I bought the trigger. What I like about the Raven: The channel assessment tool really helps if you are in a location saturated with RF signals. The ability to trigger with Paul Buff, Profoto, PocketW, and Godox/Flashpoint is is great. Think in terms of a universal remote. I have pranked a Profoto shooting bay at a photograph expo using this device, rather funny. Aside from the joke, I could enter this shooting bay and take pictures without learning how to use another trigger. If you attend social shoots/ photo conferences or work as a second shooter there is a good chance this device will allow you to integrate into other lighting systems. Lastly, the multi zone is great. Rather than having to change each zone independently, zones can change together making setting your camera and lights easier. My concerns: While this device was being intially marketed, less expensive units already include zones e and f. It would be nice if this unit can be updated to manage more than 4 zones. You must tune in into the Raven power level the same way you are tuned with your phone power levels. At the time of this posting, Raven is compatible with Nikon and Canon. I hope Sony is added to the lineup to reflect the popularity of this camera line. Overall, the Raven is a different Trigger from every other trigger out there. No other trigger adapts to multiple lighting system like this nor allow for multichannel adjustments. And yes, I would buy another if the one I own breaks because its still cheaper than replacing my lights.
I agree that being able to use different brands of strobes is good idea and hopefully they will come out with units with the main features at a lower price point.
I'd rather have an updated X-Pro trigger from Godox that is better designed to fit properly without wobbles and has the upmarket locking mechanism that Canon has had in their speedlites for years now. A bit of a snob complaint but, I like how my hardware experience "feels" during a shoot. (I know they have that overdesigned Adorama trigger with extra buttons that I don't need but that isn't worth the money when all I want is a confident hot shoe locking mechanism.) While I'm at it, I like the large physical dial on the TLC. Well-designed and tactile, decently sized physical dials are underrated in this age of touchscreens.
I have been looking at this trigger, so thanks for the information. I have both einstein and godox strobes so this would be handy for sure. The problem is that you have to upgrade all your PW to the new E release to use the trigger. So now $450 for the trigger plus $10 for each PW. So that stinks. Then on top of that once you upgrade to E release you can't use the Sekonic light meter to trigger your flash. They say they don't intend to use E frequencies. Hopefully Sekonic will change that stance. So very expensive for what you get but it is cool.
I asked for multiprotocol flashtriggers for years. But meanwhile i bought strobes from one brand and a flashtrigger which allows supersync and i am happy with it.
Thanks for sharing and reviewing this product. It has so much potential. I have several different brands of flashes. It would be great to use them together instead of replacing them with one brand. Two problems; one is my primary camera is a Sony and two the price tag is a little high right now.
EXPENSIVE! I've been looking at various triggers and receivers for my Metz flashes. Will probably settle for the the Godox XT2-C (2019) which is a later release than the XPRO-C and the X1R-C (2018) as the receiver. I note that these are the latest Trigger/Receiver for Canon and at least two years old as of date!
The XT2-C has the useful TCM (TTL convert to Manual) button, same as the X1Pro-C. Have the flash set to TTL, zoom in to fill the frame with the subject (to not let the background affect the metering), fire a shot (which should be spot on) and then hold the TCM button for 2 seconds. The flash is now in Manual mode at the power setting you just used. Zoom in and out and fire away, knowing exposure is correct and won't change. Great feature.
Great review, cool product, terrible price. My favourite review line though: 8:21 "It has been 100% reliable, it has fired pretty much every time" - 'pretty much' adds a whole new flavour!
Really interesting product and I agree that they're worth keeping an eye on. I think they priced themselves out of pulling customers away from their current brands with this effort though. It'd be an especially tough sell to someone getting into OCF/Studio photography when you could buy either Godox trigger (X2T or XPro), and still have money for an AD200 Pro, stand and a softbox/modifier.
I'm thinking about buying this for my R5 to reuse my existing CE frequency FlexTT5 receivers and 430 EX II flashes. But still, I'm interested in hearing about the Godox transceivers on Canon mirrorless, so I can still use TTL and HSS, which may be a cheaper option than buying the Raven. I'd love to know more!
Tony, pleaseeee turn up your volume in your videos. Don't be afraid of volume levels being near 0 db. Ima keep posting tjis till I hear the difference.
I like the Westcott FJ-X2m Universal Wireless Flash Trigger w/ my FJ400 strobe! it's a universal trigger that works with many camera brands too! I use it on my fuji Xt4 currently
My most used trigger is the one on my GoDox speedlight. At times I need a flash and its right there attached to the trigger. Batteries last a whole 14 hour wedding with flash use. And easy to carry a backup that backs up the flash and trigger for redundancy at events. Hard to make sense of a $450 trigger for the vast majority of users. Super niche product.
Wake function is probably for time-lapses for something like sunrises. Fujifilm cameras can do this internally, but is part of the intervalometer setup. This company probably set up separate controls so it could be used in conjunction with other features like the intervalometer and/or modeling light.
Being that it fires Profoto strobes along with the other major brands, makes this on par (or better) than Profoto's Air remotes at sell at about the same price but don't play well with others!
Don’t need it most of the functions I won’t use. I can move a light if need be or turn down light output. Looks cool probably be great for a sports photographer
Pretty neat, but hard to justify that price for most people. Might be good for people who run workshops or events where there might be mixed gear types. If it's going to compete with the native triggers it needs more dedicated controls. Having a trigger that has physical knobs for each channel would be awesome. If they wanted to go off the deep end into over engineered, they could build an algorithm that would detect the lighting setup you have and adjust the flashes automatically (not just TTL metering, I'm talking fully aware of each flash's location and effect on the scene and it would learn your preferences over time or using some fancy AI). Maybe that's too much? Ha ha.
It is a lovely piece of gear but I see it's real strength as not being tied to one brand - I might consider upgrading to Pro-foto from my trusty Godox setup one day but this flash would allow mw to use a mix of both while slowly swapping brands. At the moment I'd have to sell all my Godox gear and buy into profoto. An issue with the Godox triggers is that the hotshoe on the godox XC-1 triggers is not a pass -through arrangement so you cannot easily use other-branded triggers in them and they default to firing GROUP A settings.
I had been looking at what to upgrade to as the long time versions of the Paul Buff Mini TT1 and the Flex TT6 no longer work with the current Canon mirrorless, including the R5 and R6, but the new Raven does not work with the new Paul Buff Link light without using a Flex TT6 on the Link light. Not something you expect with a $450 trigger. Also was hoping they would not ignore the Canon flashes of the Canon cameras the Raven was designed to accommodate. The high dollar amount is something it will be interesting to see if it is going to attractive to the prior Pocket Wizard customer base. I concur with your caveat. Very nice review. PS I was thinking about the built in lithium battery. Does this also mean that when the battery goes bad this will just be destined for the junk heap? Thank you for all you do. I liked that Pocket Wizard is still trying to save users of the Paul Buff lights, which I like, from having to use Paul Buff triggers which I have never liked. Thought they were coming through with their new Hub trigger but you cant use its features with out using a smart phone in conjunction with it. Buff company always had nice lights but their triggers are about enough to run folks off. This offering of PW would be nice if it wasn't priced in the Pro Foto luxury category out of reach of PW normal users.
First off, thanks for doing this review on this trigger I was thinking of buying. But the current price tag was my turn off from getting it. When I saw the price tag on that Raven trigger. I was like... this looks like a $325 product for what it can do. The only feature won't use is most likely the intervalometer. But there's some features that I'll probably use on the Raven Trigger. like -that built in LCD light, might come in handle for focusing with my EOS R since party strobe lights cause my EOS R to have focusing issues. -triggering two different light strobes. Since I have Flashpoint/Godox, Buff, and I hope they'll add in Orlit / Jimbay (whatever they call themselves) -Just recently, I've been experimenting remote camera triggering at the weddings I worked on. I had to use the Yongnuo 603 trigger, one on the camera, and one I have to put in my mouth to trigger the remote camera. Then I had the Yongnuo 605 triggers, so I trigger my remote camera by just pressing the shutter button on my camera. It worked but, doesn't work when I set my EOS R into silent shooting mode because the trigger thinks it's still a flash trigger and not want to trigger my remote camera. anyways at the @4:34 section about remote camera triggering. I tried asking a rep on facebook about remote triggering, if the Raven can remote camera trigger with other triggers like the godox / Flashpoint R2 Single Pin Transceiver, or do I need another Raven remote to remote camera trigger. The rep didn't give me a straight answer. So I'm wondering if you can somehow answer that question for me. And again. Remote camera triggering will come in handy at weddings (like remote firing from the balcony in the church)
3 ปีที่แล้ว
the idea of a universal trigger is amazing ... especially when you rent studios, are in a photoclubwith a house set of flashes etc. you simply have to learn only one trigger ... but does it work with highspeed flashes ?
Hey Tony & Chelsea, I love your channel! Have you or anyone else done a comparison of (perhaps) Godox vs. Phottix vs. Yongnuo triggers/systems. Are they all they same, just not inter-compatible? Currently have a pieced together system of all manual flashes/strobes. Would like to jump into the 21st century.
It’s only $10 more than a Profoto air remote trigger, so if this is their higher end model, not that crazy. From the video, I was curious if it supports Elinchrom lights? Also wondered if each of the 4 trigger channels could be set to fire groups of OCFs (eg, all set to channel A1)?
That looked like a canon R5 you were testing that on and you mentioned TTL worked fine with it? I'd consider buying this just to get TTL back as I lost that and HSS on my x1 pro when I upgraded to the R5
3 ปีที่แล้ว +2
Godox X2 has Bluetooth support, so lets you control flash settings from your smartphone, via their app. I think that is a superior approach, and so much simpler and intuitive, at least for me
A little too late; wish I saw this review a month ago. I ended up buying a Profoto transceiver (a.k.a the old air remote/non-ttl) to use as a relay to fire off PocketWizard remotes. This would have been a better solution - instead of the hodge podge setup of repeating triggers.
Hi Tony, Could you do me (and maybe others) a big favour. With the new Canon cards being a CFexpress, can you do a, How to? Download a CFexpress card onto a Ipad pro, i.e. to use on Lumafusion for mobile editing. What resolution works and what doesn't? Very much appreciated. 👍
We buy Godox or in my case Yongnuo because they work and they're good value for money. I don't think the same can be said for this device, as nice as it is. I used to think Pocket Wizards were expensive. I do agree with Tony in as much as the major camera manufacturers should headhunt the engineers of this device and more importantly, give them a free hand to see what they can come up with. A bit like car manufacturers come up with concept cars and then see what practical fall out there is.
That UI. Ooof. Price and lack of USB-C are not great. But if they added Interfit I'd consider it, since I have lights from Godox/Flashpoint along with a Badger Unleashed.
It's only of real use if you have more than one brand of flash that you need to adjust and/or trigger. So I guess $450 is a bit expensive, especially when it doesn't cover more lighting brands (I guess these may become available as a firmware update at some point in the future)>
$450? not sure if it is worth today, and for pro work, you know you will need a back up = $900! If you own lights from various manufacturers this would allow you to use them all at the same time, using one trigger. It would give you the freedom from being tie to one manufacturer of lights, and more and more manufacturers are building the receiver into the light. HSS from multiple manufacturer of lights with TTL with a single transmitter is awesome. It has a Samsung watch interface feel. I did not find anything confusing about the interface, I found everything you demonstrated to be intuitive. Now, let me see if I can find $900 lying around!
Does it have GPS? You can use wake up time, so it’s all ready when you get to the office. Someone buying an R3, or the upcoming Z9, would be able to afford it. The batteries was the deal breaker. But the layout looks pretty good to me. More testing is needed.
This is kind of relevant. Which strobes and triggers can I use while walking around with the light and trigger my camera and strobe at the same time? I essentially want to be mobile with the strobe to light subjects selectively without having to walk back and forth between the camera and strobe.
Can the trigger show when all flashes are ready? This is the main feature I want. I'm tired trying to count remote flash beeps to figure out when all flashes are ready, constantly waiting for a beep that already came unnoticed or taking photos only to notice that one of the flashes wasn't ready yet and didn't fire. I sooooo want a trigger that would show a light whenever all remote flashes are ready.
@@YogueDaddy False. Flashes on batteries do take time to charge, possibly even unreasonably long depending on the batteries. And when one flash wasn't ready you're just wasting time and batteries and nerves. Having a beep or a light show up in the corner of my field of view would help immensely.
Is that eyepiece on your camera and upgrade or is that stock? Does it magnify? I can't see everything in my viewfinder on my Sony A7 IV and I'm hoping to find a viewfinder that will improve what I see in the viewfinder.
It has only 4 groups even though many triggers have 5 and some modes have even more. Plus it looks extremely complicated to make some adjustments, the only feature that is useful is the multi brand, even though I have a Yongnuo 622-C that has a hot shoe on top where if I need more lights than my 3 Godox AD200's I just put the 622-C on the camera and the Godox X-Pro on top, with this setup I control up to 3 groups with the Yongnuo flashes via the Camera menu and the Godox flashes 5 groups via the X-Pro and it has never misfired unless the 622-C is turned off or drained batteries, in which case the hot shoe passthrough will not work so the Godox will not work either, as long as both triggers are powered, both will work seamlessly. The Godox legacy triggers with the hots hoe on top should work in a similar way e.g putting a Profoto trigger on top of the Godox legacy trigger. :-) I don't have them so I cannot do the test, but you can test this with the legacy trigger connected to the camera and another trigger from another brand of flash on top of the Godox :-) maybe since unlike the Yongnuo 622-C, the Godox legacy do have a mini screen, you might even be able to control them directly, if not, they should work with the camera flash menu.
True. I've used PW for years but the company is way behind. Not sure of what future they have. I remember them promising a software update to allow the TT5's to work with Canon 5DMk4. Eventually they gave up and brought out a TT6.... recently I was told by them the TT6 wont work with new Canons (R5/R6). They actually suggested the Fusion as a solution....
I love the idea that there seems to be innovation out there when it comes to triggers! However, this device despite tons of tech is HUGE with the UI seemingly made by an engineer that must have worked at Sony in the past. Honestly, with almost 5 years of these types of triggers coming up after Pocket Wizard commanded the market, I cannot understand why design, innovation, and updated tech have evolved at a snail's pace in this market space. The Westcott trigger seemed to have been going in the right direction, but it too is giant and clunky. I don't understand why it seems these devices, in the height of social media outreach, have not been reaching out to their users for design, UI, tech, and testing feedback. It would seem, regardless of what opinions people may have of their products, Godox has been the best at doing this even though they too need to finetune their hearing and outreach.
No way in hell I'd drop that kind of cheddar on a trigger! I like my $70 Flashpoint R2 Pro trigger on my D850 to handle my evolv 200 (R2 radio built in), xplor 600 (R2 radio built in) and my old SB-700's (with Flashpoint $40 receivers). I could use that $450 toward gas to find locations to shoot my new Nikon 200-500mm!
1- How would this work with a not shutter cameras (such as the Nikon Z9 and Z30) 2- I use pocketwizard transmeters with native Nikon speedlights (T5 and Sb850’s) I read with an update to the E system I can make the tra sobers work with the Raven. So I’m asking if this would work with non shutter cameras and pocketwizard? Thanks for any insight
As per the FusionTLC website, yes, the Raven is compatible with the Nikon Z9 (with the latest firmware update). The Z30 is not listed but my guess is that it would work too. As for your second question, yes, if you upgrade your TT5s to the E Release firmware, they will work with the Raven. It's an awesome transmitter.
I looked at it as I use both Elinchrom and Godox. And to be honest if they'd of supported Elinchrom and Broncolor also I'd of considered it. As the Elinchrom Skyport transmitter loses signal almost every shoot. But at $450 and I'd only use it with Godox. Nope. I about died when I saw the price.
I was also interested in this at first because I use multiple wireless protocols depending on what I shoot. The main 2 I use, though, Elinchrom Skyport and Phottix Odin aren't support (yet?). I really like the idea of having all the wireless protocols into one single transmitters, but I think it's going to be really hard to really do for them because they all work in such a different way. For example, Elinchrom Skyport can trigger one group or all groups, but can't trigger 2-3 groups while having the other groups at OFF. One particularity of the Skyport protocol is that flashes in the same groups can be at different intensity levels, which is not the case for most other wireless protocols. Also, the Elinchrom system is "all TTL" or "all manual" and doesn't give the option to mix the 2 at the same time, as opposed to most other wireless systems. For these reasons, and more, I have trouble figuring out how they could really implement Skyport well into this transmitter... and since the system seems to work in a unique and complex way, it's no wonder they haven't done it yet even though Skyport is now defined as an open source protocol.
Current setup: X100V, Vivitar SL-2 ($10), a vintage manual Pentax flash... 1/4000th in command mode all day. All I want is flash manufacturers to update their grotesque terminology.
The price is just too much. It would also be nice if it acted like a flash meter too. The old Buff cyber commander did that and it was the only feature of that trigger that was worthwhile. The size of that trigger is gigantic. I would love it if it was smaller. Bring the price down around $200 and make it a little smaller and I would absolutely buy it.
I’d say plenty worth if you’re going to use it. No reason all triggers and cameras shouldn’t be like this. Refreshing. We’ve all pissed away 1k on a lens we used once and then stubbornly hold on to for a year or so ‘just in case.’ If it gets used every shoot absolutely worth it
Can I use an app to remotely control it like my cheaper Godox trigger via bluetooth? But I would actually like to have a sound trigger built in instead of a separate device.
Thanks for the video. Do you or anybody know if the Raven will work on Canon E-TTL system with the newer mirrorless like the M50, R6, R5. While expensive, you can get older Canon Speedlights (and others) on the cheap, and as it turns out (please confirm if anybody knows) the E-TTL is controlled completely by the camera. This is huge since the new mirrorless allow face (please confirm if know) to used to determine exposure. By the way, customer service of Pocket Wizard seem to suck, I sent them a message regarding this, and they have not returned a response. This is worrisome .... I get the distinct feeling the Pocket Wizard is on their last legs as a business.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 86 | คู่เอก "คมเพชร vs ชาติพยัคฆ์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m3q_dRYDuU8/mqdefault.jpg)
This is the kind of product we all expected to be using by the year 2021 but alas. Hopefully they'll get the support they deserve and stay in business because I want camera equipment manufacturers to know this is what we want. Unfortunately I already have the Godox pro model and can't justify getting it at this time.
To everyone complaining about the price, this isn't a commodity product where they can spread the development cost over millions of units. This is a very niche product that only small number of people will buy, yet a lot of work went in to creating it.
I am so glad that I stopped in here today! My pocket wizards have been very fickle on location these days so I've started looking for options. I think channel noise has been an issue with location uplighting, and other wireless gear all around a wedding reception. A battery level indicator on the back is also fantastic! No more guessing.
Love that a company even decided to build a super cool flash trigger like this. So many great ideas+features in it, kudos! Especially the track ISO/Aperture feature is so awesome.
The big idea behind the device is the parallel triggering of multiple flashes from different brands. That is the real sensation. (That's what the video should have been focusing on)
Now some people might say "I don't own different brands". Not today, but maybe tomorrow, maybe your favorite flash company goes out of business and you buy a new flash from a different company, you can combine it with you "old" flashes, you don't have to throw everything away because you changed the brand. Or you own a bunch of Godox and need to rent something for a bigger job, but the rental shop only has Pro Photo. You need only to rent 1 or 2 flashes to complete your setup and not the entire package to get the job done.
This is fantastic for me. I have older Dynalite strobes that still do a great job with Pocket Wizards, but am transitioning to Profoto. If needed, I can now mix my Profoto and Dynalites in one shot. And I know hockey, basketball and other indoor sports photographers who shoot with strobes will like the ability to adjust their sync speeds up!
The idea of being able to add a Godox/Flashpoint unit to my Profoto setup and use them together when needed is very cool. Not sure if it's $450 cool.
How much does a profoto trigger cost? Westcott?
You cant stack the triggers with the one Tony showed. I do it all the time. it works fine in manual and hss still works too. i dont do ttl so i dont i know if that is fine but probably is.
I think being able to combine different kinds of flashes, and adjust multiple flashes by a stop at the same time is useful. Not sure about the other features. If it were $150 I'd probably buy this.
I like the large, physical dial on the TLC. Well-designed, tactile, decently sized physical dials are underrated in this age of touchscreens.
I purchased this trigger and while it’s really expensive it’s worth it if you can afford it. Very reliable compared to the Godox triggers. I shot 2,200 exposures using flashpoint strobes and the misfire rate was 2%. That rate was much higher using the godox triggers. Could not rely on them if my work was critical.
I use all Godox/Flashpoint strobes and triggers, and rarely have a misfire.
I like the idea of being able to mix flash brands. I have Paul C Buff studio strobes and Godox speed lights. I shoot Fuji, so I’ll have to wait for the next version.
I like it. It looks like pretty straight forward and intuitive design for someone new to using off camera lights but that price could be a killer.
I arrived at a decision crossroads last summer (2021); replace all my strobes and speedlights or spend $450 on this trigger. I bought the trigger. What I like about the Raven: The channel assessment tool really helps if you are in a location saturated with RF signals. The ability to trigger with Paul Buff, Profoto, PocketW, and Godox/Flashpoint is is great. Think in terms of a universal remote. I have pranked a Profoto shooting bay at a photograph expo using this device, rather funny. Aside from the joke, I could enter this shooting bay and take pictures without learning how to use another trigger. If you attend social shoots/ photo conferences or work as a second shooter there is a good chance this device will allow you to integrate into other lighting systems. Lastly, the multi zone is great. Rather than having to change each zone independently, zones can change together making setting your camera and lights easier. My concerns: While this device was being intially marketed, less expensive units already include zones e and f. It would be nice if this unit can be updated to manage more than 4 zones. You must tune in into the Raven power level the same way you are tuned with your phone power levels. At the time of this posting, Raven is compatible with Nikon and Canon. I hope Sony is added to the lineup to reflect the popularity of this camera line. Overall, the Raven is a different Trigger from every other trigger out there. No other trigger adapts to multiple lighting system like this nor allow for multichannel adjustments. And yes, I would buy another if the one I own breaks because its still cheaper than replacing my lights.
I don’t want any of the camera manufacturers to buy them. They will discontinue the feature that allows it to connect to other manufacturers cameras.
Looks awesome but it is over priced. It should be priced at $200. If it was priced at $200, I definitely would buy it but not at $450.
I agree that being able to use different brands of strobes is good idea and hopefully they will come out with units with the main features at a lower price point.
I'd rather have an updated X-Pro trigger from Godox that is better designed to fit properly without wobbles and has the upmarket locking mechanism that Canon has had in their speedlites for years now. A bit of a snob complaint but, I like how my hardware experience "feels" during a shoot. (I know they have that overdesigned Adorama trigger with extra buttons that I don't need but that isn't worth the money when all I want is a confident hot shoe locking mechanism.) While I'm at it, I like the large physical dial on the TLC. Well-designed and tactile, decently sized physical dials are underrated in this age of touchscreens.
I love the concept, hate the look of it , as well as the price. Great review though Tony 😀
I have been looking at this trigger, so thanks for the information. I have both einstein and godox strobes so this would be handy for sure. The problem is that you have to upgrade all your PW to the new E release to use the trigger. So now $450 for the trigger plus $10 for each PW. So that stinks. Then on top of that once you upgrade to E release you can't use the Sekonic light meter to trigger your flash. They say they don't intend to use E frequencies. Hopefully Sekonic will change that stance. So very expensive for what you get but it is cool.
It’s kinda fun to see him being so excited about a product.
I asked for multiprotocol flashtriggers for years. But meanwhile i bought strobes from one brand and a flashtrigger which allows supersync and i am happy with it.
Thanks for sharing and reviewing this product. It has so much potential. I have several different brands of flashes. It would be great to use them together instead of replacing them with one brand. Two problems; one is my primary camera is a Sony and two the price tag is a little high right now.
When they have a cheaper trigger it will be great for my multiple flash brands.
Looks great. Thanks for the review.
EXPENSIVE! I've been looking at various triggers and receivers for my Metz flashes. Will probably settle for the the Godox XT2-C (2019) which is a later release than the XPRO-C and the X1R-C (2018) as the receiver. I note that these are the latest Trigger/Receiver for Canon and at least two years old as of date!
The XT2-C has the useful TCM (TTL convert to Manual) button, same as the X1Pro-C. Have the flash set to TTL, zoom in to fill the frame with the subject (to not let the background affect the metering), fire a shot (which should be spot on) and then hold the TCM button for 2 seconds. The flash is now in Manual mode at the power setting you just used. Zoom in and out and fire away, knowing exposure is correct and won't change. Great feature.
Great review, cool product, terrible price. My favourite review line though: 8:21 "It has been 100% reliable, it has fired pretty much every time" - 'pretty much' adds a whole new flavour!
Yea which is it 100q or only pretty much?
Really interesting product and I agree that they're worth keeping an eye on. I think they priced themselves out of pulling customers away from their current brands with this effort though. It'd be an especially tough sell to someone getting into OCF/Studio photography when you could buy either Godox trigger (X2T or XPro), and still have money for an AD200 Pro, stand and a softbox/modifier.
I'm thinking about buying this for my R5 to reuse my existing CE frequency FlexTT5 receivers and 430 EX II flashes. But still, I'm interested in hearing about the Godox transceivers on Canon mirrorless, so I can still use TTL and HSS, which may be a cheaper option than buying the Raven. I'd love to know more!
Can't wait to get my hands on one.
Don't understand why there's no Sony version yet tho, literally everybody here switched to Sony the past 3 years..
Tony, pleaseeee turn up your volume in your videos. Don't be afraid of volume levels being near 0 db. Ima keep posting tjis till I hear the difference.
I like the Westcott FJ-X2m Universal Wireless Flash Trigger w/ my FJ400 strobe! it's a universal trigger that works with many camera brands too! I use it on my fuji Xt4 currently
My most used trigger is the one on my GoDox speedlight. At times I need a flash and its right there attached to the trigger. Batteries last a whole 14 hour wedding with flash use. And easy to carry a backup that backs up the flash and trigger for redundancy at events. Hard to make sense of a $450 trigger for the vast majority of users. Super niche product.
i actually have the godox trigger with a profoto trigger on top at my studio. IF this came out earlier I would have gotten it.
Wake function is probably for time-lapses for something like sunrises. Fujifilm cameras can do this internally, but is part of the intervalometer setup. This company probably set up separate controls so it could be used in conjunction with other features like the intervalometer and/or modeling light.
Nice commentary on the new pocket wizard raven. I was wondering if it also works with Paul Buff's newer Link HSS / TTL light?
Great review! Many thanks 🙏 😊😊
Yes...please integrate this into camera bodies! By the way...not even one review on BH.
The ability to wake it up at a certain time each day would be good for timelapse stuff.
Being that it fires Profoto strobes along with the other major brands, makes this on par (or better) than Profoto's Air remotes at sell at about the same price but don't play well with others!
Don’t need it most of the functions I won’t use. I can move a light if need be or turn down light output. Looks cool probably be great for a sports photographer
Pretty neat, but hard to justify that price for most people. Might be good for people who run workshops or events where there might be mixed gear types. If it's going to compete with the native triggers it needs more dedicated controls. Having a trigger that has physical knobs for each channel would be awesome.
If they wanted to go off the deep end into over engineered, they could build an algorithm that would detect the lighting setup you have and adjust the flashes automatically (not just TTL metering, I'm talking fully aware of each flash's location and effect on the scene and it would learn your preferences over time or using some fancy AI). Maybe that's too much? Ha ha.
I'm with you. Build it into the camera. This cannot be so highly complicated that Cannon or Sony are not able to figure it out.
It is a lovely piece of gear but I see it's real strength as not being tied to one brand - I might consider upgrading to Pro-foto from my trusty Godox setup one day but this flash would allow mw to use a mix of both while slowly swapping brands. At the moment I'd have to sell all my Godox gear and buy into profoto. An issue with the Godox triggers is that the hotshoe on the godox XC-1 triggers is not a pass -through arrangement so you cannot easily use other-branded triggers in them and they default to firing GROUP A settings.
I had been looking at what to upgrade to as the long time versions of the Paul Buff Mini TT1 and the Flex TT6 no longer work with the current Canon mirrorless, including the R5 and R6, but the new Raven does not work with the new Paul Buff Link light without using a Flex TT6 on the Link light. Not something you expect with a $450 trigger. Also was hoping they would not ignore the Canon flashes of the Canon cameras the Raven was designed to accommodate. The high dollar amount is something it will be interesting to see if it is going to attractive to the prior Pocket Wizard customer base. I concur with your caveat. Very nice review. PS I was thinking about the built in lithium battery. Does this also mean that when the battery goes bad this will just be destined for the junk heap? Thank you for all you do.
I liked that Pocket Wizard is still trying to save users of the Paul Buff lights, which I like, from having to use Paul Buff triggers which I have never liked. Thought they were coming through with their new Hub trigger but you cant use its features with out using a smart phone in conjunction with it. Buff company always had nice lights but their triggers are about enough to run folks off. This offering of PW would be nice if it wasn't priced in the Pro Foto luxury category out of reach of PW normal users.
First off, thanks for doing this review on this trigger I was thinking of buying. But the current price tag was my turn off from getting it. When I saw the price tag on that Raven trigger. I was like... this looks like a $325 product for what it can do.
The only feature won't use is most likely the intervalometer. But there's some features that I'll probably use on the Raven Trigger. like
-that built in LCD light, might come in handle for focusing with my EOS R since party strobe lights cause my EOS R to have focusing issues.
-triggering two different light strobes. Since I have Flashpoint/Godox, Buff, and I hope they'll add in Orlit / Jimbay (whatever they call themselves)
-Just recently, I've been experimenting remote camera triggering at the weddings I worked on. I had to use the Yongnuo 603 trigger, one on the camera, and one I have to put in my mouth to trigger the remote camera. Then I had the Yongnuo 605 triggers, so I trigger my remote camera by just pressing the shutter button on my camera. It worked but, doesn't work when I set my EOS R into silent shooting mode because the trigger thinks it's still a flash trigger and not want to trigger my remote camera.
anyways at the @4:34 section about remote camera triggering. I tried asking a rep on facebook about remote triggering, if the Raven can remote camera trigger with other triggers like the godox / Flashpoint R2 Single Pin Transceiver, or do I need another Raven remote to remote camera trigger. The rep didn't give me a straight answer. So I'm wondering if you can somehow answer that question for me.
And again. Remote camera triggering will come in handy at weddings (like remote firing from the balcony in the church)
the idea of a universal trigger is amazing ... especially when you rent studios, are in a photoclubwith a house set of flashes etc. you simply have to learn only one trigger ... but does it work with highspeed flashes ?
Thank you.. cannot wait to watch this video.
Hello dear how are you doing over there?
Hey Tony & Chelsea, I love your channel! Have you or anyone else done a comparison of (perhaps) Godox vs. Phottix vs. Yongnuo triggers/systems. Are they all they same, just not inter-compatible? Currently have a pieced together system of all manual flashes/strobes. Would like to jump into the 21st century.
It’s only $10 more than a Profoto air remote trigger, so if this is their higher end model, not that crazy. From the video, I was curious if it supports Elinchrom lights? Also wondered if each of the 4 trigger channels could be set to fire groups of OCFs (eg, all set to channel A1)?
Looks really cool!
Sending trigger signal to your flash should be part of every future camera. So a separate trigger won’t even be necessary anymore.
That looked like a canon R5 you were testing that on and you mentioned TTL worked fine with it? I'd consider buying this just to get TTL back as I lost that and HSS on my x1 pro when I upgraded to the R5
Godox X2 has Bluetooth support, so lets you control flash settings from your smartphone, via their app. I think that is a superior approach, and so much simpler and intuitive, at least for me
Does the app have access to the TCM feature (after shooting in TTL, locking in the power setting while switching to Manual mode)?
Beautiful sharing my friend
But you didn’t talk about the sync speed specially using Hasselblad X2D apparently it is much faster than the godox trigger
Micro USB is really a game changer for me everything is UCB-C
A little too late; wish I saw this review a month ago. I ended up buying a Profoto transceiver (a.k.a the old air remote/non-ttl) to use as a relay to fire off PocketWizard remotes. This would have been a better solution - instead of the hodge podge setup of repeating triggers.
Thanks.
Hi Tony,
Could you do me (and maybe others) a big favour.
With the new Canon cards being a CFexpress, can you do a, How to? Download a CFexpress card onto a Ipad pro, i.e. to use on Lumafusion for mobile editing.
What resolution works and what doesn't?
Very much appreciated. 👍
We buy Godox or in my case Yongnuo because they work and they're good value for money. I don't think the same can be said for this device, as nice as it is. I used to think Pocket Wizards were expensive. I do agree with Tony in as much as the major camera manufacturers should headhunt the engineers of this device and more importantly, give them a free hand to see what they can come up with. A bit like car manufacturers come up with concept cars and then see what practical fall out there is.
That UI. Ooof.
Price and lack of USB-C are not great. But if they added Interfit I'd consider it, since I have lights from Godox/Flashpoint along with a Badger Unleashed.
It's only of real use if you have more than one brand of flash that you need to adjust and/or trigger. So I guess $450 is a bit expensive, especially when it doesn't cover more lighting brands (I guess these may become available as a firmware update at some point in the future)>
Worth it for Profoto users. Did you test if it could read the settings on Profoto heads? Profoto remotes can't do it that.
When it also triggers Canon flashes and price drops to 80 bucks I'll get one. Until then I'll use the triggers I have.
$450? not sure if it is worth today, and for pro work, you know you will need a back up = $900! If you own lights from various manufacturers this would allow you to use them all at the same time, using one trigger. It would give you the freedom from being tie to one manufacturer of lights, and more and more manufacturers are building the receiver into the light. HSS from multiple manufacturer of lights with TTL with a single transmitter is awesome. It has a Samsung watch interface feel. I did not find anything confusing about the interface, I found everything you demonstrated to be intuitive. Now, let me see if I can find $900 lying around!
Does it have GPS? You can use wake up time, so it’s all ready when you get to the office. Someone buying an R3, or the upcoming Z9, would be able to afford it. The batteries was the deal breaker. But the layout looks pretty good to me. More testing is needed.
This is kind of relevant. Which strobes and triggers can I use while walking around with the light and trigger my camera and strobe at the same time? I essentially want to be mobile with the strobe to light subjects selectively without having to walk back and forth between the camera and strobe.
Great video and interesting
Can the trigger show when all flashes are ready? This is the main feature I want. I'm tired trying to count remote flash beeps to figure out when all flashes are ready, constantly waiting for a beep that already came unnoticed or taking photos only to notice that one of the flashes wasn't ready yet and didn't fire. I sooooo want a trigger that would show a light whenever all remote flashes are ready.
If you're shooting quickly enough that you are waiting for all the beeps, you won't be checking out the trigger in between shots.
@@YogueDaddy False. Flashes on batteries do take time to charge, possibly even unreasonably long depending on the batteries. And when one flash wasn't ready you're just wasting time and batteries and nerves. Having a beep or a light show up in the corner of my field of view would help immensely.
Amazing Product 👏👏🙌🙌
Is that eyepiece on your camera and upgrade or is that stock? Does it magnify? I can't see everything in my viewfinder on my Sony A7 IV and I'm hoping to find a viewfinder that will improve what I see in the viewfinder.
It has only 4 groups even though many triggers have 5 and some modes have even more. Plus it looks extremely complicated to make some adjustments, the only feature that is useful is the multi brand, even though I have a Yongnuo 622-C that has a hot shoe on top where if I need more lights than my 3 Godox AD200's I just put the 622-C on the camera and the Godox X-Pro on top, with this setup I control up to 3 groups with the Yongnuo flashes via the Camera menu and the Godox flashes 5 groups via the X-Pro and it has never misfired unless the 622-C is turned off or drained batteries, in which case the hot shoe passthrough will not work so the Godox will not work either, as long as both triggers are powered, both will work seamlessly. The Godox legacy triggers with the hots hoe on top should work in a similar way e.g putting a Profoto trigger on top of the Godox legacy trigger. :-)
I don't have them so I cannot do the test, but you can test this with the legacy trigger connected to the camera and another trigger from another brand of flash on top of the Godox :-) maybe since unlike the Yongnuo 622-C, the Godox legacy do have a mini screen, you might even be able to control them directly, if not, they should work with the camera flash menu.
Joe McNally would not like this with only 4 groups 😬
Made by former PocketWizards employees I have read some months ago.
True. I've used PW for years but the company is way behind. Not sure of what future they have. I remember them promising a software update to allow the TT5's to work with Canon 5DMk4. Eventually they gave up and brought out a TT6.... recently I was told by them the TT6 wont work with new Canons (R5/R6). They actually suggested the Fusion as a solution....
I love the idea that there seems to be innovation out there when it comes to triggers! However, this device despite tons of tech is HUGE with the UI seemingly made by an engineer that must have worked at Sony in the past. Honestly, with almost 5 years of these types of triggers coming up after Pocket Wizard commanded the market, I cannot understand why design, innovation, and updated tech have evolved at a snail's pace in this market space. The Westcott trigger seemed to have been going in the right direction, but it too is giant and clunky. I don't understand why it seems these devices, in the height of social media outreach, have not been reaching out to their users for design, UI, tech, and testing feedback. It would seem, regardless of what opinions people may have of their products, Godox has been the best at doing this even though they too need to finetune their hearing and outreach.
Tony you are very familiar with software. Imaging the challange of letting other companies run their trigger software on your hardware.
Question: Do you know any roadmap info?? Specifically any plans for adding the Wescott FJ series??
Sorry, I don't know
@@TonyAndChelsea Tony Please review the wonderful new Vivo X70 Pro Plus Smartphone.
Looks cool. I really hate profoto triggers.
It looks like it's going to break unless a user is super careful with their gear. Also looks like it would benefit from going a bit simpler.
Is the hotshoe foot metal or plastic?
No way in hell I'd drop that kind of cheddar on a trigger! I like my $70 Flashpoint R2 Pro trigger on my D850 to handle my evolv 200 (R2 radio built in), xplor 600 (R2 radio built in) and my old SB-700's (with Flashpoint $40 receivers). I could use that $450 toward gas to find locations to shoot my new Nikon 200-500mm!
1- How would this work with a not shutter cameras (such as the Nikon Z9 and Z30)
2- I use pocketwizard transmeters with native Nikon speedlights (T5 and Sb850’s) I read with an update to the E system I can make the tra sobers work with the Raven. So I’m asking if this would work with non shutter cameras and pocketwizard? Thanks for any insight
As per the FusionTLC website, yes, the Raven is compatible with the Nikon Z9 (with the latest firmware update). The Z30 is not listed but my guess is that it would work too.
As for your second question, yes, if you upgrade your TT5s to the E Release firmware, they will work with the Raven.
It's an awesome transmitter.
I looked at it as I use both Elinchrom and Godox. And to be honest if they'd of supported Elinchrom and Broncolor also I'd of considered it. As the Elinchrom Skyport transmitter loses signal almost every shoot. But at $450 and I'd only use it with Godox. Nope. I about died when I saw the price.
I was also interested in this at first because I use multiple wireless protocols depending on what I shoot. The main 2 I use, though, Elinchrom Skyport and Phottix Odin aren't support (yet?).
I really like the idea of having all the wireless protocols into one single transmitters, but I think it's going to be really hard to really do for them because they all work in such a different way.
For example, Elinchrom Skyport can trigger one group or all groups, but can't trigger 2-3 groups while having the other groups at OFF. One particularity of the Skyport protocol is that flashes in the same groups can be at different intensity levels, which is not the case for most other wireless protocols. Also, the Elinchrom system is "all TTL" or "all manual" and doesn't give the option to mix the 2 at the same time, as opposed to most other wireless systems.
For these reasons, and more, I have trouble figuring out how they could really implement Skyport well into this transmitter... and since the system seems to work in a unique and complex way, it's no wonder they haven't done it yet even though Skyport is now defined as an open source protocol.
Maybe do another review in a month or year? I’m interested but you’re right 450 is way too much.
Nice!!
Dude…. What about triggers for sound, light motion. I’m looking for trigger I can build on to . ?
Current setup: X100V, Vivitar SL-2 ($10), a vintage manual Pentax flash... 1/4000th in command mode all day.
All I want is flash manufacturers to update their grotesque terminology.
How about Yongnuo? Any plans for those?
Be interested to know if it connect to speed lights as well.
Tony Please review the wonderful new Vivo X70 Pro Plus Smartphone.
$450 isn't out of line if it replaces other brands that also cost 400 a pop. The negatives you mention really aren't a big deal.
The price is just too much. It would also be nice if it acted like a flash meter too. The old Buff cyber commander did that and it was the only feature of that trigger that was worthwhile.
The size of that trigger is gigantic. I would love it if it was smaller.
Bring the price down around $200 and make it a little smaller and I would absolutely buy it.
I agree with what you said regarding how awesome it is but its way too expensive.
So the team that created the Apple Watch went out on their own .. and created a flash trigger.
I’d say plenty worth if you’re going to use it. No reason all triggers and cameras shouldn’t be like this. Refreshing. We’ve all pissed away 1k on a lens we used once and then stubbornly hold on to for a year or so ‘just in case.’ If it gets used every shoot absolutely worth it
Would love to get it if it was also made for Panasonic and it was $200 lower.
Can I use an app to remotely control it like my cheaper Godox trigger via bluetooth? But I would actually like to have a sound trigger built in instead of a separate device.
Ok…but is it ever going to be in stock for Sony again?
Thanks for the video. Do you or anybody know if the Raven will work on Canon E-TTL system with the newer mirrorless like the M50, R6, R5. While expensive, you can get older Canon Speedlights (and others) on the cheap, and as it turns out (please confirm if anybody knows) the E-TTL is controlled completely by the camera. This is huge since the new mirrorless allow face (please confirm if know) to used to determine exposure. By the way, customer service of Pocket Wizard seem to suck, I sent them a message regarding this, and they have not returned a response. This is worrisome .... I get the distinct feeling the Pocket Wizard is on their last legs as a business.
is it possible to use pocketwizard plus III with godox nowadays?? ad 300 pro for example?? thanks on advanced.
It looks flashy but I will keep my Godox triggers.
could i use impact strobes , or yungnuo 600ex rt speedlights with this ?